Sidney Poitier is the "wagon master" who ferries freed slaves to unsettled territory in the West. Harry Belafonte is a vagabond sham-preacher, willing to sell out his kin to make a buck from the white colonists who want to keep black settlers from ‘their land’.
The two team up in a journey of meeting-in-the-middle of a moral compass, that extends beyond a typical narrative of struggles in the Old West with thoughtfulness around complex social issues. It features two of the 20th century's greatest black icons together, brilliantly against type.
Starring the late, great Sidney Poitier in his directorial debut, alongside a scene-stealing Harry Belafonte, Buck and the Preacher masterfully rewrites the history of the Western and subverts the genre at every turn. A sorely under-seen classic.
- Words by
- Joe Harris
- Featured in
- Film picks
