Assault at West Point: The Court-Martial of Johnson Whittaker (1994)

That was an excellent one.

Sick Product of a Sick System

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

*Spoiler/plot- 1994, We meet a determined Black American, Johnson Whittaker, in Oklahoma that is threatened by the KKK for moving into a all white neighborhood when a reporter comes calling to get the story. In a series of 'flash-backs' the homeowner reveals his post Civil War distinguished history about his attending America's military college, West Point. He was mercilessly attacked and discriminated against there. In one occasion he was beaten and cut that lead to the US Army successfully court-martial him out of the Army and sent to prison. A US president pardoned him. And his service career was ended to become a lawyer. The film is mostly about this incident and taken from court papers showing the institutionalized racism rampant during the Civil War years for blacks.*Special Stars- Samuel L. Jackson, Sam Waterston.*Theme- Racism is only corrected when good people of all backgrounds work together for what is right and just.*Based on-US Army court-martial transcripts and political agendas.*Trivia/location/goofs- A TV docudrama from Republic Pictures.*Emotion- Not preachy but a satisfying illustrative tale to see the extent that racism tainted the US society in those Civil War years. This film is worth your time to get you to think.

This is an important piece of history imaginatively staged. Sam Waterston executed a bravura performance as the abolitionist and civil war hero Daniel Chamberlain who liked emancipation but was unwilling to accept equality. The spencerian social darwinianism which infected upper caste society was accurately presented, even though as we reach the twilight of the American era it sounds so childishly stupid. To people of the time what they said stemmed from scientific fact, the novel doctrine of evolution which had devolved into a belief that, if the existing order were not to have been ordained by a Supreme Being, it was dictated by natural forces over which man had no control.The cast and writers paid careful attention to the diction of the civil war era which to us today sounds so stiff and formal yet capable of concealing much wry, introspective humor.The film also brought to the fore an interesting character Asa Bird Gardiner little known out of the limited circles of military law scholars.Well done! Comparable films: Courtmartial of Billy Mitchell, Courtmartial of Jackie Robinson, Caine Mutiny, Hart's War

I am glad this story was dramatized. It is an excellent, if not frustrating story and it is played out well. I do have to disagree with the portrayal of Johnson Whittaker, though. I do not feel Seth Gilliam did a good job at portraying the conflict, emotion and frustration he must have felt. Scenes with Samuel L Jackson were, as always, excellent. And Sam Waterston was excellent playing a bigoted lawyer conflicted in his feelings towards race and upholding the law. This movie makes you incredulous. But, since it is accurate and based on the court records, gives us a good indication of the incredible injustices that the supposed justice system was upholding in the late 1800s. (I know, it was a court martial, not a trial, but still presumably based on justice.)

This was a very good film. The acting was superb and the cinematography was good. The guy who played cadet Wittaker was so good I am amazed he never got an award for his appearance. There is just one problem with the film that kept bugging me for the entire film. The movie is supposed to be about a cadet from the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, and it was supposed to have several flash backs to the that prestigious Academy, but apparently the makers of this film made these scenes not at West Point...but at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA. IT is because of that simple, yet major, error that I was unable to give this movie a higher rating. Those who see this movie be for warned. What you are looking at is not West Point but the Virginia Military Institute...which, for all you Civil War buffs, was and still is known as "The West Point of the South."