Popular Culture Review Vol. 26, No. 1, Winter 2015 | Page 26

Within the title song, “Captain Buffalo,” the persona is compared to John Henry, the mythical black steel driver, who was, according to legend, the strongest man working the rails. Clearly, the comparison is intentional. Also intentional within the film is the usage of stereotypes in order to address and dispel them. There are at least three stereotypes addressed within this film: the stereotype of the black buck or menace; the stereotype of the lynch mob; and the stereotype of the racist courtroom in which a black man cannot get justice. Ford’s film intentionally addresses these stereotypes, in order to attempt to expose them as fraudulent, in the same way that the real criminal is exposed within the film. The plot of Sergeant Rutledge is fairly simple, although it is told through a series of flashbacks. A black man, Braxton Rutledge, a 1st Sergeant in the 9th U.S. Cavalry, is being tried for the rape and murder of a white woman, Lucy Dabney, and the murder of her father, Major Dabney. The charges are circumstantial, but the case seems strong, given that it is Rutledge who discovers the dead bodies and who then runs—only to be apprehended, by Lt. Tom Cantrell, his white commanding officer. Ultimately, however, Cantrell serves as Rutledge’s defense attorney during the court martial. In some real ways, the black race is on trial in the courtroom, as Rutledge is presumed guilty, on the basis of his both bigness and his blackness. In fact, early on, there is a lynch party with noose in hand, ready to hang Rutledge without a trial. Clearly, Ford adds this archetype of racial history—the lynching of a black man— in order to add depth and resonance to the drama. In her essay, “A Race Divided: The Indian Westerns of John Ford,” Angela Aleiss says the following: “Racial bigotry is the subject of Sergeant Rutledge (1960). The Indians in this Western, however, serve merely as a catalyst for exploring Blackwhite racial tensions; they are little more than faceless, shadowy figures who resemble the Apache warriors of Stagecoach. Based on "Captain Buffalo,” an original screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Wilis Goldbeck, Sergeant Rutledge is dedicated to the Ninth and Tenth U.S. Cavalry officers and their all-Black volunteer units (180). As a courtroom drama focused on race, Sergeant Rutledge addresses the themes of servitude, incarceration, and allegiance by presenting a black figure who is in “protective custody”—this time, the custody of a beneficent white attorney who believes in Rutledge when seemingly, all others do not. In his article, “The Black Image in Protective Custody: Hollywood’s Biracial Buddy Films of the Eighties,” Ed Guerrero makes the case that the black actor is frequently in the “protective custody of the white male star. At one point, Guerrero 22