Poitier had dreamed of moving into direction for years and had begun observing his directors more carefully on the set. But when old friend Harry Belafonte approached him about co-producing and co-starring in this Western version of the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land, he felt he was still a few years away from switching to work behind the cameras. So the two hired Joseph Sargent, an accomplished television director, to film the large-scale project.
Once the company was on location in Mexico, however, they ran into trouble. Although Sargent's work was professional and polished, it was clear from the first day of shooting that he favored a completely different approach to the material than the two stars. Where he was directing a standard western, Poitier and Belafonte wanted to focus more on the racial elements, particularly the details of black life in the late 19th century and the relationship between the black settlers and the area's Native American population. After a week, Belafonte approached Poitier with his concerns and urged him to take over direction.
The only problem was their fear that studio executives at Columbia, which was backing the film, would pull the plug rather than risk their investment on an untried director like Poitier. So when they fired Sargent, they told the executives that Poitier was only going to direct until the studio men could find a permanent replacement. Of course on such short notice, there was little likelihood of the studio's finding a suitable replacement before the production would be completed. Columbia was supposed to get them a new director within three days, but they couldn't find one. So a week after Poitier had taken over the film, they sent two executives down to review the situation. After screening Poitier's footage, they agreed that he was doing a fine job on his own and allowed him to finish the film.
This was no minor undertaking. To film on location, the production company had created a small living complex in Durango, Mexico. Since transporting black extras from the U.S. would have been too expensive, producer Joel Glickman had recruited more than 100 extras from the black American expatriate community in Guadalajara, to which were added blacks who had emigrated to Mexico from Cuba, Brazil and other parts of Latin America. Added to this were another hundred or so Indian extras, a U.S. film crew augmented with the best of Mexico's film industry, and such seasoned professionals as Ruby Dee, one of the pioneers of America's black theatre movement; character actor Cameron Mitchell; former Wagon Train star Denny Miller; and Hollywood veteran Clarence Muse, who had been a front-runner to play Sam in Casablanca (1942). In addition, Belafonte's wife, Julie Robinson, played the Indian chief's wife.
Buck and the Preacher marked the start of a new career for Poitier as one of Hollywood's first black directors. Future projects would include Uptown Saturday Night (1974), which reunited him with Belafonte in front of the cameras, and the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder comedy hit Stir Crazy (1980).
Producer: Joel Glickman
Director: Sidney Poitier
Screenplay: Ernest Kinoy, Based on a Story by Kinoy and Drake Walker
Cinematography: Alex Phillips, Jr.
Art Direction: Sydney Z. Litwack
Music: Benny Carter
Principal Cast: Sidney Poitier (Buck), Harry Belafonte (Preacher), Ruby Dee (Ruth), Cameron Mitchell (Deshay), Denny Miller (Floyd), Nita Talbot (Madame Esther), Clarence Muse (Cudjo), Julie Robinson (Sinsie).
C-102m.
By Frank Miller
