Word: honus
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...Soldier Blue, or Honus as we come to know and love him, is certainly easily made jest of. Not only does he recite "The Charge of the Light Brigade" as he lingers tearfully over the bodies of his dead buddies, he also spends a good deal of the film trying to keep his socks dry. No wonder that he grimaces so at the sight of Miss Bergen's "tantalizing" body. Taking in the whole sordid scene with a knowing glance, Candice quickly browbeats Honus into submission, realizing, as Soldier Blue winces at the sound of her every four-letter word...
...half her time trying to seduce the virginal Strauss-she delightedly rips off piece after piece of her disintegrating dress before eventually changing into a Raquel Welch 2000 Years B.C. wash cloth-only to resist the eager lad when he finally gets it up by demurring with a sincere, "Honus, tell me, do you really mean it?" Hell, lady, you don't go around shoving your boobs in the poor kid's face and then start preaching situation ethics...
...spectacle pretends to justify itself, of course. Throughout the massacre, dumb, stupid Honus wanders in a daze, finally coming to recognize the criminality of American imperialism and the unchecked evil that is the Army to which he has pledged his loyalty. The sequence ends with Honus vomiting in disgust, while, for some unfathomable reason, the focus blurs to spare us this ultimate indignity...
...take the actor that Nelson hired to play the Cheyenne chief who falls in love with Candice. Not only does the script demand that the chief treat Miss Bergen as if he were a knight out of courtly romance (when he discovers Candice has given his love beads to Honus, he nobly frees her to find happiness with her white lover), but he's not even acted by an Indian. Instead, he's a muscle-bound Mediterranean with an obviously Italian name. Now, the point isn't that an Italian can't play such a wooden Indian. It's that...
Towards the end of Soldier Blue, Honus, having survived the dry heaves, is being led away to a court martial for insubordination, Candice is throwing her lot in with the handful of remaining Indians, and a narrative voice-over is carrying on about a government investigation that declared the whole incident an outrage. (Again, shades of My Lai. That the government could find fault with specific acts that its own policies are calculated to support is the real outrage.) Honus and Candice smile sweetly at each other. You can just sense their Inner Peace. Honus fingers the love beads. Candice...