Steve James was an action hero on the rise before cancer tragically cut his life short. Now, almost 40 years after a botched release, director Sam Firstenberg’s Riverbend, written by Samuel Vance, resurfaces. A film once believed lost could not be more relevant in this day and age. For the same battles against civil rights and the oppression of tyranny regrettably rage on. And we find ourselves in short supply of charismatic heroes.
James plays Major Samuel Quinton, who, together with fellow soldiers Sergeant Tony Marx (Julius Tennon) and Lieutenant Butch Turner (Alex Morris), escapes from a court-martial for not following orders to shoot civilians in Vietnam. This trio eventually find themselves in Riverbend, a rural Georgia town, still suffering from violent and abhorrent racial prejudice. Quinton and his men seek help at the home of Bell Coleman (Margaret Avery) whose husband was recently murdered in broad daylight, by the community’s despicable Sheriff Jake (Tony Frank), who threatens, murders and rapes as he pleases.
After taking time to make plans to move on, Quinton soon realizes that he cannot abandon the helpless citizens of Riverbend, not when he has the power to really inflict change. To this end, he and his men round up every willing and able-bodied man, teaching them combat skills by night, planning a mass incursion in order to grab the attention of the national media spotlight, shining it upon the atrocities visited upon the people of color in the community.
“Quinton, who, together with fellow soldiers, escapes from a court-martial for not following orders to shoot civilians in Vietnam.”
Riverbend is a collision of First Blood and Mississippi Burning. Firstenberg and Vance deliver an action-packed, racially and emotionally charged explosion, a slice of everything that was beautiful about 80s action cinema. The notes all struck. The villains were made wretched in order to make the demise even more necessary. The conflicted heroes are torn between what’s right and their own personal interests. The triumphant pop song, which ascends as the hero gets the girl and they kiss as the credits roll.
They don’t make movies like this anymore, and make no mistake. There is an energy in the acting and the filmmaking that is propulsive, ebbing and flowing harmoniously as it mixes social commentary with the tropes of the genre without either cancelling each other out. The real tragedy that is exposed to the re-release of this picture is how far our society has failed to progress. The name of Martin Luther King Jr. has been uttered in relation as a comparison to the recent unpleasantness. But there is not, nor has there been a sentiment uttered so piercing and powerful as his: “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
As they depicted it in a hauntingly hopeful shot in Riverbend, the opposing sides coming together and joining hands is everything the forces of justice are fighting for. It’s a glorious moment to cap off a movie, but here in the real world, it remains a dream yet to be grasped.
"…an action-packed, racially and emotionally charged explosion, a slice of everything that was beautiful about 80s action cinema."
