Soldiering on

Director Gregor Jordan was having a blast at the Toronto International Film Festival. Audiences loved “Buffalo Soldiers,” his dark comedy about lawbreaking American troops. Buyers wrestled for distribution rights, with Miramax winning a bidding war.

The fun lasted one night.

The Australian director woke the very next morning to see hijacked planes slam into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A movie satirizing the armed forces was suddenly considered traitorous. Postponed five times, first by the Sept. 11 attacks and then the war against Iraq, “Buffalo Soldiers” finally opens Friday, nearly two years after its Toronto debut.

Loosely adapted from Robert O’Connor’s novel, the film follows the double life of lowly Army specialist Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix), stationed in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Publicly, Elwood’s the servile assistant to a sad-sack colonel (Ed Harris). Privately, he controls a soldier-run crime ring whose product lines range from stolen floor polish to freshly cooked heroin.

“Buffalo Soldiers” has been on the sidelines so long, the 36-year-old Jordan already has completed another movie in the interim, Heath Ledger’s “Ned Kelly” (it opens next March).

Do you find it ironic why the film had to be postponed?

I thought it was a bizarre paradox. It wasn’t just the government but the general population advocating severe censorship, in the midst of a conflict that was supposed to be about protecting and furthering democracy. But democracy is all about freedom of speech: I may not like what you’re saying, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. I found that whole hysterical hypocrisy just terrifying.

Is it possible the delay could somehow work to “Buffalo Soldier’s” advantage?

That’s what people keep telling me: That the movie is more relevant now than it ever has been. Before Sept. 11, no one thought about war at all, and the message of the movie was quite abstract. Whereas now, the military is in the news every day, and people are asking questions. Is what we’re seeing real? What’s the true story? I think the film can really fit into that kind of environment.

What was in O’Connor’s book that attracted you?

I read the book and I said, “There’s a really good movie in there somewhere. But it’s going to take a while for me to find it.” My biggest concern was how to make a film about the military that would have a contemporary energy. When I thought of military movies, I thought of “Platoon” and “Full Metal Jacket” and “Saving Private Ryan.” They were good films, but they weren’t cool films. When I saw “Three Kings,” it had this MTV Army vibe, and it had a great energy that I really liked. I saw that it was possible to make this kind of movie.

What’s a more sacred cow? Ned Kelly in Australia? Or the American military in the United States?

I didn’t set out to make movies that are going to upset people. I look for a world I find interesting that I haven’t really seen before on film, a story that is about something meaningful. And I guess those kinds of movies by their nature spark some kind of debate.

Did this experience make you more -- or less -- interested in taking on difficult subject matter?

In the current climate, you do have to think twice about speaking out or criticizing, in this country especially.

When the studios first passed on “Buffalo Soldiers” before you made it, why did they turn it down?

It was hilarious. No one -- and I mean no one -- had any issue at all with the depiction of the military. The concern was the depiction of drugs. One potential financier said, “Can’t it be bootleg alcohol instead of heroin?” It shows how much times have changed. Because now, people don’t even think about the drugs. But to Miramax’s credit, they never at any stage thought that we needed to tone down what this movie is about. If you tried to do that, you’d probably end up with a five-minute short film.

-- John Horn