Review: 'Soul Patrol' salutes the Black soldiers who fought in Vietnam but became a footnote

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Set us as preferred J.M.Harper’s documentary “Soul Patrol” reminds us that hundreds of thousands of Black men fought in the Vietnam War, yet the historical record routinely treats their combat service — disproportionate, population-wise, to that of whites — as a barely acknowledged footnote.One published account that puts the Black combat experience front and center is Compton native Ed Emanuel’s 2003 memoir, also called “Soul Patrol,” about his year-plus tour as part of an elite long-range reconnaissance patrol (or “lurp”) made up solely of Black soldiers trained for the deadliest tasks: recon behind enemy lines.

Harper’s film, which prominently features Emanuel, is an adaptation of sorts: a sharply edited, evocative mélange of interviews, re-creations, scenes from a recent reunion, photographs, archival montages and never-before-seen Super 8 footage filmed by the soldiers themselves, most of them teenagers at the time.It’s a story made up of stories, but most prominently it’s an assertion of life in a maelstrom of death.When Emanuel’s measured voice-over intones, “We were there,” it feels like an unburdening.

Harper also adds some surreality to suggest the weight of that memory: Emanuel in the aisles of a grocery store suddenly encountering his younger M-60-brandishing self, like a vision of strength and exile.It’s not the subtlest of touches but the seriousness with which it’s deployed is genuine.

Movies From a new “Resident Evil” reboot from the director of “Weapons” to Oscar contenders starring Mikey Madison and Tom Cruise, here are the movies we’ll be at this fall.For Black soldiers, serving in Vietnam was a battle on two fronts: against an enemy that America sent them there to kill and against an image of themselves that fostered the inequality they fought back home.The ...