* This drama was originally released on American television as a movie of the week under the title "Carter's Army", but re-titled for a DVD release. Captain Carter, a white, southern, redneck officer (played by Steven Boyd) is given emergency command of a group of black service troops (Robert Hooks, Rosie Greer, Billy Dee Williams, Moses Gunn and Richard Pryor) with no actual combat experience and tasked with the quick capture of a vital hydro-electric dam before the German's can blow it up ahead of advancing US troops. For some reason Carter parachutes to his command, guess all the jeeps were down for maintenance since 'service troops' should be behind American lines, not German ones. Most of the men are understandably reluctant but march out anyway to make contact with a anti-nazi German woman (Susan Oliver from the original Star Trek pilot) sporting a unconvincing German accent. After nearly being caught by a German patrol at the girls farm they make their way to a disused winery where a German werewolf (not the furry kind ) ambushes them and after one man steps on a mine they are down to three men to capture a dam. Of course they capture it killing a full squad of enemy troops in the process. Despite its improbable story line it doesn't shy away from very serious race issues and ends with the white officer at least gaining respect for the men he led into battle. Unfortunately limited production values and weak story telling lets down a pretty good cast which is a pity. If they ditched the secret mission aspect and just had a random white office take command of a black service unit caught it a unexpected enemy counter attack they would have a believable story that honored a group of black soldiers for their service. Average but could have been better.
Even further if one considers the concept of a black officer in command of white troops. However even the British army, not renowned for flexibility in such matters , managed this at least once as early as WW1
