The contributions of Black soldiers have for so long been scrubbed from history, that a film like Soul Patrol becomes even more meaningful. A profoundly affecting story of the first all-Black spec-ops team during the Vietnam War, the film is framed around the final gathering of this small, unique squad. Fifty years after their life-changing experiences on the battlefield, these men of honor are beginning to see their numbers dwindle, and are reaching out to the brotherhood one last time to find meaning by reckoning with the past.
Directed by J.M Harper and based on Ed Emanuel’s book, Soul Patrol employs archival footage of this special reunion, but also footage captured on Super 8 of the team in action in Vietnam. Emanuel, a member of the squad and the film’s main driver, recounts the confusing journey from recruitment to basic training, to fighting in a foreign land for a country that didn’t respect him or his peers. This was 1968, and the country was in turmoil. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. loomed heavy; other Black leaders were warning young men not to enlist. Most of those Black activists would end up murdered themselves by the same government regularly producing propaganda videos aimed at recruiting Black youths into the fight.
Harper and his team, even at their advanced age, are so open and lucid about what they each went through that the decision to reenact certain memories with actors feels like a major misstep. Soul Patrol is at its best when the men are together, leaning on one another, finding that camaraderie as they help each other navigate the past, the good parts and the bad.
Also really effective are what amount to short video essays, such as when Harper stitches together footage to track the origin of the unit’s Soul Patrol nickname. Emanuel took it as offensive, because of the way the term “soul brotha” was used derisively back home by a media that treated Blacks as less than human. We see Emanuel grappling with his decision to return to Vietnam after a relative’s death in the fighting. Seeking to get revenge, Emanuel learns to see the Vietnamese people as just like him after meeting a special woman while on R&R. MLK’s speech, “Beyond Vietnam” underscores Emanuel’s revelation beautifully.
The final scenes of Soul Patrol are heartbreaking, as we learn the fates of some of the squad that we have been hearing from. For many of them, returning home to a country that hated them proved to be a war that took decades to get over, if they ever did. Their stories prove vital to cementing Black soldiers’ military contributions when so many would have them ignored. With so many of that generation leaving us, it’s more important than ever to document their experiences, their knowledge, their unique perspective, to help us chart a future where there is no need to send our children to war.
