Western civilization: a good idea

Review: Buck and the Preacher (1972, newly re-released)

In Sidney Poitier’s 1972 western Buck and the Preacher — his first directorial feature — one of the most elemental cowboy movie symbols to come up for reevaluation is the White Hat/Black Hat cliché. The first time we see the picture’s putative Black Hat, the titular Preacher (played by Harry Belafonte somehow made not to look handsome, decades before the advent of computer-generated special effects) is sitting naked in a creek of bracing cold water, using his literal black hat to scoop from the stream and cleanse himself.