13. Captain Davenport (A Soldiers Story)
Captain Davenport from A Soldiers Story, assigned from Washington, D.C. to investigate the murder of a black sergeant in Louisiana during World War II, is a great example of a character who must persevere through his personal feelings to succeed. At every turn, he faces people who test his emotions, trying to steer him from the path of logical justice in many ways. During his experiences, he drifts into passionate territory here and there. He doesnt falter in overall objective, but he is an emotional person and isnt always smooth around the edges, which brings an element that makes the role more interesting while not being completely stereotypical. A Soldiers Story is a distinct piece of literature about the many forms racism can take, and Captain Davenport is in the middle of that, but he is not tied to those themes. Instead, he is a person familiar with having to fight within a racist reality every day. Hes not out to change anyones mind; racism is part of the world, and hes trying to get his work done while figuring out greater truths along the way. Thanks to both his job and personal experiences, he is able to talk candidly about things not always acknowledged in movies. He brings a depth with both interesting positives and negatives that give the story a little more life than it otherwise could have had and make him a worthy player as the protagonist of the endeavor. I think that, to an extent, this is a story trying to capture the passion from similar stories, but it offers some good options in itself for performance than the roles in many mainstream Hollywood films for actors of any race. It very much brings the emotional tone of a play to a moviegoing audience.