Director’s movie had state as star

Director Norman Jewison died Jan. 20 in his Los Angeles home at the age of 97.

He was a multiple Oscar nominee whose work ranged from comedies to action films to social dramas; “In the Heat of the Night,” “Moonstruck,” “The Russians are Coming,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Thomas Crown Affair” are just a few of his most popular films.

Jewison was behind the camera for “A Soldier’s Story,” the 1984 movie that was filmed entirely in Arkansas.

Based on Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer-Prize winning off-Broadway production “A Soldier’s Play,” the movie starred Oscar winner Howard E. Rollins Jr., as Capt. Richard Davenport, a Black officer from the Judge Advocate General’s Corps who is sent to a segregated Army base in Louisiana near the end of World War II to investigate the slaying of Black Master Sgt. Vernon Waters, played by Adolph Caesar.

Jewison began shooting “A Soldier’s Story” on Sept. 10, 1983, in Clarendon and later filmed in Little Rock and at Fort Chaffee in Fort Smith, according to the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

The movie had been turned down by several studios before being picked up by Columbia Pictures. It was made for a modest $5 million budget and Jewison, along with the cast, which included Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, David Alan Grier, Patti LaBelle and others, worked for minimum pay.

Money for extras was scarce, so then-Gov. Bill Clinton approved use of members of the Arkansas Army National Guard to appear in full military dress for an essential scene, according to the encyclopedia.

Still, there were plenty of civilian extras in the movie, including Karama Neal of Little Rock. She was 11 when she and her two older cousins were extras in the crowd during a scene featuring a baseball game at Lamar Porter Athletic Field in Little Rock.

“There was a lot of general excitement, particularly in the Black community,” about the film, she says.

She knew it was a big deal when her mother, Janet Cobb, allowed her and her cousins to skip school to take part.

Extras had to dress in period-appropriate clothing, she says.

As workers on the film were making sure their outfits were suitable, Cobb was singled out and eventually offered a bigger part, a nonspeaking role as the widow of Waters.

“They really liked her,” Neal says. “A few days later she went with them to Fort Smith to film a scene.”

Despite its humble budget, “A Soldier’s Story” was a box office success and was nominated for slew of awards, including Best Picture at the Oscars.

The film had a “wide impact,” Neal says. “If you knew people of a certain age, they knew the film … I can say that I was an extra in ‘A Soldier’s Story.’ It’s something I take a lot of pride in.”