Widely regarded at the time of its release as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with a social conscience, BUCK AND THE PREACHER is an immensely satisfying western which marked Academy Award® Winner Sidney Poitier's directorial debut, as well as his first screen pairing with superstar Harry Belafonte.
Poitier stars as Buck, an ex-Union Army Cavalry sergeant who becomes a scout for freed slaves heading to the Colorado frontier. Tagging along with him are his wife (Ruby Dee in a scene-stealing performance) and a Bible-thumping con artist know as the Preacher (Belafonte). Attacked by racist bounty hunters determind to return the former slaves to a life of sharecropping in Louisiana, Buck and his followers must summon all the courage they have in order to reach their destination and help settle the Wild West.