SUN TZU WROTE that generals must use their enemies' disorder as a weapon. The ancient strategist offered no sound advice for dealing with one's own brigand of postwar professional killers, however, when the chief adversaries of tedium and self-destructive bloodlust tend to favor the dirty fight; war may be hell, but "peace is fucking boring!" In Gregor Jordan's Buffalo Soldiers, the choice appears to be twofold: start gnawing away at your own limbs or try to turn a tidy profit. It's the latter route that the enterprising young army "supply specialist" Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) marches down, combating the ennui of East Germany circa '89 by selling everything from pilfered Mop 'n' Glo to kitchen-sink heroin. Elwood's dim-witted superior (Ed Harris) seems oblivious to the free-market enterprise so diligently practiced on his base, ensuring our Bilko-esque hero plenty of time to count his money and screw his boss's wife. That is, until a hard-ass new commanding officer (Scott Glenn) with a shark's grin and a nubile teenage daughter (Anna Paquin) shows up, just as Elwood's brand of laissez-faire capitalism accidentally starts extending to stolen munitions. The story behind Jordan's M*A*S*H-like farce is worth a mention: The filmmaker was lucky enough to sell his comedy two days before Sept. 11, only to see the film get shelved as the nation marched into war(s) and blind patriotism spread virally. The movie's portrayal of an American military composed of psychotics, idiots, and thieves is certainly a welcome antidote to the rah-rahs, although one can't help but wish the satire was a tone blacker. Even when it's content to roll over its targets like a tank instead of sharpening its teeth, Buffalo Soldiers still has a critical bite that's funny, frightening, and unfortunately way too relevant. (David Fear)