Lots of conflict and shooting in this rather routine Western of US cavalry versus Apaches. Bibi Andersson, who practically glowed in Ingmar Bergman's movies, is only a subsidiary character and looks like just another Hollywood blond. James Garner could be a fine actor when the role was right and Sidney Poitier was one of the most skilled of his generation. I have no idea why they dressed him up in a cowboy hat, fancy vest, skin-tight trousers, and black boots,.
But what can you do with a B script that's enlivened by a few unusual incidents. Here are two unusual incidents. The Apache are chasing a cook wagon. And what do they do? They SHOOT ONE OF THE HORSE and the wagon has to stop! Hallelujah! Finally, a move script allows the Indians to figure out that if you want to stop a wagon you don't necessarily have to pick off the guy driving it.
Here's another incident. Dennis Weaver is a miscreant who finally sides with the good guys. It doesn't save him from being brutally tortured over a fire by the Apache, to the point at which he later begs the cavalry men to kill him. The Apache, by the way, weren't racists. They were indiscriminately brutal, as many other Western tribes were. Weaver may have been roasted alive, but others were de-boned, beginning with their fingertips.
But these scenes can't redeem a B script that has a lonesome patrol fighting overwhelming odds and being picked off one by one until the final and inevitable rescue by the rest of the cavalry. Want to know what would have been REALLY innovative? They all die. But then who would have paid to see the movie?
Very nice location shooting though, among bluffs that alternate gray strata with rust, and the horses for some reason look beautiful, not like just any old horse.
But what can you do with a B script that's enlivened by a few unusual incidents. Here are two unusual incidents. The Apache are chasing a cook wagon. And what do they do? They SHOOT ONE OF THE HORSE and the wagon has to stop! Hallelujah! Finally, a move script allows the Indians to figure out that if you want to stop a wagon you don't necessarily have to pick off the guy driving it.
Here's another incident. Dennis Weaver is a miscreant who finally sides with the good guys. It doesn't save him from being brutally tortured over a fire by the Apache, to the point at which he later begs the cavalry men to kill him. The Apache, by the way, weren't racists. They were indiscriminately brutal, as many other Western tribes were. Weaver may have been roasted alive, but others were de-boned, beginning with their fingertips.
But these scenes can't redeem a B script that has a lonesome patrol fighting overwhelming odds and being picked off one by one until the final and inevitable rescue by the rest of the cavalry. Want to know what would have been REALLY innovative? They all die. But then who would have paid to see the movie?
Very nice location shooting though, among bluffs that alternate gray strata with rust, and the horses for some reason look beautiful, not like just any old horse.