In "Tomahawk", the colors don't jump out from the screen like they do in many other Technicolor Westerns of its era; the film is more notable for its use of nature's wide open spaces, and for its unusually even-handed approach on the topic of "the red man vs. the white man" conflict. Van Heflin is solid as the man caught in the middle of the conflict, while Alex Nicol's character (almost disturbingly well played), with his psychopathic thirst for the slaughtering of Indians, draws parallels with the Nazis' "ethnic cleansing". Yvonne De Carlo has a rather insignificant part, but Susan Cabot is cute and expressive as a young Cheyenne "squaw". Not much action, but what there is is well done (if bloodless). **1/2 out of 4.
Review of Tomahawk
