I used to enjoy Westerns. Now I wonder. This one has a good: cast, color scenery, and production values. The last few minutes were well done. But as a whole it moved way too slowly.
I am writing this review to draw attention to the typical way adventure movies --and this one in particular-- have such ridiculous and improbable action scenes. I was really charged with disgust at the way the two men rescued the wife and two kids from the Indian camp at the end of the movie. Everything fell so improbably into place for them. Using ropes they somehow silently scale an escarpment in daylight out of sight and hearing by the Indian guards. They sneak up and kill a guard. They are in a perfect place to spy on the Indian village, including the convenient placement of the wife and kids tied to outdoor poles. The two men scale down the escarpment in plain sight of Indians below, who don't notice them. Conveniently the three captives are in a perfect position to be rescued -- at the edge of the Indian camp (so the two men can sneak up behind them to untie them) and right next to the horse corral (so Glen Ford can stampede the horses so the Indians can't pursue) and near the ammunition wagon and an oil lantern (so Glen can blow it up) and an empty horse-driven wagon (so Arthur Kennedy can drive the family away). Oh, and the Indians were conveniently burying their dead at the time, so Glen and Arthur would have less interference! Even with all this, the Indians should have recouped and caught up to the wagon in the badlands far from a white settlement. The only thing missing from this derring-do is for Glen to have flicked a cigarette behind him to start a sagebrush fire to thwart the pursuing Indians!
I am writing this review to draw attention to the typical way adventure movies --and this one in particular-- have such ridiculous and improbable action scenes. I was really charged with disgust at the way the two men rescued the wife and two kids from the Indian camp at the end of the movie. Everything fell so improbably into place for them. Using ropes they somehow silently scale an escarpment in daylight out of sight and hearing by the Indian guards. They sneak up and kill a guard. They are in a perfect place to spy on the Indian village, including the convenient placement of the wife and kids tied to outdoor poles. The two men scale down the escarpment in plain sight of Indians below, who don't notice them. Conveniently the three captives are in a perfect position to be rescued -- at the edge of the Indian camp (so the two men can sneak up behind them to untie them) and right next to the horse corral (so Glen Ford can stampede the horses so the Indians can't pursue) and near the ammunition wagon and an oil lantern (so Glen can blow it up) and an empty horse-driven wagon (so Arthur Kennedy can drive the family away). Oh, and the Indians were conveniently burying their dead at the time, so Glen and Arthur would have less interference! Even with all this, the Indians should have recouped and caught up to the wagon in the badlands far from a white settlement. The only thing missing from this derring-do is for Glen to have flicked a cigarette behind him to start a sagebrush fire to thwart the pursuing Indians!