"Welcome to gory bed or victory." Some gripping action and battle scenes filmed on magnificent locations in southern Utah desert. The guilt or revenge driven and money hungry citizens are accompanying a cavalry unit through Indian lands and trying to get a load of weapons and horses for those who need them at the other end of the journey. Some matrimonial and parental questions involving a halfbreed baby also need to be settled from the side of the white as well as the Apaches. The movie respectfully tries to make some good-hearted points at racism and greediness, but much of it is left open somewhere half way or gets left under the feet of the roaming action. Or maybe there simply isn't any real answers.
At the beginning I got the feeling like I was watching a western TV-series instead of a movie. That's probably because of the rather heavy use of period sound music. You get Apaches and whites dangling in the desert and the soundtrack is alive with the sounds of surf guitars and bongo drums. Not the best choice to my mind and I wandered if the makers had wanted to lure in young viewers or just had a bad taste. Don't get me wrong. I love the music and sounds from the sixties, but there are right as well as wrong places for it. Fortunately the soundtrack picks up tremendously along with the pace and action once we're on the way and far in the desert.
Good actors are able to bring some greatly needed life and interest into routinely scripted characters and situations. Sidney Poitier and Dennis Weaver have the biggest tasks of using their admirable skills and so make the most admired impressions. A kind of friendly nod to John Ford's cavalry westerns can be sensed from Bill Travers' Irish lieutenant. The biggest failure is that the few meaningful Indian roles have mostly been left in the traditional state of the wooden ones, the nonchalantly stiff enemy. For a dedicated friend of westerns this is a pretty decent entry in the genre. But others might well find it a lot less meaningful or worth a watch.
At the beginning I got the feeling like I was watching a western TV-series instead of a movie. That's probably because of the rather heavy use of period sound music. You get Apaches and whites dangling in the desert and the soundtrack is alive with the sounds of surf guitars and bongo drums. Not the best choice to my mind and I wandered if the makers had wanted to lure in young viewers or just had a bad taste. Don't get me wrong. I love the music and sounds from the sixties, but there are right as well as wrong places for it. Fortunately the soundtrack picks up tremendously along with the pace and action once we're on the way and far in the desert.
Good actors are able to bring some greatly needed life and interest into routinely scripted characters and situations. Sidney Poitier and Dennis Weaver have the biggest tasks of using their admirable skills and so make the most admired impressions. A kind of friendly nod to John Ford's cavalry westerns can be sensed from Bill Travers' Irish lieutenant. The biggest failure is that the few meaningful Indian roles have mostly been left in the traditional state of the wooden ones, the nonchalantly stiff enemy. For a dedicated friend of westerns this is a pretty decent entry in the genre. But others might well find it a lot less meaningful or worth a watch.