User Reviews

Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1982) is about the son of the English man turned native "Man Called Horse". Times are rough for his tribe. The once great warriors are now reduced to a few families. His son Koda is now a man and he knows he must take care of his people. But the white men are coming into their sovereign land. With the ailing "Man Called Horse" unable to make clear decisions, it's up to Koda to do what's right for his people. Make a pact with the white men or risk losing his tribe. What will Koda do?

A fitting end to the series. It was depressing (and realistic) to see the tribe dwindled to such a small number. The end of the plains natives was clearly written on the wall. Survival was important to the remaining few. Richard Harris takes a side step to let rising star Michael Beck take over the starring spot light.

Slightly recommended.

The third, and let's hope, final installment, of the outrageously preposterous "A Man Called Horse" series, this time around Harris is too old and sick to actually ride a horse in the title sequence, so the director opts to give the new reign to Michael Beck of "The Warriors" fame, who is his son in the film. Michael Beck's "acting" consists of looking tough all the time.

This movie has the enemy now being a calvary troop of US marauders, who are coming from the Civil War.

This is truly an empty film, devoid of any new inspirations or themes.

I think it was not a particularly good ending to the series of unbelievable films. They should have really done a better job of the story, perhaps making the title character a reincarnated Indian warrior or something. Or going back to England in a ship that is haunted with deadly rats. Or perhaps concentrating on the Native Americans themselves, and not on some European bloke.

Anything but what we got here in this simpleminded movie.

I'm surprised that they have no interest whatsoever in remaking the movie. Apparently it would be out of fashion in today's climate, or "A Man Called Horse" would be drastically changed to "A Woman Called Mare", and she would slaughter all the men in the movie.

My review was written in March 1984 after watching the movie on HBO.

"Triumphs of a Man Called Horse" reduces the large-scale Westerns "A Man..." and "The Return of a Man Called Horse" into a lowgrade B-picture format. Filmed in Mexico, Montana and Arizona in 1982, this picture was marginally released by Jensen Farley Pictures and is reviewed here for the record.

Producer Sandy Howard, following the current trend of aiming at series of films rather than mere sequels, set out here to create a new spinoff of his previous hits by casting Michael Beck as Koda, half-breed son of Shunka Wakan (Richard Harris). As a transitional film, "Triumphs" falls flat, with original series star Harris killed off after half an hour.

Paternalistic theme is that Harris, the English nobleman who has spent 30 years with the Sioux indians, and his son are the only ones who can protect their adopted tribe from the Gold Rush white settlers who are greedily overrunning their land. A kindly army officer (Vaughn Armstrong) supports them in their efforts to keep the peace and uphold the treaty, but whites are staging killings on both sides to foment a war.

"Triumphs" pays mere lip service to those "elements" that worked in its predecessors: there is a suggestion of ESP and mysticism in Beck's nightmares and prescience concerning his father's death and other events; yet Anne Seymour follows Judith Anderson and Gale Sondergaard in the now gimmick ole of tribal elder Elk Woman; highlights such as the chest-hoist ritual scene are featured in old flashback footage.

Beck's stilted, "proud" dialog readings are a boring cliche from old-fashioned noble savage films; Harris guest stars in his own picture and the supporting cast is weak. Sole highlight is the beautiful Mexican actress Ana De Sade, who had a small role in "The Return of a Man..." and here plays a Crow indian with whom Beck teams up after she's been attacked by whites.

Silly finale, wrapped up in the whirlwind fashion of a tv series episode, has De Sade (armed with bow & arrow) and Beck in a convenient shootout with the baddies. The settlers promptly leave, the soldiers go back to Ft. Laramie and the Indians are left happily to their Black Hills land.

End credits-crawl reminds that the U. S. ended up breaking that treaty and stealing the Sioux' land, but that a 1980 Supreme Court ruling gave it back to them (plus $105,000,000 in damages) and 40,000 Sioux live there now. That's the sort of material that could yield a passable motion picture.