Elvis has a decent director (Don Siegel) and screenwriter (Nunally Johnson) and rises to the occasion, delivering a very strong performance. The role was originally intended for Marlon Brando - who would have loved acting in it, as he gets to play an Indian half breed and the film is about racial prejudice - but Presley does very well, and makes one genuinely wish he'd done a bit more drama in his movie career.
It helps that his character is not that far from the types he played in Jailhouse Rock and his other JD films - to wit, a snarling sexy youngster, pining after a girl, devoted to his mother but who goes off the rails when she's not around (the difference is in the JD films mom is dead before the story starts), but who at bottom is a decent person who turns good when it counts.
The story pulls no punches when it comes to racial prejudice, and its equal opportunity stuff, too - the Indians are no shrinking violets, led by a fanatic warrior (the opening massacre sequence is reminiscent of the one in The Searchers and doesn't suffer in comparison), but the whites are little better, full of bigots and hate, driving Elvis to extremism.
The film has a lot of similarities with Love Me Tender - Elvis has an elder brother (Steve Forrest, who isn't that much - it would have been a better movie with a stronger actor, at times you almost long for Richard Egan) who has captured the heart of the woman Elvis loves (Barbara Eden - this subplot could have developed more), Elvis kicks the bucket at the end (sorry half-breed but you have to die tragically).
Dolores Del Rio adds charisma if not necessarily a great performance as Elvis' Indian mother; the scenes involving her husband and Elvis' dad, who acknowledges their family is different and will got its own way if need be, are really touching. Some good action sequences and its an all-round very solid film.
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