A bit of a surprise - I didn't know much about this Western, it doesn't have a great rep, but it was intelligent and different. Its very much from the post Broken Arrow school of liberal Hollywood westerns with Van Heflin - offbeat but effective casting - as Jim Bridger, a real life Indian scout, trying hard to prevent war between Sioux and whites.
The real villain in this is Alex Nicol, an ambitious cavalry scout who hero worships Chivington and was part of the famed Sandy Creek Massacre quite bloodily described here (Heflin's Indian wife and child were killed in it). He and other gung go whites are clearly the baddies and the Sioux quite sympathetic - though not terribly personalised. Indeed it's so anti-picking-on-the-Indians (talking about all the treaties the white man has broken I wondered if the writers were blacklisted).
It's not heavy on action - battle scenes are threatened more than delivered. However there is a strong sense of tension because violence is always threatened. And the ending is a genuine surprise - the whites fight off the Indians, but only due to superior technology... and the result it the fort gets knocked down so its a tactical victory for Red Cloud.
Heflin's nervy intensity suits the role - as does his craggy, tormented face. Yvonne de Carlo is wasted as "the girl" - a girl keen on Heflin. Her part could've been cut out of the movie - something you couldn't often claim for de Carlo in her heyday. There's good support from people like Preston Foster and Jack Oakie - Rock Hudson is it in too, briefly.
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