Wonderful Movie

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

"Pony Soldier" director Joseph M. Newman's western "Fort Massacre" is a grim little Cavalry versus the Indians horse opera with genre veteran Joel McCrea as a seasoned sergeant with a hatred of all things Apache in particular and Indians in general. The performances are all fine, especially the Native Americans. They look like Indians. Meanwhile, character actors galore fill McCrea's ranks, such as Denver Pyle, Forrest Tucker, Anthony Caruso, John Russell, Robert Osterloh, and Rayford Barnes. Newman alternates between battle scenes and dialogue scenes with everybody complaining about Sergeant Vinson (Joel McCrea) and his feud with the Indians. It seems that his wife died at the hands of the Native Americans, but before Vinson's wife died, she shot his two sons. Newman doesn't let the plot loiter and the anti-Indian sentiments are as strong as those displayed by John Wayne in "The Searchers." If there is anything predictable about this blood, sweat, and bullets 'Lost Patrol" western, it is the hero's antipathy toward the Indians. Clocking in at a lean, 80 minutes with no time-outs for comic relief, "Fort Massacre" qualifies as an above-average oater with "Sergeants 3" lenser's Carl Guthrie's spectacular cinematography of scenic western locales in Utah and New Mexico. It is a wonder that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer let Newman keep certain scenes in this savage shoot'em up. My favorite line of dialogue occurs early in the action after the survivors bury their superior office and Sergeant Vinson refuses to read over his burial with the Bible. "If he needs our help to make it upstairs, he's in worse shape than he looks." Furthermore, it is also unusual to see all-around good-guy Joel McCrea playing such a grief-stricken soldier. For example, after they wipe out their adversaries, Sergeant Vinson doesn't relent when the final Apache exposes himself to him. Vinson refuses to show mercy and shoots the brave down like a dog to the chagrin of his men.

This may be the first non-"Ride the High Country" Joel McCrea western I have ever seen. I realize now that I wasted my youth. He is great in this movie. I've seen a lot of Randolph Scott westerns and he's good, but McCrae had a meanness in this movie I did not expect. The rest of the cast is very good too. There some typical western clichés in this movie but that never really bothers me if they're done well. This movie constantly surprised me.It's also beautiful to look in its widescreen glory. It does run out gas after a while but it doesn't stall for very long. I'm sorry it took me so long to catch up with this one. I've just become a big Joel McCrae fan.

A cavalry troop navigates through a remote territory while trying to overcome repeated Indian attacks. This looks very much like the second feature on a B-movie double-bill. The plot is somewhat meandering and the characters are nothing more than stereotypes. The flat direction doesn't help matters. There is intermittent philosophical discussion, but much of the dialog is amateurish. For example, McCrea says something like this about his late wife: "She wasn't much to look at, but she was kind. She would catch a fly with her hands and release it outside the house. I would swat." Goldsmith wrote such hard-boiled yarns as "Detour" and "The Narrow Margin" but seems to be out of his element with this Western.

The best thing about this film is that there is no humor in it, unlike some westerns like the searchers. The plot has Joel McCrea in charge since all the officers have been killed and the men don't trust McCrea since he has such a deep hatred of the Indians, who killed his wife and kid. This is a lot like The Lost Patrol when which not too many are going to make it out alive.