Jefe búfalo azul

Interesting, unusual Western to emerge during the genre's heyday given writer/director Fuller's typically uncompromising viewpoint. Starting off on the last day of the American Civil War, it deals with Southerner-of-Irish-descent Rod Steiger's inability to cope with defeat which sends him the way of the Sioux (the renowned Method actor, making a surprising third genre appearance in as many years, brings his customary intensity to the traditional Western canvas). After meeting up with renegade Indian Jay C. Flippen(!) and surviving the titular challenge, he's accepted by the Redskins and even lands himself a squaw (Sarita Montiel aka Mrs. Anthony Mann) and a mute foster-son; the latter is then involved in a startling sequence as, about to drown in quicksand, he's saved by a passing American horse soldier…except that he's rewarded for his good deed by falling headfirst into the slime himself! Steiger's past also comes back to haunt him at this point, with the arrival of the Cavalry (led by sympathetic Brian Keith and nasty Ralph Meeker – the latter was the last man to be shot during the war, by Steiger himself!) who want to build a fort in Sioux territory. Though the Indians (with Charles Bronson as Chief) desire peace, one of their number is a rebel and wages a one-man war against the whites…but Steiger has him do the 'Run Of The Arrow', which is then callously interrupted by Meeker. With Keith murdered by a Sioux arrow, the younger officer takes over command and, obstinately but unwisely, takes the unit further into Indian territory in search of a more strategic point for constructing. As Steiger's entreaty for surrender is rejected, the Cavalry are massacred (quite a violent scene for the time) – but Meeker is kept alive, since awaiting him is the fate allotted to those who willfully obstruct the 'run'. It's here, though, that Steiger draws the line for, whatever his feelings for Meeker personally, he can't bear to see his fellow man tortured: ironically, he uses the bullet he had shot him with originally, kept all along as a token, to end his ordeal. Looking on, Bronson – and, even more so, Montiel (voiced here by Angie Dickinson!) – realize that his place is with the white man after all; a wonderful scene has her throw the U.S. flag at Steiger and bringing him to admit that his home state of Virginia is equally represented on it. The concluding scene, then, has the surviving unit starting off to rejoin its ranks with Steiger (accompanied by his 'family') at the head.

Run of the Arrow (Samuel Fuller, 1957) is an embryonic version of Dances With Wolves in director Sam Fuller's familiar tabloid style: short, flamboyantly written and with the best stuff right at the top. It begins on Palm Sunday, 1865, "the last day of the war between the states", with Fuller taking us to the very heart of the conflict via a mesmerising opening tracking shot. Corpses are strewn across the smoking landscape, where an unmanned cannon has fallen silent, smashed to pieces. An air of desperation and exhaustion hangs heavy over the action. A Yankee soldier on a knackered horse staggers towards some unknown, meaningless destination. A shot rings out and he slumps to the ground. A Confederate infantryman (Rod Steiger) lowers his gun and moves forward. Ransacking the man's pockets, he finds a food parcel and begins eating the spoils off the dying man's stomach. That line from The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down comes to mind: "We were hungry, just barely alive." Having had his fill, Steiger straps the man to the guy's own horse, and takes him to a field hospital. It's a brilliant intro. But then Steiger starts talking and the film goes downhill.

Accents are a funny thing. It's nice when someone gets a voice down pat, but it often feels like window-dressing. And illogical window-dressing at that, since Nazis don't generally converse with one another in heavily-accented English. Jimmy Stewart gave a great performance in The Shop Around the Corner without attempting a Hungarian accent, and Claude Rains was a fitting French captain in Casablanca despite his distinctive English tones. Keeping your own accent also means you avoid taking a road to supposed 'authenticity' that's full of pitfalls. A terrible voice can sink a film, or at least prove a major distraction, and that's the case here. Playing a second-generation Irish immigrant fighting for the Confederacy, who finds a new home with the Sioux, Steiger opts for an accent that can best be described as 'South Asian Norwegian'. Perhaps he was confused about playing an honorary Indian, because no matter how bold and progressive the film is, offering an insightful look at Sioux customs, it still has a hero who sounds like a sort of Slumdog John Qualen. By d'yevil.

Such self-satisfied broadsides aside (I'm sorry, I really do like Fuller), Run of the Arrow turns out alright. The titular rite-of-passage - which sees Steiger forced to outpace some rampaging Sioux, or else find a new skin - is exciting and well-paced, with an intelligent follow-up in the second half. Fuller's much-celebrated focus on the feet during that sequence was actually enforced by Steiger's sore ankle, but elsewhere there's some strong direction that makes the most of several ambitious, realistic sets. Steiger is periodically effective, even hampered by that ridiculous voice, with Ralph Meeker perfectly cast as his main nemesis - a cigar-chomping Indian-hater - and Brian Keith an effective moral yardstick, though the rest of the cast is largely nondescript. The interesting, well-researched portrait of the Native American lifestyle is ultimately overtaken by a drawn-out action climax that begins effectively, with an interesting subversion of Western folklore that sees the Indians riding to the rescue, but frankly goes on a bit. Fuller's script also lacks clarity, even when dealing with his favourite theme of redemption, which is very unusual for this filmmaker.

In the end, Run of the Arrow is a fascinating, admirably ambitious film, but it's a long way from being a classic, with confused plotting and an inability to build on its fascinating opening scenes. On this evidence, it's a damn shame that Fuller never made a full Civil War picture, as he seems ideally suited to the material. But then again, every Fuller film starts and ends with a bang, and though John Ford's 21-minute section of How the West Was Won ('The Civil War') is extraordinary, his feature-length treatment of the conflict he remained so obsessed with, The Horse Soldiers, is a shambles.

Trivia note: This was the first movie to use blood squibs. No Run of the Arrow, no Wild Bunch. A small price to pay for that peculiar thing Steiger is doing with his larynx.

This oater is a rather gory affair of a bitter ex-rebel's quest to put the Civil War behind him. The Confederate soldier heads west and decides that life among the Plains Indians is preferable to being a citizen of the United States after the war. Rod Steiger was probably the best actor to play the unreconstructed southerner in this grim cavalry-Indian western. The unhappy southerner finds companionship with an Indian maiden in his adopted tribe and harbors as much hatred for the soldiers as do the Indians. The film starts slowly but finds its own groove and delivers fine action sequences although some scenes are not for the squeamish. Brian Keith, Ralph Meeker, Charles Bronson and Frank de Kova are good in supporting roles. Pretty Mexican actress Sarita Montiel pairs up with O'Meara's but her overall effect is diminished by the obvious dubbing of her voice.

No one ever accused Sam Fuller of being a run-of-the-mill Hollywood dream merchant. Run of the Arrow is fairly typical of the noted director-writer's work, applying his thinking man's approach to a well-established genre; in this case, the western. Touching on the moral conflicts of the Civil War as well as the uneasy truce between the white man and the Native American, the movie centers on a disillusioned Confederate (Rod Steiger)trying to find his place in a world in which he has cast himself as an outsider.

Fuller handles the visuals and the action sequences with as much confidence as the more intimate sequences of Steiger trying to immerse himself into the culture of the Sioux after what he feels is the humiliating defeat of the Confederate forces to the Union. While he lacks is the poetic sweep of a John Ford, Fuller is refreshingly unsentimental and takes pains to establish the subtlety of the characters and their conflicts.

Still, it is by no means a perfect movie, undermined by the dreadful miscasting of Rod Steiger in the starring role. Although a highly skilled actor who has often excelled at portraying multi-dimensional, morally ambiguous characters, Steiger seems out-of-place as a Confederate renegade and his Irish brogue only calls attention to his uneasiness. Fuller barely shows any interest in fleshing out the relationship between Steiger and the Indian squaw he marries, casting a nondescript and unappealing actress for the love interest. But Brian Keith and Ralph Meeker are excellent as the Union officers, one kindly, the other oozing villainy from every pore.

The movie is a natural for fans of adult, upper-scale westerns (a la The Gunfighter, Shane, etc.) while the more action-oriented buffs won't feel entirely left out either.

Itself influenced by "the most dangerous game" (Cooper/Schoedsack,1932) "run for the arrow" inspired in part both Cornell Wilde 's overlooked "naked prey" (1966) and Gibson's overrated "Apocalypto" .All these films ,including Fuller's display a lot of sadism.

A confederate ,after a war he just lost ,sick and tired of his compatriots, wants to live among the Indians.Is it crazier that the journalist who gets admitted to an insane asylum to unmask a murderer? ("shock corridor")or the GI who after the war wants to marry a German and unmask the "werevolves" these youngsters who want to carry on with Hitler's "work"?("Verboten" )or the prostitute in search of respectability who wants to help disabled children and believes that songs can cure them?("naked kiss")

Sam Fuller's westerns are something different ;"Forty guns" and "run of the arrow" cannot be compared to the classics of the era (Ford,Mann,Daves ,etc)just as "shock corridor" is a thriller of its own kind or as "pick up on South street " is a spy thriller with no connection with those of Hitchcock and Lang.The hero portrayed by Rod Steiger thinks he has found a place and a new home in a new people ;but when war breaks out between his former compatriots and the Indians ,he does not know where he stands anymore .The frontier between the two worlds is frail .You can say the same for most of Fuller's movies