Le dernier bastion

Ronald Reagan was a great President, true. he was a decent horse-rider, and a very sweet, radiant personality. But as an actor, he was rather second-rate and very forgettable, indeed. Well, yes, you can watch his movies, turn it off and then easily forget what was in the movie ten minutes later/ This movie is a typical example - a very much of a period piece, with all the obvious errata goofs of that era - rather predictable plot, unrealistic love-part,typical portrayal of Indians, and some extremely cheap dialogs, which you can utter a second before a word spells out form a speaker's lips. Battle scenes are funny in fact, too. They have no suspense and deliver no thrill. A very good B-movie, with a very average casting and all the plot twists that you can imagine. Some sprinkle of humor often seems to be at odd with the general mood of the film, and very generic performance of all characters make this movie very lightweight, unserious and not memorable. Yup, Reagan grew to some grand things a bit later, smiling his way up. Here, even his smile is a bit of a lame duckie.

"The Last Outpost" is a pretty mediocre Civil War western. Bruce Bennett is a Union officer out west, who finds himself beset by rampaging Apaches on one side and a Confederate guerrilla band led by his brother, Ronald Reagan, on the other side. Rhonda Fleming is the wife of a corrupt trader who's playing footsie with the Apaches. Competently acted, it moves along fairly slowly until almost the end of the picture, when there is a well-staged Indian attack on the town and a very exciting cavalry charge. Even though Fleming isn't called upon to do much more than stand around and look gorgeous, she does that quite well; she was born for Technicolor, and has seldom looked more beautiful. Reagan is a bit stiff in the lead, but not unbearably so, as he is more often than not. Overall not a bad western, but nothing particularly special.

The magical combination of the cool, yet tough handsome hero, Ronald Reagan, and the incredibly beautiful and seductive Rhonda Fleming makes a great foundation for a classic movie. Reagan and Fleming show a believable attraction to one another that lures the imagination of a starry love.

The Last Outpost has plenty of action and the right amount of romance to keep the tone warm. The saber fighting, flaming arrows and fists fights are exciting and fast paced. The characters are memorable and there are lots of catchy lines worth memorizing.

The Last Outpost is a classic movie that should be included in every movie connoisseur's library.

Reagan is star top-billed in this Paramount oater from 1951. Non- big budget movie was a surprise big hit in 1951. It also stars Rhonda Fleming, a woman it was could not photograph badly from any angle, and it shows in this movie, though her role isn't major. She plays the girl. She wasn't exactly known for her acting chops. The plot has the makings for a great Western, two brothers take different sides in the civil war. Reagan is a Confederate while Benett is a Union officer. Also involved is a certain benevolent look at the Indians - in the fifties, one can easily see the changing tone of Hollywood's outlook on the Indians; from snarly wordless caricatures to humane three dimensional characters, mainly highlighted by the James Stewart movie, Broken Arrow. Dances with wolves, this is not but it tries, as it has a white man as the Apache chief, an ex military officer who turned Injun after marrying an Indian. He was ousted from the army for this. Also, to be noted, Reagan and Bennett don't have anything really negative to say about the Indians. They are just interested in their war and just want to keep the Indians from getting involved. It is the supporting characters who are portrayed bug-eyed yellow in their thinking of the red man as the colloquial connotations go. But a notorious third act finale bruises all the good will the earlier sessions had earned. In this act, Bennett and Reagan, that is Confederate and Union team up to slaughter the Indians in a battle that was superceded by the white man. You can argue for this scene, in a pseudo " man must survive" argument that states that even if I'm on the wrong, I shouldn't just stand by the chop me to pieces. Man must defend himself. But staging of the battle is certainly cliched and flimsy as the Indians ride straight into a gauntlet set up by the allies. Right smack into it as they are shot of their horses. And do they change strategy? No. They keep running into the awaiting bullets. It should be noted that earlier, Bennett notes they are outnumbered 50-1. How original? Good entertainment especially the first two-thirds that focuses on Regan's derring-do.

This isn't one of those "researched" cavalry Westerns. This is just a fun fest. It's everything that is cool in a film. It is Raiders of the Lost Ark, only it's an old fashioned Western.

First, we have the "cool" Robin Hood style hero, this time in the guise of a Confederate officer, along with his cool merry men, particularly the affable Noah Beery.

Then we have his old sweetheart married to a sneaky bad guy.

Then we have the older brother as a more officious officer on the Union side. Naturally, they clash.

Then we have the noble native American chiefs. This is middle of the road in treatment of the Indian. The Indians are treated with great dignity and respect, and like most old Hollywood Westerns, they are never bad, but misled by evil white men.

However, as many note, this is almost like two different movies from the first two thirds to the last third. In the end, although the evil guys are a pair of white men, the Indians get the brunt of the assault.

The other major problem is that the main bad guy is killed almost immediately, and we're left without a villain, until a towns-person takes the role, but it looks like an afterthought, as though there was a contract dispute with an actor somewhere. It is a novel idea, but not dramatic, and certainly not Hollywood.

However, this is an Indiana Jones style adventure, filled with humor and pathos along the way. We know a few good men will die. We aren't sure who, but there are clues that give us good ideas.

This isn't a "look for reality" movie, nor does it pretend to be. It is a barroom brawl fun-house film, made to be cool. And it succeeds.