Tonnerre apache

This puppy's been savaged on Rotten Tomatoes (25%) and has not fared especially well with my IMDB colleagues (5.9 rating) but I wish to somewhat rise to its semi defense here. The conflicts between officers and enlisted men and the even greater struggles between officers and officers on an isolated, lonely cavalry outpost (were there any other kind in westerns?) are well delineated by scenarist James Warner Bellah. This is not surprising since Bellah wrote the stories upon which John Ford based the two best of his cavalry trilogy. Alas, when Bellah is called upon to depict a love story or a credible female character his dialogue becomes stiff and awkward. And actors like Luana Patten and George Hamilton are not exactly the ideal candidates to unstiffen or de awkwardize them. Nor is director Joseph Newman able, like Ford did with Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne, to infuse their scenes with the realism he gives the action or male conflict scenes. B minus.

PS...Best performances are given by Charles Bronson as a libidinous corporal (you forget how good this guy was before he became a star) and Arthur O'Connell as a hard bitten, veteran sergeant.

It's usually a bad sign for a western when a title is given that has nothing to do with the story. There's no thunder and no Indian war drums. But A Thunder Of Drums is a nice combination of soap opera and horse opera.

Richard Boone is one bitter commander of a forgotten frontier outpost in post Civil War Texas and has George Hamilton a new young lieutenant from the east assigned when he wanted someone with a little frontier experience. But there seems to be more than that in his hostility toward Hamilton.

As for Hamilton he doesn't help his own cause by immediately taking up with Luana Patten who is the fiancé of James Douglas another lieutenant on the post. Hamilton has history with Patten and he's looking to write a few new chapters.

But in the last 45 minutes of the film it's all cavalry business as Boone seeks to destroy a band of hostiles in the area and try to make sure the right tribe is blamed for some recent raids. It's a bitter school for his young officers Hamilton, Douglas and Richard Chamberlain.

A Thunder Of Drums is based on a story from western writer James Warner Bellah who was the source of the famous John Ford classic cavalry western Fort Apache. Some similarities in some of the characters are present here. They're not romanticized though in the way John Ford would do.

Such people as Arthur O'Connell as the first sergeant and troopers Slim Pickens and Charles Bronson have some small parts. Bronson who does not last long as Hamilton's orderly tries to tempt him in small ways. Definitely he's not a John Ford type character.

A Thunder Of Drums is a gritty western with good performances from the ensemble cast.

Has anyone noticed that almost every World War II movie had a triangle of two service men competing for the affection of one girl, with the world at war playing a minor role, usually to showcase the courage and nobility of our boys at war? Hollywood trotted out this formula once again for this movie, ruining an otherwise fine tale of soldiers on a far frontier battling a clever and determined enemy in a nasty little war, with no quarter asked or given. In the 60's there was no way a book was going to be brought faithfully to the screen. It had to be dumbed down, it had to devote an inordinate amount of time on the love interest, it had to be the equivilant of a "G" rating. A Thunder of Drums was an ass-kicking book, which failed as a film because although it managed to depart from romantic notions of war, still was unable to conceive of a story lacking romance. Even relatively recently, The Last of the Mohicans managed to have our frontiersman hero and a British officer competing for the affections of a girl. I am not saying there is no place for romance, but I am suggesting that some films would be better off without it, like A Thunder of Drums.

I have a soft spot for b-movies and random westerns. This one is a run-of-the-mill cavalry vs. Indians job that suffers from uneven pacing, a miscast lead role, and over-reliance on formula plot elements. But there are a few interesting points that make it worth watching.

One of its chief virtues is the excellent job it does of capturing the day to day flavor of life in a remote cavalry outpost in 1870s southwest. The military manners, habits, and routines are portrayed with convincing detail. The class stratification between enlisted men and officers is utterly real. An early scene with dead soldiers being transported on horseback is played to grim, nauseating effect, with enlisted men displaying hardened indifference and black humor about the situation. All of this gives the film some weight and veracity.

On the other hand, it suffers from generic Hollywood artificiality, relying unthinkingly on shoot 'em up conventions of faceless Indians, and sporting a formulaic romantic triangle subplot. Another major problem is George Hamilton's performance. The character he plays is not particularly sympathetic or likable, and he does nothing to bring depth to it. He's unappealingly flat and cocky. A better actor in this key role would've gone a long way toward breathing some life into the film, especially in its flabby, tedious midsection.

But the real reason to watch this film is Richard Boone. I've liked him in just about everything I've seen him in, but here he is completely riveting. He plays the tough, smart, experienced commander of the undermanned outpost. He's a lonely man, who feels keenly the burden of his job. Late in the film there's a scene where he discovers a scene of carnage, with a number of his men dead, and his controlled rage is very moving. He brings the only real gravitas and feeling to the movie, effectively communicating the weight of life & death decisions and consequences. He's absolutely terrific.

This movie is interesting, as the two central characters played by Richard Boone and George Hamilton are,in the story by James Warner Bellah, Capt. Nathan Brittles and Lt. Clint Cohill, who appear in the John Ford classic 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'. John Wayne's gruff but fatherly character contrasts with Boone's gruff but miserable martinet. We also know (or may infer) from 'Ribbon' that it is Cohill's father,General Cohill, who has blocked Brittles's promotion. Hence the 'attitude'. Boone's character could have been played more sympathetically, but he does come across as an experienced old hand who outwits his Apache foe and in the process teaches valuable lessons to his protege.