craig_smith9

Yes, this is a movie. No, it is not an action flic. As they say at the beginning, this is a dramatized story. Yet, they have done a very good job of telling the story of Chief Joseph and his attempt to flee to Canada. He won every engagement against the army. Until he was 40 miles from Canada. Then he ran out of hope. Especially toward the end there are many very find points made about what led to this chasing of Chief Joseph. The movie worth watching just for that. Overall this is really an excellent documentary. A movie can only do so much. There are many excellent books written (I have read some of them) which go into far more detail. If you can't read them you won't go wrong watching this movie.

There was a Modoc war. The main characters in the movie are factual. What happens to the main characters are factual. Makes the movie even more entertaining. An added bonus is all the great scenery. I thought this was a fairly balanced film between the Indians and the settlers. Both sides had issues here. The hatred the Indians had and the hatred of many of the whites are displayed. At the same time, many of the whites and many of the Indians got along fine and that is also seen here. Don't get me wrong, this is not a documentary. It is a movie. They take an actual event and build a story around it. They did good job.

Randolph Scott comes to Sundown to kill the man he holds responsible for the death of his wife Mary. He is consumed by hate. A hate that does not allow him to even consider what others try to tell him about Mary. For three years all he has thought about is killing one man. And now he has found him.

I felt this movie really shows well what hate can do to a person. That when you hate it can overpower all morality. This movie is really a morality play and a very good one. The town of Sundown has also thrown morality away. Scott does help it to get (at least) some of it back.

In the end, hate has taken three years of Scott's life away. And a very good friend as well. Nothing will ever get any of that back. A truly great western.