Bill West fratello degli indiani

Have you ever watched a film and thought to yourself "This isn't bad....but it also isn't good, either". Well, that's the impression I had in watching "The Great Sioux Uprising".

The story is set in the west during the Civil War. Apparently, the Union army needs horses and they've contracted with an unscrupulous dirt-bag to get them. But Stephen Cook (Lyle Bettger) doesn't seem to care where he gets them or if he starts a war with the various Indian tribes...all he wants is the money. So, it's up to a traveling doctor (Jeff Chandler) to save the day.

The action is fair. The villain is fair. The story is fair. The treatment of the natives in the film...fair. Nothing really stands out as good nor bad. It's purely a time-passer and nothing else.

Directed by Lloyd Bacon and collectively written by Melvin Levy, J. Robert Bren and Gladys Atwater. Starring Jeff Chandler, Faith Domergue, Lyle Bettger, Peter Whitney and Stacy Harris.

The grand title sadly doesn't match what is actually put on screen, since Bacon's film is more a thinker than a thugger. Plot has Chandler as an ex-Union surgeon who takes up with ranchers and Indians in fighting the good cause against Bettger's horse baron and nefarious rebel rousers.

Undeniably the intentions and thought as per the screenplay are honourable, the anti-racist currents coupled with thematics involving the false deals laid at the Native American's doors, these are interestingly played and keep the pic from sinking below an average level. Action is in short supply, but there are moments of muscular brawn and bravado, while the Oregon locations and Technicolor photography (Maury Gertsman) provide pleasing surroundings.

Chandler and Bettger get roles for which they were known and suited, but Domergue - radiant in that "just made love" look she had - just ends up as more token interest than the feisty intelligent business woman that the story threatens to unleash. Whitney and Harris deliver good foil as stoic friend and unscrupulous fiend respectively. While John War Eagle and Glenn Strange offer up a firm backbone in the secondary support slots.

The story and ideas have been done far better in far more well known Westerns, thus rendering this as hardly essential. But some merit exists and for Chandler and Bettger fans it's a decent time waster. 6/10

I have a great affection for both Faith Domergue and Jeff Chandler. I do not feel that they got the scripts they deserved, and I believe this was the first time they acted together. The chemistry was good, but sadly the film should have expanded Domergue's role more than it did. Given the grand title the film needed more playing time and probably would have had if Cinemascope had been on offer in 1953. Bur given these quibbles the film is solid, thoughtful and has a liberal feeling to it often lacking in Westerns. The friendship between the Indian woman and Domergue is one example. I will not give any spoilers but just say that I would prefer to see this kind of Western than many others that have an over masculine bravado and a total indifference to the loss of the Indian populations which was too often portrayed.

Jeff Chandler is a veterinarian who sets up in a new town after he earns a measure of the Sioux War Chief, John War Eagle. He's not happy with the white man, because Lyle Bettger has just stolen a herd of their sacred horses to sell to the army. The Civil War is raging.

Lloyd Bacon directs this 'shaky A' western with a strong enough hand, and the script includes some real historical oddities, like an Indian who's a Confederate general, but mostly the movie is too busy with its standard western tropes, fight scenes, and Chandler running the gantlet to make much of them beyond some handsome Technicolor photography by Maury Gertsman. Faith Domergue offers some nice scenery as the love interest, and some long-time western stars can be spotted in the crowds, like Edmund Cobb and Kermit Maynard. However, while always watchable for its competence, it breaks no new ground.

Not a great or even a very good Western, but notable, for 1953 (more than ten years before Cheyenne Autumn), for its relatively strong anti-racist message with reference both to the Abolitionist issue in the Civil War and to the long history of failed promises to Native Americans. Given the standard tendency of Westerns (at best) to skirt over race entirely or to present a favorable interpretation of the Confederate cause, this is no small issue.

Apart from Dr Westgate's (Chandler) obvious sympathy for the Indian position, he presents his case for Indian neutrality in the Civil War to the Sioux Council, citing the clear racism of the Confederate general (which he implied would be transferred to the Sioux if they made common cause with the Confederates) and the sacrifice being made by Northern troops in the cause of racial equality. Elmer Daves' Broken Arrow of 1950 with James Stewart and Chandler had already raised the issue of Indian grievances against US Indian policy, but this was emphasizing the message in a 'B' Western context.