Les rebelles de Fort Thorn

"Two Flags West" is a real surprise, entertaining and powerful. It contains its share of Hollywood clichés: Yankees and Rebels teaming up to fight Indians; an unhinged officer commanding a lonely outpost; a beautiful women creating tension among comrades in arms. But it's original in the way it handles them.

Jeff Chandler plays Maj. Henry Kenniston, a Union officer put in charge of a desert fort after being partially disabled by a war wound. Distrustful of Indians and bitter about his assignment, he dreams of returning to the war and taking revenge on the Confederates who hurt him and killed his brother.

Worst of all, Kenniston is obsessed with his brother's widow (played by Linda Darnell). He's an honorable man in his own way, and he feels a genuine sense of responsibility toward her. He tells himself he's keeping her at the fort for her own protection. But in his heart, he lusts after her, and he hates himself for doing so.

When reinforcements arrive at this troubled outpost, Kenniston is shocked to find that most are former Confederate POWs. They have pledged to serve the Union as Indian fighters as long as they don't have to make war on fellow Southerners.

To the already unstable major, being put in command of such troops is a crushing insult. And it doesn't help his state of mind when the Southerners' leader (played by Joseph Cotten) and an idealistic Union officer (played by Cornel Wilde) begin to show interest in the beautiful widow themselves. Kenniston soon embarks on a course of action guaranteed to alienate both the Indians and the Southerners -- and endanger the peace.

"Two Flags West" is a well plotted western, with events that flow from the characters' motivations instead of from a predictable plot. It's full of action, and its violence is grimly realistic for the time it was made.

Chandler is excellent as a complex, disastrous leader who inspires anger, pity and even some admiration in the viewer. Darnell, in one of her better roles, makes a convincing object of desire. Cotten and Wilde are fine, although they could have switched roles and still been just as effective.

Any fan of westerns ought to enjoy this a lot, and non-fans should give it a look.

Jeff Chandler is cast against type (and does a terrific job) in this big-budget western as the commander of a cavalry fort in the West during the Civil War who hates both Indians and Southerners with equal passion. With his command stripped to the minimum due to the Union's need for troops to fight the Civil War back east, Chandler is forced to accept a unit of Confederate prisoners who have volunteered to fight Indians under Union command as an alternative to rotting in POW camps. Chandler's all-consuming hatred and racism result in his killing the son of the local Indian chief, which causes the Indians to go on a rampage against the whites in the area, culminating in a massive attack against the fort itself. This is a dark, gritty and, considering the time in which it was made, brutally graphic and violent western that explores and exposes issues--racism, sexual tension, even a hint of mental illness--seldom, if ever, touched upon by westerns up to that time. The supporting performances by Joseph Cotten, Linda Darnell and especially the great--and always underrated--Arthur Hunnicutt are top-notch, but this really belongs to Chandler, and he does a tremendous job, as good as (and in some ways better than) what is usually considered to be his finest performance, that of Indian chief Cochise in "Broken Arrow" of a few years later. Chandler was never a particularly expressive or emotional actor--when he tried to be, the results sounded more like a lecture (his speech at the end of "Pillars of the Sky" is a case in point)--but his coldness works to his advantage here, which makes his bursts of anger and hatred all the more chilling. This is an intelligent and thoughtful yet also rousing and action-filled western, hardly your run-of-the-mill cavalry-vs.-Indians tale. I don't think this would be the kind of western John Ford would have made, and it's probably the better for it. Don't miss it.

Two Flags West begins with Confederate colonel Joseph Cotten given an offer to have his men get paroled from prison if they'll serve in the union army out west where the troops are stretched pretty thin. Over some objections he takes the offer from Captain Cornel Wilde.

Wilde takes Cotten and his men to Fort Thorn in the Southwest which is commanded by rebel hating and Indian hating Jeff Chandler. There's a good reason why this guy is in a backwater command as you'll see as the film unfolds. In addition there's Linda Darnell, wife of Chandler's late brother who was killed in the Civil War and who all three guys have their eyes on. But Chandler scares Darnell as well he should.

It was interesting to see Chandler whose career role was Cochise playing an Indian hater. But he does successfully put over the character. His Indian hating causes a lot of tragedy before the film is over.

Two Flags West is a brooding kind of western that's not for the squeamish. It's an exceptionally violent film that I'm not sure how it got through the Code. It's one of Jeff Chandler's best early roles, too bad Universal didn't cast him in more films like Two Flags West.

Civil War rivalries were popular story material for Westerns of this period. Here, the rivalry is used more effectively than usual. A contingent of Confederate pow's is sent west to help Yankees fight the Indians. Okay, but what guarantees that the Johnny Rebs won't desert to rejoin their Southern comrades. Well, nothing really, except the Southern commander Col. Tucker (Cotton) does have a sense of honor. He's going to need it since the Yankee fort commander (Chandler) is given to temper tantrums, to say the least. Throw in some angry Apaches and a lovely widow (Darnell) who'll do anything to get to California, and you've got some strong dramatic material.

It's a well-mounted movie from big budget TCF, with a great battle sequence and a surprising outcome. There's also realistic attention to battle detail inside the fort that helps lift the sequence. Then too, the wide open New Mexico locations convey the kind of scenic sense that I think Western fans so love. Meanwhile, Cotten and Wilde, a Union officer, play off one another effectively, signifying the opportunity for post-war reconciliation between North and South. It's also a fine supporting cast with a number of familiar faces, such as Hunnicutt and Beery Jr. But how did pudgy glad-hander Harry von Zell escape TV's Burns and Allen show to turn up in a Western, of all places. Nonetheless, he's shrewdly cast in what can only be called a slippery role.

Not all are aces. The complex narrative sometimes meanders, along with a few believability stretches. Nonetheless, add 'em all up and it's still a solid entry in the A-Western category.

Was Robert Wise making his version of a John Ford cavalry picture ? Ford had released 2/3 of his magnificent trilogy by then.

The emotionally resounding mythic backgrounds, complex characters, heart and quality ring true as if it almost belongs in that trilogy (Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande).

Recommended.