SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Konterr Brilliant and touching

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

James Hitchcock The "Indian Fighter" of the title is Johnny Hawks, a man who made his name fighting Indians. The film, however, does not deal with this part of Hawks's career. The Hawks we see here is more of an Indian Peacemaker, a man determined to prevent war from breaking out between the Indians and the white man. He is tasked with leading a wagon train to Oregon, and this promises to be a difficult task, as the wagons must pass through Sioux territory at a time of tension between the Sioux and the whites. Gold has been discovered on Sioux land, but its whereabouts is currently known only to Indians themselves. Worried about the prospect of an influx of white American gold prospectors, the Sioux leader Red Cloud has decreed death to any of his people who dare reveal the secret of the gold to the whites. Hawks's task is made more difficult by the facts that his party includes two unscrupulous gold-hungry individuals, Chivington and Todd, and that some of the Indians, particularly the whiskey-crazed Crazy Bear, are prepared to defy their leader's edict, even at the risk of their lives. A complicating factor is Hawks's love for Red Cloud's beautiful daughter Onahti. Hollywood's traditional view of the American Indians were that they were primitive, bloodthirsty savages and that the opening up of the North American continent to settlement by the white man was simply part of the march of progress and of the triumph of civilisation over barbarism. Films were still being made from this viewpoint in the 1950s- the Gregory Peck vehicle "Only the Valiant" is a good (or bad) example- but occasionally Hollywood did acknowledge, in Westerns such as "Broken Arrow" or "Apache", that there was another side to the story. "The Indian Fighter", which was produced by its star, the politically liberal Kirk Douglas, is another example. When Hawks points out that the Indians could exchange the gold for things that they value, such as horses and blankets, Red Cloud retorts that to do so would mean losing things that they value even more highly, such as the right to live undisturbed on their ancestral land. Although there are bad Indians, such as Crazy Bear, the general message of the film is that westward spread of white settlement may have represented Manifest Destiny and the advance of civilisation to the white man himself, but to the red man it represented an unwelcome intrusion into his world and the loss of all that he held sacred. The use of the name "Chivington" for one of the villainous whites is significant; the Chivington of this film is a fictional character, but his name is borrowed from the real-life John Milton Chivington, a US Army officer infamous for his obsessive hatred and brutal treatment of Native Americans. As in "Broken Arrow", the main Indian characters are played by white actors. In the case of Onahti, played by the Italian Elsa Martinelli, this may have been to keep the censors happy; the Production Code officially banned the depiction of what it called "miscegenation", but there seemed to be an unofficial rule that relationships between white men and Asian or Native American women were tolerated if the woman was played by a white actress. ("Broken Arrow" also features a romance between a white man and an Indian maiden, played in that case by Debra Paget). In the case of the male characters, however, I could not understand why Native American actors could not be found, especially as the white actors who play these parts were not (unlike Jeff Chandler in "Broken Arrow") major box-office names. I would not rank this film as highly as "Broken Arrow", which is one of the seminal Westerns of the fifties. Douglas made a good number of Westerns, but apart from the modern-day "Lonely are the Brave" and possibly "Gunfight at the OK Corral" I would not regard any of the ones I have seen as falling among his really great films like "Champion", "Lust for Life" and "Spartacus". There is nothing wrong with his performance here, but he never really catches fire as he could do when he was at his best. The action scenes are well-handled, but the plot is not the most exciting and the Onahti sub-plot is a bit of a distraction. This is perhaps a middle-ranking Douglas Western, rather better than, say, "The Big Trees", but not as good as "Along the Great Divide", and certainly not as good as "Lonely are the Brave" or "Gunfight at the OK Corral". 6/10

LeonLouisRicci This is an Odd Combination of Light Hearted Playfulness Punctuated with Plenty of Sex and Violence. Ramped Up Sex and Violence for the 1950's. it is Also Elevated by some Themes Only Found in the Best of the Genre until the Code was Eliminated.It has Social Concerns about the Environment and Treatment of the Indians. The Violence is Brutal at Times with some Very Bloody and Edgy Portrayals of Scalping, Knifing, and has One or Two Scenes that are Remarkable in the Aftermath of some Sioux Arrows.There is an Interracial Romance, Semi-Nudity, Rape, and an Attack on the Fort that shows the Intelligence and Resourcefulness of the Indians. There is also a Subplot about the New Invention of Photography and the Film's Cinematography is CinemaScope Sensuous. Some Drawbacks Include Weak White Bad Guys, another 1950 Inclination to have an Obligatory Whiny Kid, and a Intrusive Score from Frank Waxman. Overall, Above Average, Cutting Edge, and Entertaining. Recommended for Western Buffs and this would Fit in Nicely for Fans and Followers of Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher, and Sam Fuller.

Spikeopath We are at the end of the US civil war, Johnny Hawks, a renowned Indian fighter, is at peace with the Sioux and wants to rebuild his life, even romance with the chiefs daughter is in the offering. But as the peace between the US and the Indians is being brokered, two greed driven Whiskey traders usurp everything due to their greed for Indian gold up in the hills. So just as Hawks leads a wagon train through Sioux territory on the way to Oregon, war has again been declared, with Hawks coming under suspicion of favouring the Indians.Directed by André De Toth and starring Kirk Douglas {Hawks}, Walter Matthau, Lon Chaney Jr, Elisha Cook Jr and the outrageously beautiful Elsa Martinelli, The Indian Fighter, if I may be so bold? Is vastly undervalued on certain internet sites! Just about breaking the mold of its B movie feel, it's a piece that with a little bit of intelligence from the casting department, could have been a far better picture. The American cast do fine, but in amongst this splendidly shot picture (and it is), we have to suffer none Indian actors playing excellently written Sioux Indian characters. It's such a shame because here it's a delight to see the Sioux portrayed as a complex and resourceful race, not just in dialogue exchanges, but in a quite exhilarating attack on a US Fort, the use of horses for a disguise operation, and the method of attack {hello, it's a wooden Fort} shows them to have a bit more about them than the cannon fodder they were often portrayed as in many lower grade Westerns.It's still one fine entertaining film tho!Kirk Douglas leads the way with a typically ebullient genre show that he was especially good at, a different kind of hero is given just about the right amount of credibility from Douglas, who is in turn backed up by Chaney and Matthau who appear to be revelling in playing slimy characters. André De Toth is a director who has a couple of bona fide classics on his CV, not a name that is mentioned often, but his construction of a story and his excellent staging of the action on offer here, ensures that I personally will be seeking out more of his efforts. Last but by no means least, one has to mention the delightful work from cinematographer Wilfred M. Cline, who gleams the best from the Bend, Oregon location shoot, to round out The Indian Fighter as one hugely enjoyable genre piece. 7/10

KyleFurr2 Just four years after making this movie Andre De Toth goes on to make Day Of The Outlaw with Robert Ryan and Burl Ives which was a much better film than this one. Kirk Douglas plays a man called the Indian fighter but has a better relationship with the Indians than his name might suggest. The Indians just want to be left alone and don't want any white men like Walter Matthau and Lon Chaney Jr. selling whiskey for gold to any Indians. Matthau is caught by the Indians and almost killed but Douglas fights one of the leaders to save him. Douglas winds up falling in love with an Indian played by Elsa Martinelli and this is looked down upon. The movie goes by pretty quickly at 88 minutes and it does have a good cast that also has Alan Hale Jr. and Elisha Cook Jr.