The Horse Soldiers

source: The Horse Soldiers

Director John Ford was notably sentimental about the actors and crew who had worked with him over the years in his film 'family.' Among these was an old stunt man and western wrangler, Fred Kennedy. Against his better judgment, Ford gave Kennedy a stunt ride in "The Horse Soldiers." Kennedy's horse fell, breaking the old actor's neck. The scene was retained in the final cut. But Ford was broken-hearted with guilt.

For some reason, many critics and John Ford fans underrated this saga of the Grierson raid of 1863, in which 1700 Union cavalrymen galloped from Illinois to New Orleans to divert Confederate attention from Grant's Vicksburg campaign. I think it's one of Ford's best films, ranking with his Cavalry Trilogy. The action scenes are the best in any Civil War films and John Wayne's performance is perhaps the best of his career. I don't have any problem with the love story. William Holden is the same cynical character he is in so many films, (this was just two years after "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and here he is back in a war movie- one that ends with a bridge blowing up!). The sequence with the military academy is great. In the real battle of New Market, the Union forces did not spare the VMI cadets, who would have been older than these boys and were part of a larger Confederate force. One of the last scenes in the film contains tow forgivable historical errors. Dr. Holden is seen boiling his utensils. He tells Wayne that he is staying behind to care for the wounded even if it mean capture. Wayne asks "Even if it means Andersonville?" Holden answers "yes". Pasteur didn't determine the cause of infection until 1879. More Civil War soldiers died of their wounds after battle than during the battles precisely because Civil War doctors did not take the precautions Holden is shown taking here. The Andersonville prison camp was founded in February, 1864, to alleviate overcrowding at Libby Prison in Richmond and to remove the captees from the front lines. It didn't exist at the time of the Grierson raid. Obviously Ford and his writers felt Andersonville would raise an image of horror in the viewers that underscored the sacrifice Holden is making by staying.

THE HORSE SOLDIERS is directed by John Ford and stars John Wayne but anyone expecting something along the lines of THE SEARCHERS ( Not the master work it`s claimed to be ) is going to be very disappointed since the plot is very simple . Set during the civil war Col John Marlowe must lead an Union force to attack a confederate base and that`s the plot in a nutshell . It should also be pointed out that Marlowe`s force don`t actually reach the confederate base until well past the halfway point of the movie so up till that point there`s little in the way of action . There`s something that puzzled me in that Marlowe`s force face little if any opposition in reaching their target but find themselves besieged by the enemy on the return home . I`m slightly confused why that should be . Oh and if you`re not much of a Wayne fan ( which I`m not ) then you`ll not like his performance as John Marlowe simply because John Wayne more or less plays the same character in every movie he plays wether it be a tough cop ( McQ , BRANNIGAN ) , a special forces officer ( THE GREEN BERETS ) or a calvery officer ( Insert the name of nearly every western Wayne has appeared in ) which is a shame because there`s much potential for some strong on screen conflict between Marlowe and William Holden`s character Maj Hank Kendall A movie for Wayne and/or Ford fans . I guess we should all be thankful that there is no political right wing rhetoric to this movie

Made in the period between two John Ford masterpieces, The Searchers and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", it lacks the completeness of both as well as that wonderful, overarching grandness of a larger theme that enriches Ford's finest efforts. I think this movie works in many of its parts, even if the sum is less than we've come to expect from the director. The "Horse Soldiers" of the title are a Union cavalry company under command of Col. John Marlowe (John Wayne) who have to venture deep into southern territory to cut off confederate supply lines. Since they are our titular characters and because of the traditional slant of history on the war between the states, we would assume all our sympathies are supposed to be with the boys in blue. But Ford, a lifelong student of civil war history and a Yankee married to a flower of the southern aristocracy, does not ever really give either side the satisfaction of triumph (there are no decisively won battles in the film, only skirmishes and constant fight-and-flight) because he knows that there is no real victory in systematic destruction. Defeat, as usual in Ford films, is where more richness is to be found and by putting the Union army inside southern territory potential for casualties both mortal and moral is escalated. Neither side emerges unsoiled by their descent into what Col. Marlowe calls "this insanity". Southerners are often depicted as alternating clowns and gallant heroes; genteel (Russell Simpson) and degenerate (Strother Martin & Denver Pyle); compassionate and sadistic. The Union soldiers under Marlowe's command are a ragtag bunch, some out for personal glory (the politician, played brilliantly by Willis Bouchey who seemed made for such roles); misfits that found themselves in uniform while doing what comes most naturally to them: wreaking violence and killing (Judson Pratt);ordinary men who will do whatever their fellows do and will follow most anyone who leads; and Bill Holden's doctor - doctors being a tribe hated by Marlowe because of his own wife's death at their hands. Holden was perfect for the part of Dr. Kendall. No one may have played cynical like Holden and he does it well for the entire film. John Wayne's Col. Marlowe has to keep this disparate bunch in line, deal with his own disgust at being forced to destroy what he spent his whole life building up (the railroad--and by extension, his country)and on top of everything, he has to escort a most unwilling and uncooperative enemy lady and her servant. Needless to say, Marlowe has enormous pressures to pursue his objective, keep his temper and above all, keep these people alive. This tension fills the movie and along with the constant movement, keeps it from ever being static. This film is somewhat long but it moves. Nobody in the company likes Col. Marlowe much at all until deeper into the film when both Hannah and Holden's Dr. Kendall come to appreciate him and his paradoxes in their respective ways.

I know that many people hate nitpickers and viewers who have historical accuracy fetishes, but "The Horse Soldiers" is just begging for it. I grew up watching this movie and I'll confess loving it as a young boy obsessed by all things Civil War. This was "Gone With the Wind" for guys!!! Looking at it now, it really is SO romanticized. Sunsets and silhouetts galore. Like many older war movies, the hardships don't seem quite so hard and blood not so bloody. John Fords civil war looks down right fun!!!! Ford fancied himself somthing of an expert on the war, and set out to loosly chronicle a rather obscure expedition by Union Cavalry to harass and divert Confederate attention from Vicksburg Miss. Vicksburg was under siege by Grant and was a very desirable objective. As an all-around civil war buff, Ford wanted to squeeze in scenes that were vaguely reminicent of famous episodes from the war such as the charge of the cadets at New Market and a forlorn "Pickett's" type charge by the rebels at Newton Station. The latter being the most laughable attack scene. The rebels leap from boxcars and run screaming down the street. Way to go boys!!!! well coordinated!!! The Cadet sequence can only be described as cute but hardley resembles the carnage faced by the real cadets at New Market. As I said erlier, Ford's civil war looks fun!!! I don't care if people regard this as blasphemy, John Wayne was not a very good actor and certainly not a versatile one. The scene when he expresses condolences to Hannah Hunter on the death of her slave 'Lookey' is hilarious. And matched only in hilarity by the fact that rebel snipers, firing on the Union column, managed to only kill 'lookey'. Nice shooting boys!!!I'm laughing just writing this!!! Or the Confederate cannons that fire on the Union encampment and end up lobbing shells into the lake. If the real Confederacy had been as incompetent as John Ford's Confederacy, the war would have ended in a week!!! We live in the post Lee Strasburg/method acting world. As such if this movie were made now the actors would probably willingly sacrafice their glamorous Hollywood looks to achieve a period character. Ford's civil war seems to have been fought by Steve Reeves look alikes. I guess he didn't notice all those long beards in period photos (assuming he ever saw any.) I won't even go into those cheesy wardrobe dept. uniforms. On a serious note, this movie really is a sanitized version of the war. I don't mean just the battle scenes and hospital scenes but the social realities as well. Slavery is glossed over and we're offered only a peripheral view of this 'peculiar institution'. Ford reduces slaves to just another humorous Southern archetype, dim witted, slow, and only loosly connected to the war and it's outcome. Mere bit players in this cavalry caper. The two rebel deserters found hiding in a barn are also Ford's version of another humorous Southern archetype, uneducated yokels drinking moonshine. John Ford's "Waiting for Godot" I suppose.

The "...and I didn't kill either one of them..." speech is one of my favorite Wayne moments. Plainly past his conventionality, the Marlowe character gives breathtaking short shrift to the unending pettiness and fallibility he encounters; Kirby, Kendall, congressional wannabes, reb deserters et.al. It's an exemplar of the 'Duke' personna: dubious provenance, grand stature, indomitable purpose and a trace of sentiment. I'l put it with Searchers, Liberty', and Shootist (Wallace Beery impersonation in True Grit aside) as one of his best efforts. Ford's battle scenes are as usual patriotically free of blood and require no reflection but the imagery is great (you want to join the cavalry) and the detail outstanding. We hear the clanking of canteens and cookpots, an argument over the placement of latrines and see the only filmic presentation of the making of Sherman Neckties (warped rails). The Ford family is well represented though we miss Harry Carey Jr (and Paul Fixx must have been tied up with the Rifleman). If we had to have a love interest, Maureen Ohara could have at least tied this to "Rio Grande" and furthered the Ford library. Normally wonderful Bill Holden has only brief bright moments and is mostly going through the motions and hung-over here. Neither Wayne nor Ford were slouches when it came to curling whiskey but by his own admission Holden aggravated all and threatened production with reckless, drunken extracurriculae, breaking an arm falling from a bridge. This film was an inspiration in grade school and a guilty pleasure since.

Incredibly lame, and not representative of the genius of John Ford. Very unrealistic and contrived. Just about everything is wrong, militarily. Subordinates question just about every order of their commanding officer, the CO gets drunk in the middle of a raid, US Grant gets called by his nickname by subordinates, after doing well to disguise their intentions the Union soldiers give it all away by showing the towns people the direction they are headed. Then there are the sappy sentimentalities that devalue the movie even more. The doctor who doesn't seem to realise there is a war on, the irritating Southern woman who is just there as a very contrived love interest (and who should have been shot as a spy), the successful attack by a regiment of kids. Add in a few overblown characters that are there just to represent the types of people who fought in the Civil war: eg the politician- officer. Usual one-dimensional swagger-filled performance from John Wayne. William Holden is incredibly irritating as the doctor. Even more irritating is Constance Towers as the Southern woman. Hardly a good performance in the whole movie. The saddest thing is that the movie is loosely based on a real event, the Grierson Raid. Though the characters and many details have been changed, this movie is an insult to the memories of the men who took part in that raid.

The fields, woodlands and rivers of Tennassee drenched in summer sunlight are in stark contrast to the horrors of civil war as depicted in John Ford's "The Horse Soldiers". John Wayne's mission to lead a troop of Yankee soldiers behind Confederate lines to destroy a railway base vital to the South's supply lines is fraught with danger. Skirmishes inevitably result in injuries and death, the former often giving rise to amputations. Although made well before the time that the full appalingness of warfare come to be depicted in films such as "Saving Captain Ryan", from "Drums Along the Mohawk" onwards Ford never shirked the unpleasant. Incurable romantic that he was, he gave his work a hard edge whenever it was needed. Although the term "road movie" to categorise films based on journeys was not then in general usage, this fascinating work, with horses replacing cars, stands as one of the genres finest examples. And yet, judging from many of this site's user comments, it remains one of Ford's most under appreciated films. I find this rather strange as it contains most of the ingredients that are the hallmarks of those generally regarded as masterworks, westerns such as "The Searchers", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "My Darling Clementine", not forgetting his glorious Irish romp, "The Quiet Man". A shrew is tamed, there is a measure of drunken knockabout and the soundtrack pulsates with rousing cavalry tunes and bugle calls. I have no quarrel with the fact that it is episodic rather than tightly knit. This somehow makes it all the more compatible with its journeying structure. Each episode on the way is brought out in sharp relief, be it the Southern belle's false hospitality and attempted betrayal, the central climax at the railroad station or the delightful interlude of the attack by the boy soldiers from the Confederate military academy (one of my favourite sequences from any Ford film). John Wayne plays what is almost a variation on his Ethan role in "The Searchers", his anger here not vent on Indians but on the medical profession which he holds responsible for his wife's death. His embittered relationship with his company's medical officer played by William Holden gives this otherwise picaresque film a strong dramatic unity. I can only advise those who consider this one of Ford's minor works to see it several times. From my own experience I find it emerges stronger on each viewing.

The Horse Soldiers is one of many John Ford and John Wayne collaborations. Moreover, it is one of their better. The story involves a daring mission by union troops into the heart of the confederacy, in order to cut supply lines. Wayne is leading the daring plan. However, also going on the mission are an insolent surgeon (played by William Holden) and a Southern Belle, complete with slave (played by tennis star Althea Gibson). Where this film shines are in the excellent performances turned in by the big two stars. Rumor was that this film had many shutdowns and stoppages, the kind of thing that can make someone hornery. Well, you see that in the relationship between the Holden and Wayne characters, they genuinely despise each other. To me, this was one of Wayne's most underrated performances. He shows real emotion in his rather complex character. As usual, Holden is excellent. Being a Ford film, the story and scenery are both epic. Moreover, it does not take the Hollywood path towards the obvious. I really enjoyed this film and was anxious to see just how it would end.