Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

zardoz-13 Veteran western director George Sherman's "Tomahawk" qualifies as a predictable but entertaining, Blue coats versus the Redskins horse opera. Van Heflin toplines this Technicolor tale as a savvy cavalry scout, Jim Bridger, who aligns himself with the U.S. Calvary but argues on behalf of the Indians. Bridger has young Native American daughter, but his wife is dead. Universal Pictures forged his 1951 oater in the mold of Delmar Daves' landmark epic "Broken Arrow." The Native Americans aren't just bloodthirsty savages howling for scalps. The Sioux Indians have suffered bitterly at the hands of treacherous whites, and "Tomahawk" presents them from a sympathetic perspective. The Black Hills of South Dakota scenery is rugged but beautiful, and Sherman paces the action so it doesn't wear out its welcome. Despite its lofty sentiments toward the Indians, "Tomahawk" is still a conventional dust raiser. Yvonne De Carlo plays the love interest that hates the heroic scout initially and hangs around a despicable cavalry officer played with villainous verve by Alex Nicol. Look closely and you'll spot a young Rock Hudson as a cavalry corporeal. "Rancho Notorious" scenarist Silvia Richards and "Love Me Tender" scribe Maurice Geraghty incorporate the historically infamous Fetterman massacre where the cavalry are lured into an ambush. Aside from its pro-Indian stance, "Tomahawk" observes all the conventions of the genre, but its chief virtue is the offbeat casting of Heflin as the hero. Jack Okie is squandered in a supporting role as a cavalry scout who tags along with Jim Bridger. The love interest between Bridger and Yvonne De Carlo's character is never resolved. In a sense, the Indians win because a new treaty is negotiated and the cavalry are ordered to abandon their fort which the Sioux promptly burn. The characters are all one-dimensional. Although this western packs no surprises, Sherman has done an efficient job of making it.

romanorum1 Many of the 1950s Westerns – the height of the genre – were filmed in spectacular Technicolor that brings out marvelous scenery. They are so beautiful, and Universal Studios really displayed superior photography with "Tomahawk." The movie's opening shows a peace conference between the US cavalry and the Sioux in 1866. The conference ends inconclusively as the US peace commission bargains in bad faith. The Indians want the Bozeman Trail (from Wyoming to Montana) and its trail fortresses closed; the army wants them to remain open. Jim Bridger says the alternate trail (Bridger Trail) to the Montana gold strike takes only two days longer, but to no avail. Thus we have the plot: another conflict between the red man and the white.The movie can generally be highlighted by quick bullet points that are historically accurate. • Laramie Peace Conference of 1866 • Sand Creek Massacre of Colonel Chivington (who disregarded Black Kettle's flying of the American flag, mentioned but not seen in the film, 1864) • Encroachment on Indian Territory, the Powder River country • The mechanical grass-cutting machine that held up Carrington (mentioned, but not seen in the movie) • Personal conflicts between Carrington and Fetterman. • The Fetterman Massacre (1866) – American Indian victory (over the Lodge Trail Ridge) • The Wagon Box Fight (1867) – US Cavalry victory (use of quick breech-loading rifles) • The abandonment of the trail forts in 1868.It is pleasant to see a movie with historical events fairly accurately portrayed, even though some errors creep in. For instance, Bridger's time was past before 1866, and Fetterman was a colonel, not a captain. The most glaring error is the film's unfortunate overseas title, "The Battle of Powder River." The historian will note that the Powder River fight occurred against the Cheyenne in 1876. The film's beginning is 1866, and ten years certainly did not pass in the course of the movie. So the overseas title is a misnomer. Then again, the Indians are played by natives (except for the Cheyenne Monahseetah by Susan Cabot), and are portrayed sympathetically: as people who really want to live in peace but who are faced with an impossible situation. At the same time, the Indians were not flawless. But they were tough fighters who were brought down by greater numbers, superior technology, and the elimination of the buffalo. In this movie, though, they come out as winners. And it is an historical fact that the US did yield the Bozeman Trail and its forts in 1868. The casting is well done: Van Heflin plays famous scout Jim Bridger who liked Indians, while Jack Oakie is his sidekick Sol Beckworth. Susan Cabot plays the Indian girl, Monahseetah, who witnessed the Sand Creel Massacre, and Yvonne De Carlo is Julie Madden, part of Dan Castello's Medicine Show (Castello is Tom Tully). John War Eagle plays the famous Indian chief, Red Cloud. Alex Nicol is Lt. Rob Dancy, an Indian-hater who accompanied Chivington on his massacre, and Preston Foster is a sensible US Cavalry colonel who built Ft. Phil Kearney. Arthur Space plays a hot-headed Fetterman who led his men to total disaster, and Rock Hudson, in an early supporting role, is Corporal Hanna.

Spikeopath Battle of Powder River (AKA: Tomahawk) is directed by George Sherman and adapted for the screen by Sylvia Richards & Maurice Geraghty from a story by Daniel Jarrett. It stars Van Heflin, Yvonne de Carlo, Alex Nicol, Preston Foster, Jack Oakie, Tom Tully, John War Eagle and Susan Cabot. It's a Technicolor production filmed on location in the Black Hills of Dakota, with music by Hans J. Salter and photography by Charles P. Boyle."This is the Laramie Conference. A powder keg that may explode at any moment. It would take little to light the fuse. There are important and powerful men here. On one side the leaders of the Sioux nation-on the other representatives of the United States. But on this day it will take a great man to see both sides-Jim Bridger: pioneer, trapper and scout, is such a man."Coming a year after Delmer Daves' excellent and similarly themed Broken Arrow, Battle of Powder River appears to have been lost in the mix of Westerns sympathetic to the Indians. Much like Broken Arrow, and for that matter Devil's Doorway (1950) as well, this is propelled by a magnetic and strong central lead performance. Van Heflin as Jim Bridger gives the film a believability factor, important for a film that's based around historical events in Montana Territory 1876/7. Thankfully the film built around Heflin isn't too bad either. The plot essentially involves Bridger, a man who married a Cheyenne woman, caught in the middle of an impending war between the Indians and the American military. The army are ordered to build a road and fort on land previously ceded to the Sioux by a previous treaty. This they want to do because of gold having been discovered in the Dakota's. Bridger sets about trying to keep peace but is undermined by personal conflicts and violent bigots like Lieut. Rob Dancy (and effective rascal turn by Alex Nicol).Naturally for a film of this type, budget, era and running time, it's not an actual history lesson, so folk should not expect as such. But the makers are thoughtful as regards the events of the time and neatly tell their story via the fluctuating perspectives of the characters standing either side of the brewing conflict. It's also nicely shot by Sherman (The Battle at Apache Pass/Comanche) and Boyle (Horizon's West/Gunsmoke), the location work integral to the plot so as to understand what these people were ultimately fighting for. While Salter scores it in standard Cavalry Vs Indians style. The minor problems come with de Carlo's character and the shortness of the action. The former, admittedly lovely in Technicolor, serves only as romantic surplus who does a real dumb thing, and the latter is annoying since Sherman was more than capable of crafting exciting action (for example see the finale of The Battle at Apache Pass). Here the final battle of the title is swift and basically a compilation of charge and be felled sequences, while a buffalo scene is all too brief and only hints at what excitement could have been garnered from that passage of play. Annoyances for sure, but not enough to drag the piece down to B movie fodder territory.Although it's trumped by two, thematically similar and better movies the previous year, the story, Heflin and the scenery make this a must see for the Western fan. 7.5/10

NewEnglandPat Universal's western is an entertaining cavalry-Indian affair that details the frontier adventure from the point of view of famed scout Jim Bridger. The film recounts the usual treaty-breaking by whites that despoils the Indians' hunting grounds, the conflicts of which lead to war between the Sioux tribes and the troopers. Two major battles, the Fetterman engagement and the Wagon-Box Fight are touched on as well as tensions caused by an Indian-hating lieutenant. The lush, beautiful country and wild buffalo herds lend authenticity to the story and keep the film moving at a good clip. Van Heflin is sincere as the scout who knows Indians and understands their grievances. Yvonne De Carlo is striking as Bridger's love interest although an Indian girl complicates matters a bit. The cast is good, especially John War Eagle as Red Cloud. Hans Salter contributes a nice traditional western music score.