FightingWesterner Jim Bridger (Van Heflin) tries hard to hold together a fragile truce between the Sioux and a nearby Army fort, after a nasty, racist officer murders an Indian teenager, an officer whom Bridger suspects might be involved in a massacre some time before.Heflin and the rest of the cast, including Yvonne DeCarlo, Jack Oakie, Preston Foster, and a young Rock Hudson are all good. However, the real star of the show is the excellent, bright Technicolor photography. It's so nice to look at, it almost makes up for the picture's more by-the-numbers aspects and weak action scenes.Though nearly forgotten these days, the real-life Jim Bridger was a towering figure and very important to the history of the west. Even though this film isn't all that bad, he still deserves a better movie.

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.

gridoon2018 In "Tomahawk", the colors don't jump out from the screen like they do in many other Technicolor Westerns of its era; the film is more notable for its use of nature's wide open spaces, and for its unusually even-handed approach on the topic of "the red man vs. the white man" conflict. Van Heflin is solid as the man caught in the middle of the conflict, while Alex Nicol's character (almost disturbingly well played), with his psychopathic thirst for the slaughtering of Indians, draws parallels with the Nazis' "ethnic cleansing". Yvonne De Carlo has a rather insignificant part, but Susan Cabot is cute and expressive as a young Cheyenne "squaw". Not much action, but what there is is well done (if bloodless). **1/2 out of 4.

Tweekums Recently I've watched a few westerns that I'd not heard of until I saw them listed in the TV guide; most turned out to be enjoyable and this one turned out to be one of the best. Set in 1876 when the US Government wants to open a trail through Sioux territory; they are understandably wary as every previous treaty with the US Government has been broken. At the Treaty meeting a white man stands up for them; he is Jim Bridger a scout who is travelling with his friend Sol Beckworth and a Cheyenne woman called Monahseetah. No treaty is signed but Bridger tells the commanding officer that the Sioux will let them pass through there territory if none of them are harmed. Bridger has no intention of staying with the army but when Monahseetah sees one particular officer, Lt. Dancy, he takes the offer to act as a scout... clearly he has a score to settle with Dancy. Things turn bad pretty soon when Dancy murders an Indian boy he sees near their horses; he covers up his crime but another Indian who saw what happened escapes and it isn't long before they are attacked. Nobody is killed but one settler is wounded. Once in the fort Dancy claims the attack was unprovoked but Bridger just knows he is lying... it is only a matter of time before there is open warfare between the Cavalrymen in the fort and the Sioux.I was surprised just how much I enjoyed this film; there was plenty of exciting action, some of it exciting, some of it tragic; some tense moments and with the exception of Dancy there were no genuinely bad characters. The Sioux had clearly been wronged and had every right to fight back but the vast majority of the cavalry just wanted to live in peace and help the settlers through the territory. Dancy however was a real villain we learnt early on that he had only reenlisted in the army because he enjoyed the prospect of killing Indians and we later learn that earlier on he had been part of a group who had massacred a Cheyenne village including a woman who was Bridger's wife and Monahseetah's sister. It was refreshing not to see the Indians portrayed as 'savages' preying on 'innocent' settlers; even though the story follows people within the camp it is clear that our sympathies are meant to lie with the Sioux. Van Heflin puts in a fine performance as protagonist Jim Bridger and Alex Nicol is suitably unpleasant as the villain Dancy. If you are a fan of the western genre I definitely recommend watching this one!