Most excellent Western with a unique set of ingredients all designed to entertain and give rise to several emotions. This one has so much going on too. Indians, their culture, US Calvary, horses, dust, whiskey, civil war, forts, good and bad guys and a love story all done very well. This movie has part Last of the Mohicans, The Naked Prey and a mix of several other familiar themes scene in many Westerns over the years. Their are several highlights worthy to mention. The feelings of the South after losing the war dialog is potent and accurate so listen up. Great scene of Lee surrendering to Grant (with tears) and respect on all sides. then there is the Indian way, their beliefs and point of view. If that is not enough, the US Calvary wants to develop the West and set up forts and approaches the subject humbly. This movie had me riveted to the screen as there was so much going all entertaining that I didn't want it to end. Even the end music played out very well helping you to accept the ending. Good movie to eat beef jerky, a sandwich and a tasty drink. Also worth mentioning is all your favorite and familiar TV and movie stars are in this one looking and sounding good earning their paychecks as well as all being destined for long careers too. Run of the Arrow...thank you to all involved here. Mount-up

Director/Writer Sam Fuller Always had a lot on His Mind and He wasn't going to let Hollywood or a Low-Budget Stop Him. His Movies are Unique, Interesting, and Entertaining. This One is No Exception, in Fact it is Exceptional. Showing itself to be one of the Best in the Glut of 1950's Westerns, if Anything it is Ambitious to a Fault.The Film can Hardly Contain all the Thoughts and Impressions that Fuller Included, but it is a Glorious Time Watching this Exciting, Rich, and Colorful Story that Has more Authenticity and Audacity in its Short Running Time than a John Ford Trilogy.Rod Steiger's Miscasting that at Times Feels so out of Place, cannot Stop the Movie from Relentlessly Reeling Out Scene After Visceral Scene, with Near Naked, Painted-Up, and Red Skinned Indians with Dialog so Cooked that the Film is Danger of Boiling Over on Occasion. But it Quickly Moves to Another Bloody Set-Piece of Suspense and Action to Counter-Point the Dense Dialog.Ralph Meeker, Brian Keith, J.C. Flippen, Charles Bronson, and Sara Monteil all Contribute to the Movie's Presence. It is a Violent, Thoughtful, and Even Handed Western with Strains of Southern Post War Resentment, Native American Plight, Religious Tolerance, Traditional Rituals, some Brutal Nastiness, an Atypical Ending and More. All Packed in this B-Movie that is as Good as it gets in the Fifties and is Another Feather in the Oversized Sam Fuller Cap.

If proof was needed that Rod Steiger could be the proverbial ham, then simply watch an early scene from Run of the Arrow (1957) where he talks to his mother about honour. This scene encapsulates everything that was wrong with Steiger as an actor unrestrained by the guiding force of a strong director.Rod Steiger yet again gives us another dodgy accent that sounds like his character spent the American Civil War years vacationing in Pakistan.This is not the first time Steiger has ruined a movie by using his assumed talent for accents. Napoleon comes to mind. I for one, believe Rod Steiger ruined Sergio Leone's Duck, You Sucker (1971) with another irritatingly dodgy accent. Had Eli Wallach been given the role of Juan Miranda as was originally intended, the film could have been regarded as yet another undisputed Leone classic.The problem with Steiger as an actor was that he was uncharismatic. He had no natural charm, so it was hard to empathise with any sympathetic character he played.Rod Steiger's talent was for playing larger than life characters with unpleasant characteristics such as Gilespie in "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) or Komarovsky in "Doctor Zhivago" (1965). Playing a hero and a charming one at that was not within Steigers' range.This film might be the first to use "squibs" but so what? It still used painted-up Caucasians as the featured Indians, so I don't think it was that ahead of its time.This is a terrible movie that becomes unwatchable as soon a Steiger opens his mouth.

Watched this the other day and it was an interesting Cavalry vs. Indian (Sioux) film taking place before the establishment of Ft. Abraham Lincoln, and Custer. Steiger (who personally I think sucks at accents) plays a Confederate soldier with a weird Irish/Southern accent who fires the last shot in the Civil War, at Ralf Meeker, who he wounds.He basically refuses to surrender after Appomattox and heads off to the Northern Great Plains along the way he befriends an old Sioux cavalry scout, and he undergoes the ritual "run of the arrow" and becomes accepted by the tribe, where he continues the fight against the US.During the negotiations with the Sioux over establishing posts to separate settlers (keeping them off the hunting grounds) traveling West and the natives their chief, played by Charles Bronson, and the chief cavalry engineer played by Brian Keith they agree to select Steiger as chief Sioux scout for the expedition, not all of the Sioux are in concert with this. Keith and Steiger sort of hit it off but Meeker is a hot headed second in command who after Keith is hit by a renegade arrow decides to locate the new post in a different location than agreed, to igniting a war.Its an interesting take on the subject and the film is worth a watch but its nothing outstanding.