PodBill
Just what I expected
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Richie-67-485852
Richard Boone can carry a movie and here he is a major treat to behold. His character is course, wise and clear with just about everything making you instantly pay attention to everything he says and does. That's good acting and he pulls it off. Lots of familiar faces in this movie and you get a glimpse of what it was like in the start-up years of America out West. This point of view gives us the raw frontier, Indians, calvary, dust, death and some soap opera thrown-in which I had some trouble with along with the strong points of violence and sexual overtones. It opens right to the point with a scene that everyone can identify with which has an impact and sets the tone for the movie. Not a perfect story being told but it does capture the attention of the viewer all the way to the end. Another nice point of view presented very well is the difference between class room education and real life experience. There is a scene that can be read two different ways with one way being entirely wrong. The point made is that you don't get second chances out here and being wrong is not allowed if you want to survive. This point is drilled into everyone courtesy of Boones character. Good life lesson. I usually recommend eating while watching a movie. Here, a light snack is recommended with a tasty drink. Note: how this remote outpost is in the middle of nowhere but contains unto itself a complete snapshot of all the elements of human nature. Also, be aware that this movie has moral points made but shown by breaking them instead of preventing them which is probably why movie-goers rejected this when it first came out. The movie audience probably said: too much too soon and this movie went into the background. Forward HOOOOO
bkoganbing
It's usually a bad sign for a western when a title is given that has nothing to do with the story. There's no thunder and no Indian war drums. But A Thunder Of Drums is a nice combination of soap opera and horse opera.Richard Boone is one bitter commander of a forgotten frontier outpost in post Civil War Texas and has George Hamilton a new young lieutenant from the east assigned when he wanted someone with a little frontier experience. But there seems to be more than that in his hostility toward Hamilton.As for Hamilton he doesn't help his own cause by immediately taking up with Luana Patten who is the fiancé of James Douglas another lieutenant on the post. Hamilton has history with Patten and he's looking to write a few new chapters.But in the last 45 minutes of the film it's all cavalry business as Boone seeks to destroy a band of hostiles in the area and try to make sure the right tribe is blamed for some recent raids. It's a bitter school for his young officers Hamilton, Douglas and Richard Chamberlain.A Thunder Of Drums is based on a story from western writer James Warner Bellah who was the source of the famous John Ford classic cavalry western Fort Apache. Some similarities in some of the characters are present here. They're not romanticized though in the way John Ford would do. Such people as Arthur O'Connell as the first sergeant and troopers Slim Pickens and Charles Bronson have some small parts. Bronson who does not last long as Hamilton's orderly tries to tempt him in small ways. Definitely he's not a John Ford type character.A Thunder Of Drums is a gritty western with good performances from the ensemble cast.
thesimpsons2222
Joey's comments above are spot on. And you should also notice the visual style of the film: scenes in the fort tend to be in tones of grey or blue, cavalry colours, but most scenes throughout the film have a detail picked out in bright red - clothing, books, drinks,and, finally blood. Compositions are also distinctive: two shots often have one figure closer to the camera, some medium shots have an over-the-shoulder angle. For those who like that kind of thing, there is an interesting Oedipal theme, and the film centres on the rite of passage of the central figure,played by George Hamilton, appropriately vain and self-regarding. Women are sacrificed and marginalised ruthlessly, and there is a further theme about children which I couldn't quite work out.The cavalry/Indians structure is the peg on which a thoughtful narrative has been hung; even the killing scenes avoid the some of current excesses, and there are hints that the Indians have their own culture which the cavalry officers learn to recognise - and exploit. The inferior technology of the Indians is clearly a factor in their defeat.It will be a shocking day when the US Cavalry meet an indigenous population which is tactically and technologically their equal, won't it?
Bob-45
Indians attack settlers. Undermanned cavalry tracks Indians. Indians massacre cavalry. Cavalry massacres Indians.This lurid, routine programmer, would be entirely forgettable, except for two extraordinary performances. Richard Boone portrays the Cavalry Commander, with the kind dignity, sensitivity and intensity which only Richard Boone could give. Charles Bronson plays a dirty minded, foul mouthed, but surprisingly noble corporal. For these two performances alone, see the movie.
