Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

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

rogerblake-281-718819 In the early 1950's Hollywood made a spate of Civil War based westerns where the main plot line concerned Union and Confederate forces joining together to fend off native Americans.eg Films such as "Rocky Mountain" "The Last Outpost" and "Escape from Fort Bravo". Probably the best example is "Two Flags West".One wonders where they found the time to slaughter 620,000 of each other and is there any historical basis for such an occurrence? Certainly Lincoln did issue a proclamation offering pardons to any Confederate prisoners who were prepared to go west and fight the Indians.They became known as Galvanized Yankees. Here we have Colonel Clay Tucker (Joseph Cotton) excepting Captain Mark Bradford's (Cornel Wilde) offer of freedom from their prison camp if they will go and fight the Indians.The film here doesn't pull it's punches in depicting that conditions in Northern prisons were just as appalling as their Southern counterparts. When they reach Fort Thorn in New Mexico they receive a less than enthusiastic welcome.Their new commanding officer Major Henry Kenniston (Jeff Chandler) is a bitter man who hates rebels and traitors as he puts it.He also has an interest, not returned, in his dead brothers widow (Linda Darnel) There are the usual North/South tensions within the fort but Tucker is an honourable man who tries to do his duty.Kenniston's behaviour is so outrageous that eventually Tucker and his men decide to desert to Texas.Meanwhile Kenniston who by now is almost completely deranged commits murder when he shoots an Indian chief's son.The consequence of this is that the Indians lay siege to the fort. Captain Bradford escapes and rides after Tucker's men and explains the situation to them.Its no great surprise when Tucker and his Confederates decide to ride back to the fort to support the people there which includes women and children. A pitched battle follows which is magnificently staged though some reviews state that it was explicitly violent,perhaps but compared to "Soldier Blue" for example it is fairly restrained. Major Kenniston in a complete change of character agrees to give himself up to the Indians who will then leave peacefully and spare the fort.The scene where he walks through the gates into a mist is brilliantly done and one can only imagine the terrible death he must have suffered. It is a superbly done cavalry western and in all deference to John Ford a complete absence of knock about Irish humour is most welcome. The cast is superb, here we have Cornel Wilde in his last film for 20th Century Fox playing almost a supporting role being expendable.He was at his best as a team player in films like "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "Womens World".Jeff Chandler is a revelation, normally a fairly monolithic presence here he is quite chilling as a completely troubled man who at the end atones for his actions giving his life so that others may live.As for Joseph Cotton though usually associated with lounge suit roles here he is excellent as the decent and honourable Confederate Colonel,and lucky chap ,at he end he gets the girl the lovely Linda Darnel. As an added bonus the supporting cast contains such western icons as Dale Robertson,Jay C.Flippen,Noah Beery and best of all Arthur Hunnicutt. A wonderful western of the type they don't make any more where the premise is that you don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

JohnHowardReid Superbly photographed by ace cinematographer Leon Shamroy, and directed by Robert Wise with far more style than he was later to invest on The Sound of Music, this A-grade western seems to be largely forgotten, even by connoisseurs. True, the movie doesn't have what you would call an alluring 2013 cast. Joseph Cotten is first-billed, but the fans who flocked to see Joseph Cotten in Citizen Kane, The Third Man and Niagara were actually far more interested in Orson Welles or Marilyn Monroe (and were mightily encouraged to think that way by the advertising blitz that heavily promoted Welles or Marilyn and left Cotten in the dark. I remember Henry Hathaway once remarked that as far as audiences were concerned, Cotten was such a lightweight that he made little or no impression at all). Third-billed Linda Darnell made a terrific impact in Fallen Angel (1946) and then rose to fame in the title role of Forever Amber (1947). Although she was by far the most interesting wife in A Letter to Three Wives (1948), her career slipped. On the other hand, Jeff Chandler, Cornel Wilde, Dale Robertson and even Jay C. Flippen were on the way up. Indeed all the players here fit into their roles like the proverbial gloves. Production values also leave nothing to be desired, and, as noted above, Robert Wise's always stylish direction provides some really magnificent moments, including a compelling, full-of-action climax. The screenplay was written by Casey Robinson, who also produced. Frank S. Nugent and Curtis Kenyon wrote the original screen story which they based on a December 8, 1863 proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln which permitted Southern POWs to swear allegiance to the Union, thereby restoring their citizenship and right to own property (except slaves, of course). Over 6,000 Confederate prisoners obtained their freedom by joining the Union army to fight the Indians in the west – it being tacitly agreed that they would never be asked to turn their arms against the South. The film was released in New York at the Rivoli on 12 October 1950. U.K. release date was 4 December 1950.

dougdoepke Civil War rivalries were popular story material for Westerns of this period. Here, the rivalry is used more effectively than usual. A contingent of Confederate pow's is sent west to help Yankees fight the Indians. Okay, but what guarantees that the Johnny Rebs won't desert to rejoin their Southern comrades. Well, nothing really, except the Southern commander Col. Tucker (Cotton) does have a sense of honor. He's going to need it since the Yankee fort commander (Chandler) is given to temper tantrums, to say the least. Throw in some angry Apaches and a lovely widow (Darnell) who'll do anything to get to California, and you've got some strong dramatic material.It's a well-mounted movie from big budget TCF, with a great battle sequence and a surprising outcome. There's also realistic attention to battle detail inside the fort that helps lift the sequence. Then too, the wide open New Mexico locations convey the kind of scenic sense that I think Western fans so love. Meanwhile, Cotten and Wilde, a Union officer, play off one another effectively, signifying the opportunity for post-war reconciliation between North and South. It's also a fine supporting cast with a number of familiar faces, such as Hunnicutt and Beery Jr. But how did pudgy glad-hander Harry von Zell escape TV's Burns and Allen show to turn up in a Western, of all places. Nonetheless, he's shrewdly cast in what can only be called a slippery role.Not all are aces. The complex narrative sometimes meanders, along with a few believability stretches. Nonetheless, add 'em all up and it's still a solid entry in the A-Western category.

tmills777 I first saw this movie when it came out and it has remained my favorite cavalry movie of all time. Yes, even more than the great ones John Ford produced, but not by much. In this story a detachment of cavalry is called upon to defend the plains and west from the Indians who have taken advantage of the Civil War to wreak havoc among the settlers, trappers, and gold seekers. This unit, however, has former prisoners from the CSA, who have been remanded from prison to serve in the west with the Yankee cavalry. If one knows anything about prison conditions in the north or south during the war, it is not difficult to see why many southern prisoners opted for service against the Indians. During World War II, the Germans got many Europeans and Russian prisoners to fight for them as the alternative in prison camps was tantamount to death. This story centers around a fort commanded by Jeff Chandler character, who tricks an Indian chief, killing, I believe his son or brother. The enraged chief attacks the fort with overwhelming force and only when Jeff Chandler goes out of the fort to trade his life for those left in the fort, does the attack stop with his sacrificial death. After a relief column arrives at the fort, do the survivors learn that the war is over and the south has lost. An interesting bit of history and true. Unfortunately there was another aspect to the Indian wars on the plains that has received short shrift, and that is the service rendered by the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry regiments: the Buffalo soldiers; the all-black army units who served faithfully and with honor for over twenty years, trying to subdue a people who wanted to live free for the benefit of a government that treated these soldiers as second class citizens. To my memory, only two films have been made about these Buffalo soldiers, and both 30 years apart. Yes, Two Flags West ably covers the part that southern prisoners played in the settling of the west, but it has taken too long to tell the story of the black soldiers who, often facing discrimination within the army itself, and trouble from white settlers, still carried out their duty. I hope that this fine film, Two Flags West, will come out in VHS soon.