How sad is this?

Admirable film.

A Masterpiece!

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

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

..Bachelors make the best soldiers, all they have to lose is their loneliness.A Thunder of Drums is directed by Joseph Newman and written by James Warner Bellah. It stars Richard Boone, George Hamilton, Luana Pattern, Arthur O'Connell, Charles Bronson, Richard Chamberlain, Duane Eddy and Slim Pickens. Out of MGM it's filmed on location at Old Tuscon & Sabino Canyon in Arizona, and also at Vasquez Rocks, California. It's filmed in CinemaScope and Metrocolor, with cinematography by William W. Spencer and music scored by Harry Sukman."There are three things a man can do to relieve the boredom of these lonely one troop posts: He can drink himself into a straight-jacket: He can get his throat cut chasing squaws: Or he can dedicate himself to the bleak monastic life of a soldier and become a great officer."It's proved to be a divisive film amongst Western aficionados, and it's not hard to understand why. The film begins with a pre credit sequence of suggested savagery, a real attention grabber, then the credits role and the colour and vistas open up the story. From here we are placed into the lonely and fretful life at a cavalry fort in the Southwest. The company consists of tough grizzled Captain Maddocks (Boone) who carries around a burden from his past, his ire further inflamed by the arrival of greenhorn Lt. Curtis McQuade (Hamilton). He needs experienced men, not fresh faced kids, and McQuade isn't helping himself by being involved in a love triangle with Lt. Thomas Gresham's (James Douglas) lady, Tracey Hamilton (Patten). This coupled with the threat imposed by the Indians puts strain on all involved at Fort Canby. And there's the crux of the matter, the film is more interested with character dynamics than breaking out into an action packed B ranked Western.Newcomers to the film should prepare for a talky picture, but it is a very good talky picture. Sure there's action, including a well staged battle in the final quarter (check out those Apache suddenly appearing from the rocks like ghosts!), but this is a film that is being propelled by dialogue, well written dialogue. There is no point in saying that it's well cast because it isn't, Boone is immense and intense and gets the best dialogue of all, but Hamilton is miscast and Patten totally unconvincing. Pickens is hardly in it and Bronson has a character that could be any number of things; someone who it's hard to know if we should dislike or cheer on. While Chamberlain and Eddy are in it to look nice and play the banjo respectively. Yet with the photography suitably keeping the landscape arid and harsh, and the mood around the base one of impending death or boredom (even the levity of a drunken sequence only enforces what little joy is around), the film has much going for it by way of psychology.It's no "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" of course, and its problems are evident, but it does have merits, and if for nothing else it deserves a look for Boone's excellent performance. 7/10

Very fine western from the days when MGM ruled Hollywood. It was the premier studio in Hollywood with a great staff of technical professionals and a group of young contract players all of whom would reach stardom, some super stardom: George Peppard, Paula Prentiss, Richard Chamberlain, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton, Linda Evans. Jim Hutton, Dolores Hart ( who would become a cloistered nun!) and Luana Patten. et al MGM also had the best and biggest back lot in the Industry and instead of making it a money making venture as Universal did with its back lot, MGM sold the back lot to real estate developers!George Hamilton and Luana Patten of the MGM stock company join Richard Boone in this great tough western. Richard Chamberlain has a small pivotal role but soon would become very famous as Dr. Kildare and reap in more fan mail per week -15,000 letters-than Clark Gable did at his peak at MGM! Richard Chamberlain for a few years was MGM's biggest star.See this movie and enjoy a scenic western with a fine cast.

I have a soft spot for b-movies and random westerns. This one is a run-of-the-mill cavalry vs. Indians job that suffers from uneven pacing, a miscast lead role, and over-reliance on formula plot elements. But there are a few interesting points that make it worth watching.One of its chief virtues is the excellent job it does of capturing the day to day flavor of life in a remote cavalry outpost in 1870s southwest. The military manners, habits, and routines are portrayed with convincing detail. The class stratification between enlisted men and officers is utterly real. An early scene with dead soldiers being transported on horseback is played to grim, nauseating effect, with enlisted men displaying hardened indifference and black humor about the situation. All of this gives the film some weight and veracity.On the other hand, it suffers from generic Hollywood artificiality, relying unthinkingly on shoot 'em up conventions of faceless Indians, and sporting a formulaic romantic triangle subplot. Another major problem is George Hamilton's performance. The character he plays is not particularly sympathetic or likable, and he does nothing to bring depth to it. He's unappealingly flat and cocky. A better actor in this key role would've gone a long way toward breathing some life into the film, especially in its flabby, tedious midsection.But the real reason to watch this film is Richard Boone. I've liked him in just about everything I've seen him in, but here he is completely riveting. He plays the tough, smart, experienced commander of the undermanned outpost. He's a lonely man, who feels keenly the burden of his job. Late in the film there's a scene where he discovers a scene of carnage, with a number of his men dead, and his controlled rage is very moving. He brings the only real gravitas and feeling to the movie, effectively communicating the weight of life & death decisions and consequences. He's absolutely terrific.