A Time for Killing
A Time for Killing
| 01 August 1967 (USA)
A Time for Killing Trailers

During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers escape from a Union prison and head for the Mexican border. Along the way, they kill a Union courier bearing the news that the war is over. Keeping the message a secret, the captain has his men go on and they soon find themselves in a battle with the Union search party who also is unaware of the war's end.

Reviews
ThedevilChoose

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

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Megamind

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

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Abegail Noëlle

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

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Billy Ollie

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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RanchoTuVu

A strange film about Confderate escapees led by George Hamilton, chased by a troop of Union mounted infantry led by Glenn Ford, with Ford's fiancé, Inger Stevens, a captive of the Confederates. Max Baer stands out as a crazed sadistic killer under Hamilton's command. Set somewhere out in southwestern Texas as the Civil War is ending, actually ends during the film, these guys carry on the fight into Mexico. There is no excuse for the idiotic editing that disjoints the whole thing, but overall it's fair to better-than-fair as a 60s violent-type western with serious sexual undertones, thanks to Inger Stevens and her part. Maybe not Phil Karlon's best film, but sets the situation of revenge over Stevens pretty well. None of the characters seem to act as if they believe in what they're saying, a definite drawback, but the cinematography is captivating and the take on the Civil War is one-of-a-kind.

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DKosty123

While watching this, was not surprised to see Roger Korman was involved though not credited. It appears that the script makes less sense than many of the horror films Roger was known for. Glenn Ford is mixed with Jethro Bodine (Max Baer) and Harrison Ford (Hans Solo) and Inger Stevens, and attractive actress who is only a few short years from committing suicide by a drug overdose. This script has less quality than Baer's production -Macon County Line.I do not think this film was supposed to turn out this way, it just kind of happens for no reason. Set after the end of the Civil War, it seems every bad guy tries to give her a raw deal. She is pretty crude in her answer It is kind of fun to see the cast in this one. Besides that I would avoid a historic blender. There is a lot happening here without a safety net, but it is harmless though the sweating actors on screen would not indicate it.

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classicsoncall

I'm sitting here trying to come up with some insightful things to say about this picture but I'm coming up blank. For me it was a so-so cavalry Western with a Civil War backdrop, and what I found interesting more so than the story was a handful of observations made along the way about the way the picture was filmed. Like, was it possible to have a woman as gorgeous as Inger Stevens show up at a Union prison camp as the fiancée of a commanding officer (Glenn Ford)? Now I don't know when eye shadow was invented, but the blue highlights in Emily Biddle's eyes managed to be an early distraction.Another distraction was the casting of Max Baer Jr. in the role of a lunkhead Confederate soldier under the command of Captain Dorritt Bentley (George Hamilton). His character Luther was a goof-ball maniac, and if that seems an oxymoron, then you need to see him in the role. It would be similar to watching Jethro Bodine as the title character in "Raging Bull". Try to picture that.So the main premise here is that the Civil War is over but known only to Captain Bentley and Luther when a Union dispatch rider is accosted by Luther in a saloon dust-up. Already on the run from a prison break, Bentley's rage as a Confederate knows no bounds after his soldiers take Miss Biddle hostage. His pent up hostility results in the rape of his captive, so when the Major eventually catches up with the rag-tag bunch, she keeps the War's end a secret to serve her own desire for revenge.Gosh, there's a glaring continuity gaffe in the filming and I'm surprised no one else mentioned it either in the reviews or on the edits page. When Captain Bentley attacks Miss Biddle he savagely rips off the back of her dress exposing her entire back. Yet just a few scenes later when Major Wolcott (Ford) arrives on the scene, she's shown wearing the same dress with no hint of damage or repair. I can't imagine why no one connected with the film wouldn't have made mention of it because it was such an obvious lack of continuity. Thinking about it, I almost missed the bruise on Emily's face changing size and color in the scenes that followed.

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Robert J. Maxwell

In 1865, somewhere out West, around Las Cruces, a band of Confederate prisoners led by George Hamilton escape from a Yankee fort with missionary Inger Stevens as hostage. They head for the safety of Mexico. They are pursued by a unit of Federal soldiers led by Major Glenn Ford. By the time the end rolls around, all the men of both sides have either been killed or have run away except for Hamilton and Ford, who shoot it out over the outraged honor of Inger Stevens.Now, there's a certain dramatic potential in a story like this, and the director, Phil Karlson, who has done some brutal work elsewhere, starts it off well. In the opening scene, a rebel prisoner has killed a guard while trying to get out and he is about to be shot by a firing squad. But the end of the war is near. Everyone knows it. And the squad balks. So the Commanding Officer turns the rifles over to the Colored Troops, as they were called, and orders them to fire at the prisoner. The nervous squad of ex-slaves has never handled rifles before and mostly they miss. The wounded prisoner cries out, "I'm still alive." They reload and fire. Once again they only wound the tortured man, who screams and laughs. The scene is excruciating.From there on, it's pretty much downhill. The usual problem is that cliché is piled upon cliché. Here, it's that the narrative itself falls apart, not so much because the conventions are too strictly observed but because the writers seemed to be seated on a runaway wagon.That Southern Captain -- Hamilton -- is a proud man and a determined one. "This war will never end," he mutters several times, a gentleman warrior. Yet, when he's alone with Inger Stevens, he slaps her around, rips her dress off, runs his spur along her naked flesh, and savagely rapes her. Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? But then nobody's motivations are entirely clear. They aren't ambiguous, as they are for you and me. They're muddled and conflicting and almost drawn up in order to suit the demands of the situation. Example: Glenn Ford is leading the pursuit but he's firm in his decision to not chase them beyond the Mexican border. Not even the pleas of the battered Inger Stevens, the now-debauched missionary and nurse, will sway him. Yet, later, when one of his men is killed, he abruptly changes his mind and charges towards the final confrontation. The dead man was not particularly important to Ford or to the plot. That is, he wasn't Ford's cousin or son or anything. So the newly formed engram is left unexplained.The movie is "routine" by default. It doesn't carry with it the burden of ordinary stereotypes. It opens up a whole new package of problems involving mediocrity.The period detail is carelessly handled. The mob of Confederate prisoners wears new boots. By the end, any attempt at realism is tossed out the window. The muzzle-loading rifles of the opening scene are soon replaced by single-shot breach-loading carbines. And in the last scene, Winchester repeating rifles are used. No one ever pauses to load -- regardless of the weapon.The musical score is by Mundell Lowe, a decent guitarist, but it's terrible. From the beginning, we're subject to the kind of theme song common to the period, with lyrics. "A man's gotta ride home. But home is nowhere...." Something like that. The rest of the score would have provided a typical and uninteresting background for a shot of cars whizzing back and forth across the George Washington Bridge.It's not worth going on about.

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