Such a frustrating disappointment

Pretty Good

Nice effects though.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a historic film that I watched in grade school, about Chief Joseph (Ned Romero) of the Nez Perce Tribe, who leads his army to fight General Howard and his army for the Wallowa Valley.It's a powerful film about action, drama, and struggles for the West, and great acting that showed Chief Joseph's battle against his adversaries and his plight for peace.Grade B

As acknowledged by various others, this is a very well acted dramatization of the last major battle campaign in the long 'Indian Wars' between the US army or other military organizations and various Native American tribes or confederations. scattered over the American West. Although some of the details may have been altered, it provides a generally accurate picture of the effort of the US army to compel a segment of Native Americans to abandon their traditional home territory and way of life and accept a much inferior life on some much inferior shrunken territory. The banter between James Whitmore, as General Howard, and his subordinate Captain Wood(Sam Elliott), between Whitmore and Ned Romeo, as Chief Joseph, and between various Nez Perce chiefs, provides an intimate view of the conflicts between and within the key personalities in this saga. One-armed, ex-Civil War officer, Howard is portrayed as the ideal army leader in the western theater of the times, charged with a policing function between the Native Americans and settlers/prospectors, as well as enforcing government dictates regarding Native Americans. Unfortunately, his new distasteful function of enforcing the dictate that the Nez Perce leave their home territory conflicts with his former friendly relationship with the Nez Perce.The film dramatizes the transformation of chief Joseph as a reluctant advocate of accepting the dictate to move to a reservation, into a skilled military leader in attempting to find a refuge, probably in Canada, where his people could continue their traditional life. Unfortunately, the US federal government is unwilling to allow his group to make this journey to Canada, resulting in a masterful long chase through several states or territories, which occupies much of the film. General Howard is much criticized by the public and army superiors for his inability to capture Joseph's rather small band. Finally, apparently cornered short of his goal, Joseph decides further resistance is futile, and delivers his famous capitulation speech to the assembled army leaders. Although he was speaking on behalf of his group, in effect, he was speaking for all Native Americans.We may think of Chief Joseph as the Nez Perce equivalent of the much celebrated Lakota chief Red Cloud, and the great Comanche leader Quanah Parker. All 3 men were recognized as skilled military leaders, repeatedly thwarting attempts by the US army to 'tame' them. Yet, eventually, all 3 realized that further resistance was suicidal, and led the effort to accommodate their people to reservation life. By way of historical background, the Nez Perce actually had long been the chief Native American allies of Europeans in the region of NE Oregon, SW Washington, and adjacent Idaho during the wars with a confederation of most of the other anti-reservation regional tribes two decades earlier, as dramatized in the earlier Hollywood film "Pillars of the Sky", presently available at YouTube, as well as a DVD. Unlike that film, the present film doesn't incorporate a phony European woman as a love interest/conflict. Chief Joseph's wife is the only woman occasionally featured. The present film is now available on a DVD of several films featuring Sam Elliott.

When this film was made in 1975 it was almost 100 years since the Nez Perce Indian tribe made its final stand for dignity and pride. That was no longer left to them after they were ordered from their ancestral lands in Eastern Oregon to a reservation in Idaho. I Will Fight No More Forever was their Chief Joseph's immortal words as he was now concerned with simply survival of the Nez Perce tribe and culture.The man charged with delivering this ultimatum which he regarded as distasteful was General Oliver O. Howard for whom Howard University is named after. Howard is played by James Whitmore is a figure of both duty and compassion. But as a soldier duty comes first. His conflict is brought out in many conversations with Sam Elliott playing one of his officers who quite bluntly said he never signed on for duty like this.The film sticks pretty close to the facts as they unfolded in 1877. What the back story of the film is about is that the Nez Perce up to that point had not taken up arms against the whites, preferring to accommodate. When they could no longer do that however, Chief Joseph who had no military experience as such proved to be a resourceful commander, leading his tribe in a defensive retreat that lasted for months.Ned Romero plays a magnificent and proud Chief Joseph who in the end has to bow to reality. This is a fine film, highly recommended about a bitter and distasteful yet heroic incident from the Nez Perce point of view.

The picture is an epic portrait of the historic story about celebrated Chief Joseph (Ned Romero) and his legendary feat leading the Ned Perce tribe on a trek to Canada . Meanwhile , he squares off US cavalry commanded by General Howard (James Withmore and attended by his captain played by Sam Eliott) who leads his army on a wild chase across the plains and mountains in this saga of the old west . Joseph refuses to surrender in this chronicle of a bitter fight between the Ned Perce tribe and the US cavalry in the struggle for the west . The film displays action Western , shootouts , drama and spectacular battles . It's a thoughtful piece for its time that had an original tragic ending . The motion picture was brilliantly directed by Richard T. Heffron . This powerful TV movie will appeal to Indian Western fans.The movie was correctly based on real events . Thus , Chief Joseph (1832-1904) became a skilled military leader ,he won 18 battles in the 1877 war,then led the retreat to Canada,before surrendering. The reality happened when Ned Percé ceded a large part of their territory to the U.S. by treaty and settled on lands in Oregon and Idaho.Joseph's people occupied the ancestral lands of the fertile Wallowa Valley in Oregon.When gold was discovered in Nez Percé county,government agents proposed a new treaty which would remove Joseph's people from their Valley to a reservation in Idaho.He wanted no part of the treaty but in the summer of 1877 General Howard delivered an ultimatum that all must leave the Wallowa within thirty days or be forcibly removed by the cavalry.The Ned Percé tribe has always been friendly with the white men but when the situation developed into armed conflict between his warriors and the soldiers,he decided to fight.After defeating a column sent after them and bringing an angry Howard into the field with a big force, he decided refuge in Canada,as Sitting Bull had done after defeating Custer at the Little Big Horn(1876).So began the epic flight , a fighting march of 1300 miles across US,engaging separate commands of the Army all the way.On 5 October 1877 Joseph and his surviving people were surrounded by fresh troops about thirty miles from the Canadian border.The Indians were exhausted,starving and cold and Joseph surrendered to generals Howard and Miles,delivering his classic speech of the defeated Indian.The Ned Percé were sent to reservation in the Indian territory,now Oklahoma.In 1885 the great chief was sent to Colville reservation in Washington,where he died in 1904,still an exile from his beloved Wallowa Valley.