Wow! Such a good movie.

Too many fans seem to be blown away

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Most excellent Western with a unique set of ingredients all designed to entertain and give rise to several emotions. This one has so much going on too. Indians, their culture, US Calvary, horses, dust, whiskey, civil war, forts, good and bad guys and a love story all done very well. This movie has part Last of the Mohicans, The Naked Prey and a mix of several other familiar themes scene in many Westerns over the years. Their are several highlights worthy to mention. The feelings of the South after losing the war dialog is potent and accurate so listen up. Great scene of Lee surrendering to Grant (with tears) and respect on all sides. then there is the Indian way, their beliefs and point of view. If that is not enough, the US Calvary wants to develop the West and set up forts and approaches the subject humbly. This movie had me riveted to the screen as there was so much going all entertaining that I didn't want it to end. Even the end music played out very well helping you to accept the ending. Good movie to eat beef jerky, a sandwich and a tasty drink. Also worth mentioning is all your favorite and familiar TV and movie stars are in this one looking and sounding good earning their paychecks as well as all being destined for long careers too. Run of the Arrow...thank you to all involved here. Mount-up

Run of the Arrow is written and directed by Sam Fuller. It stars Rod Steiger, Sara Montiel, Brian Keith, Ralph Meeker, Jay C. Flippen and Charles Bronson. Music is scored by Victor Young and Technicolor cinematography is by Joseph Biroc.As the American Civil War closes, Confederate Pvt. O'Meara (Steiger) finds he just can't bring himself to be part of the United States. With his head full of memories about what the Yankees put his kind through, and a heart full of bile, he decides to go West and live native. Here he encounters the Sioux and his life takes on a new meaning.....Run of the Arrow, and director Sam Fuller in general, has grown a sterling reputation over the decades. Where Fuller's rep as the American Primitive auteur is well deserved, Run of the Arrow's is not. It seems that the themes at work, and they are strong and potent, have made many forget the glaring flaws in the production.Churning away in the screenplay are themes of nationalism, identity, loyalty and racism, with the dialogue well scripted, but these themes are hardly presented as complex issues. Literally overnight O'Meara has a grasp on Sioux customs and language, with the Sioux not afforded any characterisation outside of O'Meara's musings (the authoritative voice after one day of going native!) and a brief scene where Blue Buffalo (Bronson) bizarrely accepts the Christian faith is the same as the Sioux faith. Ultimately the presentation of the Sioux is so one dimensional it's nigh on impossible to accept that O'Meara is now conflicted in his calling.Then there is the small matter of Steiger's miscasting. As some critics have fallen over themselves to laud the film as an ambitious masterpiece, they have forgotten about the lead man's misplacement. The attempt at an Irish accent is woeful, it comes off as more like an Eastern Europe and Asian mix, thankfully he gives up later in the film to give our ears a rest. But he is also physically wrong as well, we are asked to believe that his stocky frame can outrun lithe and muscular Sioux warriors, it's insulting even when taking artistic licence into account. Amusingly some critics of the time praised Fuller for fluidly tracking running feet as opposed to full bodied character, truth is it wasn't artistic intent, Steiger had sprained his ankle so Fuller had to shoot another actor running! It's just one of the many irrelevant scenes in the picture.The use of white actors to play Indians always causes friction with Western fans, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Here it cuts both ways, Bronson gets away with it, he looks the part, but Flippen is embarrassingly unconvincing as Walking Coyote and Montiel as Yellow Moccasin is done up like a porn version of a Sioux squaw! (voice dubbed by Angie Dickinson as well). It's hard to focus on strong thematics when Steiger is talking through a mouth full of beans, Flippen looks like he has wandered in off of an L.A. street and Montiel is making you horny with a shapely thigh! Where the film lifts itself above average is with Fuller's knack for stylised violence and the location photography of Biroc (latterly Ulzana's Raid). Officially the first film to use squibs for bloody impact of weapons, Fuller utilises this to the max, there's also some excellent flaming arrow work as well. Even though the print I viewed of the film is drab and scratchy, you can still see the great work of Biroc as he brings the beauty of St George, Utah, to Fuller's harsher human edges. While Young's score is inventive in blending Civil War and Irish tunes into the otherwise standard Cavalry and Indians mix.I consider myself a big Fuller fan, I love Forty Guns, Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss, but Run of the Arrow has too much wrong with it to deserve the "great" reputation it has. While those trying to put it forward as being this great inspiration that Dances With Wolves copied! Are seriously barking up the wrong tree. Each has a disenchanted soldier venturing West and encountering the Sioux, from there on in, though, the films vastly differ. 6/10

Think Western and Rod Steiger doesn't come to mind. But producer-director Fuller needed a first-rate actor for his complex story. So the New York trained Steiger got the part and is quite good too. Though I don't buy him out-racing the powerfully built Crazy Wolf (Wynant). This is an excellent Western, expertly cast and wonderfully staged. In fact, some of the scenic shots resemble Frederick Remington landscapes. It's also a story of ideas. I like the way writer Fuller prepares us for O'Meara's (Steiger) act of mercy by having him cling to Christian beliefs though every other part of him has become Sioux Indian. Thus, when he shoots Lt. Driscoll (Meeker) to spare him further pain, we understand why. It's also the point at which O'Meara realizes he's inescapably American, Johnny Reb or not. On the other hand, why the Indian girl rashly saves O'Meara is never made clear. The movie's about alienation and belonging, and though I don't agree with all Fuller's points, he does get beyond the Western clichés of the period. Note, for example, how the tribe decides rather democratically whether to accept O'Meara as a Sioux. And though there are the usual plot contrivances to generate action, both peoples are shown as deserving respect.Too bad the movie's so obscure. It's as broad in scope (first-rate locations and large cast, including real Indians), and is more thoughtful than John Ford's celebrated cavalry trilogy. I suspect one reason for the neglect is the unfortunate releasing tangle when the scheduled RKO went suddenly belly-up. The film ended up being released by low-budget Universal who likely dumped it without much promotion; at least, I don't recall any fanfare at the time. Thus, this independent production slipped into underground obscurity. Still and all, Fuller's film can also be seen as an important step on the way to such counter-cultural Westerns as Ulzana's Raid (1972), Little Big Man (1970), and the bloody The Wild Bunch (1969). Nonetheless, significances aside, it's still a darn entertaining movie.

"Run of the Arrow" has an ex-Civil War soldier taking an Indian wife (Sarita Montiel) and here the Indians are less idealized… Steiger, deserter from the Southern cause, is a highly credible character, tough and able to effect a compromise with the Sioux until he finds one aspect of the culture he can't stomach, let alone assimilate—that of skinning a captive alive… He still, however, rides out of the picture with his Indian wife alongside… Whether she will assimilate what she finds in a different culture remains unanswered… The film remains a bloody little Western in the accustomed Fuller vein of unpleasantness...