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Beautiful, moving film.

Absolutely the worst movie.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

I absolutely don't agree with all the sour apple reviews of this movie. Yes, it definitely has its flaws, but on the whole, I love it - the stirring musical score, the Winterhawk song, the gorgeous scenery, the story, and especially the slow motion sequences displaying Michael Dante's dazzling horsemanship - which was why I saw it 7 times in the theater when it first came out. Well known Chicago film critic Roger Ebert gave this movie three stars! I definitely don't agree with all of Roger's reviews. In fact, I've disagreed very strongly more often than not. But his review of Winterhawk was glowing! I suggest you read it!Movies / Roger Ebert / October 8, 1975 "Winterhawk" is a traditional Western, simply and well told, almost old-fashioned in the clarity of its narrative. An hour or so into it, there's a scene where a group of mountain men are gathered around a campfire, drinking coffee and huddling beneath their blankets for warmth, and something about the look and sound of them reminded me of the classic Westerns of John Ford. This could, indeed, almost be a Western from 20 or 30 years ago, if it weren't for its sympathetic and evenhanded treatment of Indians. The movie takes place very early in the 19th Century, when most of the West was known only to its Indian inhabitants and a few white trappers and traders and mountain men: Neither the farmers nor the cowmen had arrived to start their disagreements. There's a good attempt to be halfway authentic in terms of the period (although the movie's women apparently have found a supply of eyeliner out there in the wilderness), and the characters aren't burdened with all the heavy symbolism, of latter-day Westerns. The story involves a Blackfoot chief, Winterhawk, who takes furs to trade with the white man in exchange for medicine to fight a smallpox epidemic that's decimating his tribe. He's double-crossed, his furs are stolen and, in revenge, he kidnaps a white woman and her young brother and disappears back into the mountains. Their trek leads them past all sorts of glorious scenery, accompanied by appropriately heroic music. The movie's great to look at. A pursuit party sets off to find Winterhawk and "rescue" the woman and boy (who increasingly don't seem to need rescuing), and the filmmaker, Charles Pierce populates the party and the stops along with way with a gallery of great Western character actors. You may not know them all by name - but, believe me, you've seen them in the forts and stagecoaches and saloons and jails of countless Westerns: Denver Pyle, Lief Erickson, Woody Strode, Elisha Cook Jr., L. Q. Jones, Arthur Hunnicutt - the only ones missing are Strother Martin and good old Dub Taylor. Winterhawk is played by Michael Dante, who uses the strong-and-silent routine for all it's worth: It may be a cliché of a performance, but it works, and it's interesting for once to find a movie Indian who speaks in an Indian language that has to be translated for the other characters. He and the girl, Dawn Wells, exchange many meaningful glances and mutual silences before the movie's ending (which is a happy one, the exception in these cases). There's a love interest, but it's underplayed and allowed to develop convincingly, so we don't mind too much. The movie works directly and doesn't attempt to sneak allegories and messages past us. That makes it all the more convincing after the lugubrious "The Master Gunfighter," which turns up dubious "historical facts," works them into a plot lifted from a samurai drama and has the gall to pass itself off as a meaningful statement. Sometimes the best stories are the ones most simply told. -------So there you have it!Rita Raffanti

Love the scenery, cuz it is in our backyard!!! It was also cut down from the three hour epic that Charles Pierce wanted to make, as we have looked for lots of our friends who were extras is various scenes and they did not make it into the final 98 minutes.The film also had a sizable budget for that period of time, so I think the issue is more related to the parts that landed on the cutting room floor.Michael Dante was also extremely arrogant and was hard to work around. Dawn Wells was very nice, as was Denver Pyle who loved the Flathead Valley.

From the opening credits when the hero is riding across the plains, i knew this was going to be bad. His horse keeps stumbling. As the camera pulls back, you realize that the horse is running across a plowed field. In the background are the clear cuts with power lines running over the mountains. Worse, under the horse blanket is a saddle.It goes downhill from there.Historically, there is little that is true about the story. It is true that smallpox epidemics killed many of them in two different outbreaks (1781 and 1837). When the buffalo disappeared in 1880's it pretty much wiped them out.They were originally from the Great Lakes region, and traditionally hunted and gathered in the plains and not mountains. Anyway, this is a film that should be soon forgotten.

I had to watch this, thing (thats a good name for it) at school. It was just plan bad. To keep me from falling a sleep during this movie, I was making jokes just like on Mystery Science Theater 3000, to myself. Even the teacher agreed with us that is was a very bad movie. The only thing good about this movie is the ending credits. The reason is because it was the end of this awful movie. I think MST3k could have some fun with this movie. Could Charles B. Pierce be the next Ed Woods, or even the next Rick Sloane (Hobgoblins)? That is a good chance. In my opinion, DON'T SEE IT!