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Purely Joyful Movie!

I wanted to but couldn't!

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

If you're expecting a film about the Santa Fe Trail...which would be logical based on the title, you're going to be very disappointed. The Santa Fe Trail is almost irrelevant to the film, other than that the railroad couldn't really be built until John Brown was driven out of Bloody Kansas. That's what this film is really about -- John Brown.My other criticism here is the comedy relief by Guinn Williams and Alan Hale. I'm not sure much comedy relief was needed here...or appropriate. SO I felt it was a negative to the telling of the story.Aside from those 2 issues, this is a great film! It brings together "Jeb" Stuart, George Armstrong Custer, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis at a time when all were still together in the nation. And, while I won't give the film an A+ in history, enough of it is basically true that it is quite fascinating. Even the depiction of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, although filmed in California is somewhat passable, albeit way to arid..Errol Flynn was at his peak here as eventual Confederate leader "Jeb" Stuart. What a handsome and suave actor he was, yet he had the ability to be rough and tumble. He's nigh on perfect here.Olivia de Havilland, as his love interest, is very good here, although her role is decidedly secondary to the story.The real standout here is third-billed Raymond Massey, here playing John Brown. It is a stunning performance! Perhaps his best. Odd when you think of it that he also played Lincoln in "Abe Lincoln In Illinois" in the same year! Ronald Reagan is decent here as an actor...but nothing like we have come to know George Armstrong Custer. But, that's Hollywood.Van Heflin is more the bad guy here than John Brown. He plays another of the West Point graduates, but one who is a traitor of sorts for money, and later turns his back on John Brown because of money. Of course, he pays a high price for his chicanery. It's a good performance, although I have never been a particular fan of Heflin.Moroni Olsen plays a younger Robert E. Lee than we're used to, so it doesn't seem quite like our picture of him. Erville Alderson plays Jefferson Davis, and with makeup it's a pretty good portrayal.Another highlight of this film are a couple of military shoot-outs. They go all out; it's really quite spectacular.Unfortunately, the print I saw on TCM wasn't in particularly good shape. Not bad enough to avoid watching it, but not sharp at all. I understand that the film is in the public domain, but you would think that Warner Brothers would have a good original print to work from in a restoration. After all, this was one of the biggest films for them in 1940.Again, bait and switch, but it's a rather enthralling film. I give it a very strong "7".

Massey's older brother was Vincent Massey, the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada. Raymond served in the Canadian Army in both WW1&2 (wounded in both); determined to portray Lincoln as well as John Brown as often as he could, once he was an American citizen he only dabbled once in (civilian) politics, appearing in a television endorsement in 1964 in support of conservative Republican presidential nominee Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ.) In it, Massey denounced the Vietnam War, saying Goldwater also opposed it, ending by quoting the famous Goldwater campaign slogan: "You know he's right!" It can be seen on YouTube.

Santa Fe Trail, an epic western from Warner Brothers' golden era, is high-powered, fast paced, action-packed entertainment. Not the standard western story line or time setting, it takes place in the years immediately preceding the War Between the States. The action is not the usual cavalry versus Inidians or law versus outlaws, but the Army fighting against John Brown's depredations in "bleeding Kansas". This first class "A" production put first-rate director Micheal Curtiz in charge of a cast topped by Errol Flynn, Ronald Regan, Olivia De Havilland, Raymond Massey (as John Brown), and Van Hefflin in a villainous role, along with Warner's terrific stable of supporting players, and hundreds of extras. Flynn is at his best here as gallant Army officer Jeb Stuart, and the trim Mexican War era uniform compliments his dashing image. Massey is overpowering and absolutely riveting as half-mad, fanatical abolitionist leader Brown. Miss De Havilland doesn't have one of her better parts as the love interest of both Flynn and Regan, but she makes the best of it and comes off both fetching and engaging. Regan is solid and likable in a second banana role. Flynn's two favorite sidekicks (and real-life drinking buddies), those crude but lovable buffoons Alan Hale and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams lead the supporting cast, which also includes Moroni Olsen (as Robert E. Lee), Henry O'Neill, and the ever-reliable John Litel. Acting is first rate from top to bottom.Santa Fe Trail is almost non-stop action from beginning to end, all of it well staged, well filmed, and driven along by a rousing Max Steiner score. This movie has so much kinetic energy, it reminded me of a silent picture at times. The night gunfight in and around the burning barn at Palmyra, which eventually turns into a full-scale pitched battle between the cavalry and the Brownites, is one of the most spectacular and exciting action sequences ever staged in a movie. Yet the script by Robert Buckner is intelligent with sharp and engaging dialog. The final battle with Brown's forces at the Harpers Ferry Arsenal is staged on an epic scale. In both this scene and the one at Palmyra it seems more like a war movie than a western.Santa Fe Trail is top-notch entertainment in every way. Unfortunately the picture has come under a barrage of unfair criticism from two of the most irritating creatures who lurk about IMDb -- the self-appointed history professor and the politically correct gestapo enforcer. The professors of course are right in saying the movie plays fast and loose with history. But who cares! This is a work of fiction, **based** on actual events but not bound to portray them with circumspect accuracy. When the facts get in the way of the story, the story comes first. Only the most naive and uneducated expect a movie to give accurate history. You have to go to one of those old artifacts of the pre-electronic age, a book, to get the facts. Santa Fe Trail does, however, give an excellent impressionistic view of the events and attitudes leading up to the Civil War. It should set off a looking-up binge for the curious. I recall when first seeing the picture about fifty years ago, I did a lot of looking up. I didn't expect to find Jeb Stuart and Custer in the same West Point class. I already knew enough to know that Custer was much younger. But I was pleasantly surprised to find Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stuart were in fact at the siege at Harpers Ferry. By the way some of the professors erred in complaining that lever action rifles were used -- meaning repeating rifles, which would be incorrect for the time period. The rifles used in Santa Fe Trail were Sharps single shot breech loaders, which employed an under lever to open and close the breech for reloading -- in wide use during the 1850's. Not everything was inaccurate!The politically correct thought-control police have labeled Santa Fe Trail "racist" simply because it tries to show both sides of the issue and because it portrays Brown as an unbalanced murderer, which no serious history denies, rather than the hero they horrifyingly think he was. They have been joined by the rabidly Southerner-hating Yankees who come out of the woodwork to comment on any Civil War era movie. In fact this movie takes no side. The movie studios of the Golden Era had no agenda, except entertaining people and making stacks of money doing it, which Santa Fe Trail delivered on both accounts. It wasn't taking the Southern side to have Jeb Stuart say the South would eventually take care of the slavery problem itself. That was a common Southern attitude. Because he said it doesn't mean it was true or the movie makers approved it. And on and on. What Santa Fe Trail failed to show about the era leading up the the War Between the States was the real cause of the war. It wasn't slavery, or saving the Union, or state's rights or Southern independence. Those were just excuses for fighting. The War happened because the people of the North and the people of the South hated each other's guts. Did then, did from the very beginning of the Republic, and still do! No, the movie Santa Fe Trail didn't show that, but the IMDb reviews and message board posts demonstrate it all too well.

It's funny to see the similarities of this movie to a movie Errol Flynn made a year later. 'They Died With Their Boots On' starts out the same way, at West Point. In 'Boots', Errol Flynn plays the part of George Custer and Olivia De Havilland plays his wife. John Litel plays General Sheridan. They both have similar beginnings but tell different stories during the Civil War. Santa Fe deals with the problem of slavery, the abolitionist John Brown and in part shows how the Underground Railway helped some blacks escape slavery. It also shows the harsh reality for those who helped those blacks on the run to freedom. 'Boots' deals with the life of General George Custer, his rise through officer ranks and the dilemma he is faced with that leads to his demise at Little Big Horn. Regardless of any 'liberties' taken by the directors, both movies give an interesting incite into these historical events of the American Civil War.