1957: Run of the Arrow, The (45th!!)

What else happened this year? So, I was surprised to find that a virus escaped from China, spread around the world, and killed hundreds of thousands. I'd not heard of something like that before, and certainly hope that it doesn't happen again. [here's a link, there was also another in 1967].

What is the plot - in one sentence? An inexplicably 'Irish' Confederate Soldier leaves the U.S. To live on the wild.

I don't have time, just spoil it for me? He does, eventually he becomes the 'translator' for a Native tribe, but after some betrayals, there's a battle, and he realises that he is neither American nor Native. He's certainly not Irish. The movie has the fucking gall to end with 'The end of this story can only be written by you' on the screen.

What is the meaning of the title? Running the arrow is a ceremony where you're executed... but with a chance to survive. They fire an arrow, and let you run towards it without shoes on, once you reach it, they chase you down, with shoes on, so they get you. It happens twice in the movie, and probably never else in history.

So the bloke on the left is an Irish sharpshooter who goes native. He looks about as convincing as you'd imagine. The bloke on the right is apparently native American in the movie, but his wig, and his legs, are fake in this - he was an amputee in real life. 

Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? I'd argue that the whole thing hasn't aged well. But most of the problems today would be around race. A very strange scene happens when a guy pretending to be Irish is bathed by a Spanish woman pretending to be a Native American, in order to sweat out a fever. 

Any thoughts? 'This is the exact same plot as Dances with Wolves', you may be thinking. And it is. The Dustin Hoffman pre-cursor is played by some fat guy pretending to be Irish, in one of the worst Irish accents you've ever heard. It must have been embarrassing to have to do scenes with him, even if you're a white guy in brown facepaint. 

There's also a movie coincidence that is too coincidental even for movie logic. The guy the Irish man shoots at the beginning heals and becomes the enemy of the tribe that the Irish guy joins. This, and the conflict at the end, feels tacked on like no one's business. They agree to build a fort somewhere, they decide to build the fort elsewhere, there's a massacre.

There's a few things here to note, but not of note. There's a deaf and dumb kid that he adopts, who gets stuck in quicksand, something which was only ever problematic in old Western movies. There's also a very ripped Native Chief who looks and is named suspiciously like Charles Bronson. The final battle also features blood effects instead of stomach-clutching, so that's a step towards more realistic violence.

On the whole though, this pretty much sucked.

Would you recommend this? Na this was a pretty shitty 50s western movie, there are plenty of those, and plenty of ones which are good, too.

Final thoughts? Pretty forgettable. So forgettable in fact that I had to read up what the plot was. Despite watching this sober only a few days ago.I might have to watch some European movies for the rest of the 50s, as I'm getting might tired of this Western stuff. 

Let's hope there's more enjoyment from the next movie, the others can be found here.