Best movie of this year hands down!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Decent Western type movie with West Point Soldiers riding, shooting, drinking and all the rest with a love interest thrown in. It has a nice flow to it and worth the watch. We also get some history but don't go quoting Hollywood for accuracy as they are not history buffs but in the movie business and as such get away with things. I also tend to not like too much playing around or a type of corniness in my Westerns but they do sneak in a character or two to lighten it up. Why I don't know. Its not too bad here but instead entertaining which is its primary function. I always get a kick out of watching Ronald Reagan and thinking if this guy only knew that he would be the most powerful man on the planet for 8 years one day. Lots of extras in this movie and Raymond Massey just plays a good character no matter what his assignment is. There is a scene were they need to find out some information, in a strange town without rousing suspicion and lo and behold they choose the logical "go to" place. See if you could guess it right before it happens. You will have a minute or two to do so. Take note of the Wild West, the old towns, horses and the laid back but dependable life styles that drove it. Good movie to eat dinner with a tasty drink and snack to follow. Mount-up....

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".

Hollywood almost never got right anything historical."Santa Fe Trail" is a good example.However, if one just blocks out true U.S. history, and shuts down his mind, this movie can be enjoyed for the portrayals and action.Since there is a little truth in it, it can also be enjoyed, or at least admired, for the dedication of people on both sides of a philosophical and moral issue.Plus, as ever, one can just sit back and enjoy looking at the always beautiful and talented Olivia de Havilland.When first released, dashing Errol Flynn was billed as the star and a young and up-and-coming Ronald Reagan was listed fourth. Today, though, Reagan is the better-known name and recordings for home viewing seem usually to list Reagan first.In his first autobiography, "Where's The Rest Of Me?", Reagan tells the story of Flynn's jealousy and attempts to upstage Reagan. Other people who worked with Flynn recounted similar stories, saying that Flynn, despite immense talent, frequently seemed lacking in confidence.Raymond Massey, as John Brown, is, as always, simply superb, and most of the rest of the players are good to excellent.One more flaw needs to be pointed out. Warner Brothers had a superlative stable of excellent actors, but, as in this film, the studio, possibly because of bad to mediocre writing, often wasted some of them in silly, stereotyped roles. For example, Guinn Williams and Alan Hale, eventually known as Alan Hale, Sr., have to make the best of two of their silliest roles, totally unnecessary sidekicks to Flynn and Reagan.Both are capable of handling even such silly roles, but it is a shame to waste them, and a shame to insult the audience, with such characterizations.

This is an odd film for several reasons. First, the title has nothing to do with the story. Second, the politics are extremely murky, to the point of being deliberately obscure but still unmistakable and, to the modern eye, eyebrow-raising. Third, it features a strange meeting between two future US Presidents. It is perhaps the weirdest Western Hollywood ever made, but, unlike, say, 1970s Westerns that strove mightily to be revisionist and different, this one is unintentionally strange.Errol Flynn stars as JEB Stuart, part of a cadre of West Point graduates who (supposedly) were great friends but who later formed the military leaders of both sides of the Civil War. They politely spar over women, but not so politely against a messianic wild-eyed fanatic who is determined to upset everybody's comfortable life because of his obsession. That madman is one John Brown, who ultimately takes his fight from the wilds of Kansas to the neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The story ultimately devolves into a quite accurate depiction of the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry and its resolution (Brown's hanging).Anyway, the only reason this film is titled "Santa Fe Trail" is because some of the events in the film take place near that trail's beginning. But that's not the oddest thing about it, not by far. This film takes the extremely politically incorrect position of making abolitionist Brown into the Osama bin Laden of his day and a group of (later Confederate) officers who captured him (Robert E. Lee, JEB Stuart) into the heroes. It doesn't come straight out in the open and say that the Civil War was a bad thing, but it comes darn close. One of the odder scenes is when a former slave tells Stuart, "If this is freedom, I don't want it." Now, try putting THAT into a modern film. Well, you could try, I suppose....The strange sympathy shown for the South and its leaders and its cause isn't the end of the oddities, though. There is a bizarre scene where future General Custer, played by Ronald Reagan (one of Flynn's signature roles was Custer in "They Died with their Boots On," adding to the confusion), dances with a pretty young lady and then is taken to meet her dad - future President Abraham Lincoln! They have a polite exchange, then Ron goes off to fight the evil guy who wants to free the slaves. So one actor playing a future President (this is set two years before Lincoln took office) has a strange and completely unnecessary scene with another actor who actually became President (forty years after this film was made). And the actor who played the strangely shaven Lincoln is completely uncredited anywhere, along with the daughter. Of course, Lincoln didn't even HAVE a daughter! It's all a bit odd and makes my head hurt. One of those strange moments in film history that nobody even noticed but is full of resonance now.Strange politics aside and oddities forgotten for the moment, this is a rousing war drama about some crucial events that otherwise are completely overlooked by Hollywood, probably because of the weird politics involved. The good guys later became the bad guys, and then revered figures in the history books, while the bad guy's cause was completely redeemed by history, so was he really a bad guy at all? Raymond Massey completely steals the film as Brown, playing the character as a complete and utter fanatic with delusions of Godhood and the air of a latter-day Moses freeing the slaves. One of the most mesmerizing performances I've ever seen. It just happens also to be completely confusing as any kind of political statement or interpretation of the man himself and what he stood for.So, OK, it's impossible to put the weirdness aside if you know the history at all. But well worth catching in any event.