A stranger among his own, a stranger among strangers Western of the Golden Age, 1955. The heyday of the western. Starring Kirk Douglas. Johnny Hawks, a Midwestern legend named Indian Warrior. It is difficult to understand through dialogue why he is so called. Either because he's always among the Indians, or because he's killed a lot of red people. His reputation is positive there and there. For a while.
He is instructed to lead a column of immigrants through the Sioux lands, where he has a beloved, the daughter of the leader. But insidious gold diggers spoil the whole party, for their own benefit, killing the brother of the leader and substituting both the column and the fort for tomahawks.
Hawks tries to save the displaced by surrendering the real killers to the leader.
The film should be called "Alien Among Her Own, Stranger Among Strangers," because Hawks has no allies in this case. It's not just a piff-puff, there's a lot of psychology in the movie, a lot of beauty. Western had by then developed into a serious art. But the creators of the film did not stand the bar a bit – in the second half they slipped into peef-puff and somewhat naive pathos. That’s why the film did not become a classic. But the attempt counts.
Two disadvantages in the "Fighter" - in secondary Indian roles, mostly Indians, but in the main roles painted white, as was then customary. It may be a travesty to the feelings of American viewers of the 50s, but it looks a little vulgar.
Well, the attack of the Indians on the fort is pure humane wave. Considering that in reality, the Indians extremely valued each tribe and, sometimes, ended the war after a couple of dead, it looks even more vulgar. It is enough to read the historical evidence of the terrible battles of the Redskins with the Whites, when after three days of continuous fighting the Indians lost as much as ten people, and the whites - five. And in the film, in just one attack, the Indians lost more than a decade before. But there is no escape from this, this is the common place of American Westerns.