DVD-MIA Sam Fuller’s Run of the Arrow: Irish Confederate-War Vet Cowboys IS Indians!

Run of the Arrow (1957)
Producer/Director/Screenplay: Samuel Fuller
Cinematography: Joseph Biroc
Film Editing: Gene Fowler, Jr.
Original Music: Victor Young
Cast: Rod Steiger (O'Meara), Sarita Montiel (Yellow Moccasin), Angie Dickinson (uncredited; Yellow Moccasin’s voice), Brian Keith (Capt. Clark), Ralph Meeker (Lt. Driscoll), Jay C. Flippen (Walking Coyote), Charles Bronson (Blue Buffalo), Olive Carey (Mrs. O'Meara), H. M. Wynant (Crazy Wolf), Frank DeKova (Red Cloud).
RKO Pictures/Universal, 86m.
A must-see for all fans of Sam Fuller movies (DVD Savant, whose opinions I absolutely respect, calls it a “near masterpiece”), but I am not sure Run of the Arrow is “essential viewing” for all cinephiles.

I’m not sure why Run of the Arrow is unavailable on DVD;
(Although I am going to slam the flick a little, so it would be disingenuous of me to claim to not see any reason why a company might not want to spend the bread on a flick nobody’s going to buy):
Its original studio, RKO, went bankrupt during production,
but Universal picked up the film and released it in 1957.

But
If you are not interested in Rod Steiger’s method-ology,
the films of that triple-threat auteur of the hard-boiled Sam Fuller,
Westerns,
and/or the young, hot Charles Bronson
(there isn’t an ounce of fat on him in this flick!
No wonder Jill Ireland dumped David McCallum for Chuck!),
then Run of the Arrow isn’t for you.
(I know, how could anyone not fit into one of those slots? I dunno, you tell me….)



I would consider Fuller’s Shock Corridor or The Naked Kiss as “essential viewing” to anyone interested in the Great American Films of the 20th Century.

Meanwhile, The National Film Board of Ivanlandia highly recommends these Sam Fuller films:
The Steel Helmet
Shock Corridor
The Naked Kiss
Fixed Bayonets
Pickup on South Street
Underworld USA
and
even though we don’t really like it, we absolutely recognize the importance of
The Big Red One
as Fuller’s most autobiographical film
(And I’m particularly fond of Fuller’s goofball 1970s thriller Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street)

--All these flicks need to be watched before you have to snoop around for Run of the Arrow.

BUT! If you are interested in Rod Steiger’s method-ology,
the films of that triple-threat auteur of the hard-boiled Sam Fuller,
Westerns,
and/or the young, hot Charles Bronson--
Be that as it may, there are downloads and bootlegs out there, if you know where to look.

One website says Run of the Arrow was released to DVD in Italy, another thought the film was still owned by Universal, and a third said its rights were owned by Warner Brothers--which means it could end up in their Warner Archives, like The D.I., or still in limbo, like Ken Russell’s The Devils?
For me, Run of the Arrow stumbles--
I would never say it fails, but certainly stumbles--
because it never quite gels.
Fuller has put too many ingredients in the stewpot--
Steiger’s character is an Irish immigrant (with thick brogue) who fought for the Confederacy,
and fired the last bullet of the Civil War,
and then, upset at the surrender, headed West to start a new life,
and becomes a member of the Sioux tribe.
Oh wait, I forgot--the man who Steiger shot on that last day of the war, he’s with the cavalry now, riding against the Sioux.
Whew!

So, Mr. Fuller, the story of an Irish immigrant fighting for the South wasn’t enough?
Nor was the story of the last bullet fired in a war?
Neither was the chronicle of all the disenchanted Southerners who headed West to get away from the rotten Yankee carpetbaggers?
Nope, you had to tie it all together with our protagonist becoming blood-brothers with the Sioux.

Big Sam F. is just making an absurd sandwich, piling on roast beef, pastrami, glazed ham…

Not that Run of the Arrow
isn’t a fascinating ride,
but I have to add that finally seeing it
after knowing about it
and craving to see it for over 30 years
(and hearing it praised to high heaven)
was a bit of a let-down
(but really, what wouldn’t be?)

Run of the Arrow is a good entry into the White Man Going Native subgenre of the Westerns, very much in the tradition of
revisionist Westerns, like A Man Called Horse and Dances With Wolves--not to mention Avatar.
(Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kevin Costner--and then James Cameron--had something to do with keeping Run of the Arrow out of print… so they could corner the market…)


Sad News:
Kevin McCarthy, Ivanlandia fave, has passed away.
RIP

The National Film Board of Ivanlandia Presents Semi-Forgotten Flix: Kirk Douglas’ Posse (1975) and Walter Hill’s The Driver (1978)

Perhaps not as black-hearted as something Billy Wilder would’ve cooked up,
Kirk Douglas’ Posse is nonetheless a smart and cynical look at electoral politics via the Western genre.
B-movie tropes once again succeeding where straight drama falls short or is obvious and heavy-handed! Huzzah! (I won’t name names presently—because I don’t feel like starting any fights—gosh, I don’t think I can handle the deluge of comments I’m receiving already! But I think you could point to practically every serious “political” film that’s been on the Oscar list in the last 10 years as examples of sanctimonious crap that couldn’t hold a candle to a good B-movie about the same subject.)

Douglas plays a marshal (backed by the railroad) planning to use notorious train-robber Bruce Dern’s capture as a stepping stone to the Senate, and that really annoys the bandit (I think Dern’s existential hatred of the railroad and blue denim jacket were some sort of nod to 1970s youth culture).


I remember loving this flick as a kid (I saw it about 30 years ago on the CBS Saturday night movie, and haven’t seen it since until now), and I’m glad that I can appreciate it even more as an adult: Douglas is pretty good as a director—the humor isn’t broad, it’s satirical—and often sick (like: the shotgun pointed at the head of the cute blonde teenager), and he uses the widescreen well, filling it with a variety of details.

But Douglas never hogs the lens himself—he hardly has any close-ups even.
But he does coax solid performances from a variety of faces familiar to Western fans, like Bo Hopkins, Alfonso Arau and Luke Askew.
And I am so happy Bo Hopkins is still alive and kicking! He rules!
Here’s his website: http://www.bohopkins.com/

(Here’s Bo on the set of The Killer Elite with Sam Peckinpah—who gave Hopkins his first film role/Hopkins had been on some TV shows before that, though/in The Wild Bunch as Crazy Lee.)

One potential gripe about Posse might be the direction of the extras: they often come off as a proto-Coen Brothers-style “grotesque mob of the unhip,” as well as one-dimensional spineless cowards and weaklings. As such, that’s a real minor point in such a fast-paced, bit not necessarily breathless movie.
Meanwhile, the action is well done, very 70s style, though: either clinical and brutal, or slow-motion poetry of death.


But best of all, Kirk Douglas lets co-star Bruce Dern shine as the sly desperado. This flick is an absolute must-see for any fans of the Dern! He’s great: Always thinking, making it up as he goes along, but never so far ahead of the lawman that it’s unbelievable.

Dern’s one of the best at playing “cunning” and it’s too bad he never kept the momentum he had once—it seemed like he had made the transition from biker/sleazeball to, perhaps not “nice guy,” but certainly “decent chap”—
Dern had a real mainstream-Hollywood streak there for a while: Smile (which would be a great double feature with Posse), Family Plot, The Laughing Policeman and even Coming Home.

(But then too many bombs, and too many successful psycho roles, in flicks like Black Sunday and Walter Hill’s awesome The Driver---then that Maud Adams scandal from that psycho-stalker movie “Tattoo”—not on DVD, unfortunately—where Dernsy went around claiming that the movie’s sex scenes were real.)

June 4 is Dern’s birthday, BTW. Send him something real niiiiiiiiice...

Posse did okay financially when it was released, but JAWS eventually totally buried everything in the summer of 1975, and since then, this movie has been mostly forgotten, which is really too bad: it’s worth a look, especially as a prognosticator of our days of crime statistic manipulation for political gain.

BTW: Kirk Douglas also directed and starred in the bizarre pirate movie/Western-musical “Scalawag” from 1973. Douglas plays Captain Peg, a one-legged pirate in the desert (!) who always carries a Bible around—because the Good Book’s pages are the perfect type of paper for rolling cigarettes!
Also in the cast were B-movie giant Neville Brand, a VERY young Danny DeVito and Mel Blanc as a parrot! I remember this movie was basically an almost incomprehensible mess—a Treasure Island rip-off, but goofy fun, still. Unfortunately it's not on DVD either. Sigh…


Since I raved about The Driver earlier—it's another Forgotten Flix if you ask me—here’s what I wrote about it in 2007:
This is a must-see for fans of good car chases: Some truly excellent stunt driving plugged into an overly existential thriller.

Had Walter Hill filmed this in French, The Driver would've gotten more respect I bet--when this flick first came out, I remember the critics savaging it ferociously! But I think The Driver has aged very well, with its characters' supercool demeanor adding a sort of nostalgic flavor (for those of us who miss those sleazy/gritty 1970s-style thrillers).

Action flicks got existential-nihilistic in the '70s, some way more so than others: The Driver is right up there with the original Vanishing Point and Friedkin's Sorcerer in that doomed "nameless" man action subgenre that usually ended badly for all characters involved.
Walter Hill usually delivers the good, and with The Driver he's in top form.