THE HORSE SOLDIERS
US, 1959, 115 minutes, Colour.
John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers, Judson Pratt, Hoot Gibson, Strother Martin, Denver Pyle.
Directed by John Ford.
The Horse Soldiers is based on a true story, about a colonel who went through enemy lines from Mississippi to Baton Rouge destroying the infrastructure of the confederate army. In the film he is played by John Wayne, Ford’s favourite actor who appeared in many Ford films including The Long Voyage Home, They Were Expendable and westerns such as Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon as well as the popular The Quiet Man. He is joined by William Holden as the hostile regimental surgeon. Constance Towers is a woman from the south who overhears the plans – and has to be taken along to keep her silent.
The film is the last of the cavalry films that John Ford and John Wayne made together. Critics commented on how it was much darker than the enthusiastic heroism of the earlier films. The colonel is a farming labourer man who finds it difficult to destroy the railroads and the infrastructure. He also clashes with the surgeon, who is strong on medical ethics.
Ford made many films during the 1950s – and this is his culmination before making the classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
1. How good a picture of the American Civil War was this? Why? How did it communicate the attitudes and feelings of those involved in the war? Did it give insight into America?
2. Though the film dealt with the Civil War, how valuable were its comments on war in general? Behaviour in war? Why?
3. How were the horse soldiers a symbol of those involved in war? Comment on the use of the symbol of the horse soldiers and the visual presentation of them riding on the horizon.
4. How interesting a picture of army life did the film give? The details of the personalities? The particulars of what they did day by day? The details of the campaign and the mission?
5. How important was the mission that the horse soldiers had to execute? How well did they do it? Were there sufficient sequences to explain the nature of the mission? How it was to be done? How did this involve the audience so that they could follow the mission and get involved in it?
6. What values does John Wayne stand for in films like this? What are his good qualities and characteristics? What are the drawbacks of his characterisation and the characters that he represents? How typical of the American attitude is the John Wayne style? How sympathetic a character was he in this film? Would the audience identify with him?
7. How was the doctor a contrast with Colonel Marlow? Was William Holden's portrayal attractive? His good characteristics? Those against him? Was it inevitable that he clash with Marlow? Why? What clashing values were there between the two men? Could the audience identify with the doctor?
8. Comment on the supporting characters, eg. The Congress campaigner and the interpretation of the events for his political career? The various troopers and sergeants? How vivid a picture of the ordinary men did these characters give?
9. How did the film show the details of the nature of war? the tiding through the countryside, the raids, the dependence for food on the people, the massing of the enemy and the planning of strategy etc?
10. How sympathetically did the film present the Southern States? What did it show in their favour? What did it show against them ? as regards manner and style, beliefs etc? Where were audience sympathies?
11. How important was Hannah for the film? As a Southern lady? Her manners and style? her mocking the soldiers? Her behaviour at the dinner? Her tricking them by finding the information? What happened to her during her capture and her travelling with the mission? The help that she gave? The change in her attitudes? Her love for Marlow? Lucky as a character - and especially in her death? The role of the black woman?
12. Hannah and the warnings that she gave to the Southern soldiers? Should she have done anything else? Her attitude to the sheriff in the sequence with the deserters? Did Marlow behave well here? The significance of this sequence as regards law and order, right and wrong, the sheriff and the deserters?
13. Impression of the destruction of Newton Station? The effect on each of the characters? Marlow becoming drunk and losing control? The story about himself, doctors and his wife? Did this help to understand him? Did Hannah understand him?
14. How exciting were the escape sequences from Newton Station and the pursuit? Did these have the ingredients of a good western?
15. Comment on the sequence where the boys were rounded up and advanced through the field? The significance of this? Emotional response to this?
16. Was Marlow right in organising a charge for the escape? Was he right to let the doctor be captured? What alternatives did he have?
17. What do films like this say about the American West and the American heritage that was handed on from the past?
18. What values did the film explore as regards war and peace, human challenge and behaviour in war?
