THE SANTA FE TRAIL

US, 1940, 109 minutes, Black and white.
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, William Lundigan, Van Heflin.
Directed by Michael Curtiz.

Santa Fe Trail was a big-budget Warner Bros western of 1940. It was directed by Michael Curtiz who had made a number of action films in the 1930s and was to achieve some fame in the 1940s winning an Oscar for directing Casablanca.

The film is an Errol Flynn vehicle, he stars as the civil war general Jeb Stuart, with his background from West Point. The film is of interest because of the friendship between Stuart and Custer and the fact that Custer is played by Ronald Reagan. (Flynn was to portray Custer at this time in They Died With Their Boots On.) Olivia de Havilland, who had appeared in a number of films with Errol Flynn, starting from Captain Blood in 1935 as well as They Died With Their Boots On, is Kit Carson Holliday. The young William Lundigan and young Van Heflin also appear in the cast.

Film critics complained that the film is not historically accurate – rather it is an imaginative western, portraying the friendship of Stuart and Custer as well as the build-up to the civil war, especially through the character of John Brown, played with some frightening intensity by Raymond Massey. Moroni Olson plays Colonel Robert E. Lee, the leader of the confederate army, thus clashing with Stuart and Custer during the civil war.

1. The film as a western of the early forties? The Warner Bros. style? Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland? Black and white photography, stirring music? Americana?

2. The value of the American history epic film? The pages of history? The understanding of the present in term of the past? American heroism?

3. The American issues of 1940 and their exploration in this film? The identity of America, racism. war? The Impact of theme issues now? Indications of change?

4. The initial atmosphere? The opening sequences? The cadets from North and South? Stuart's fight, Rader?
The atmosphere of prophecy as regards the Civil War? The picture of military training and organization before the Civil War?

5. The atmosphere in America in 1854? Lee and Jefferson politicians in Washington? The controversies? Slavery and abolition? Politics? The divided loyalties of the men in the army? The pressure of John Brown and his sons? John Brown as a threat to peace?

6. The portrayal of the railway pioneers like Holliday? The nature of rail, the opening up of the West? the Santa Fe Trail? The pros and cons of this opening up of the West?

7. Stuart as the hero of the film? The fact that he was from the South, the nature of his loyalties? The romantic interludes with Kit? The initial hostility to Rader? His work in the army? Pre-Civil? War skirmishes? His role in Kansas? With Rader and John Brown?

8. How attractive was Kit as a romantic heroine? The expectations of an American romantic heroine? Her strength of character and support of Stuart?

9. The picture of Custer and the other American Generals? Their early days in training, friendships and loyalties, the break that the Civil War caused in friendships?

10. The portrait of John Brown and his influence in America? The nature of his fanaticism? His political and religious connection? His relentlessness? His sons and the use of the blacks for abolition purposes? The inherent violence in the fanaticism?

11. Brown and the conflict with Rader? Symbolizing his turning on his own men? His self-importance?

12. The melodrama of the pursuit and capture of Browns forces? Of Brown himself? The death of his son? The drama of John Brown's hanging and his final words?

13. The film as an insight Into an aspect of American history? The nature of hate and hostility in the last century? The credibility of the outbreak of the Civil War?

14. The value of this kind of film for entertainment, for understanding American history?