Joseph N. Newman made two intriguing Westerns in the late 1950's with Joel McCrea, the other being the dull and casually violent ' The Gunfight at Dodge City ' in 1959. This one ' Fort Massacre ' is slightly better than the other despite all the killings of Native Americans which I personally dislike. I found no ambiguity whatever and the Native Americans are there as simply enemies on their own land to be shot at. A truly disgusting scene is where a soldier stands on a rock, faces a Native American and after a too long pause shoots him point blank. Of course the soldiers on their way to the Fort have to survive and have losses of life, but the whole thrust of the film is made for the audience to experience as much gun toting as possible. In all fairness one of the soldiers questions killing at point blank but this is just a sop to the audience to justify the constant and boringly repetitive action. ' Fort Massacre ' is filmed in open spaces whereas ' The Gunfight at Dodge City ' is filmed with a lot of gun killing mostly in semi-darkness and its use of Cinemascope seemed utterly unjustified. ' Fort Massacre ' examines the outdoors but how many rocks does the viewer want to see ? Lacks humour and any warmth unlike many Westerns made with more fondness in the early 1950's.
Review of Fort Massacre
