Escape from Fort Bravo

If you are a Confederate prisoner being held in Fort Bravo--in Arizona Territory--you need to be very, very careful when making your plans to escape. Not only do you have to worry about crossing a scorching, water-starved desert... not only do you have to worry about Mescalero Apaches who will leave you staked out for the ants to devour... you also need to worry about getting on the bad side of Union Captain Roper. You don't want to get on Roper's bad side.

Escape from Fort Bravo is a 1953 Western directed by John Sturges, who would go on to helm classics such as The Magnificent Seven, Bad Day at Black Rock and Ice Station Zebra. Fort Bravo, made early in his career, usually isn't listed among his classics. And that's probably fair enough. It is in many ways a standard Calvary vs. Indians story that doesn't necessarily break any new ground.

But it is an enormously fun movie, nonetheless. Sturges takes full advantage of location shooting in Death Valley to make many of the action scenes look downright magnificent. And a great cast brings the story to life.

William Holden is Roper. We meet him almost literally dragging an escaped Reb back to the fort at the end of the rope. Roper is a man who can respect an honorably enemy, but this particular Reb had marked himself a coward in Roper's eyes. The Reb had ridden a horse nearly to death and then had left the animal to suffer rather than putting it out of its misery.

Whether or not Roper is correct in his assessment of the prisoner, his actions increase the bitterness and desire to escape among the other rebels being held there. But escape does indeed take some careful planning, especially with a brutal Indian war raging around them.

The situation is complicated further when the beautiful Carla Forrester (Eleanor Parker) arrives at the fort. Supposedly there to attend the wedding of one of the officers, she turns out to have an agenda of her own.

The events of the movie play out in such a way that the climax involves a small band of Union soldiers and a small band of escaped Confederates, along with Carla, are surrounded by Mecaleros. This is the best part of the movie, with a suspenseful and exciting "last stand" set piece that has quickly become one of my favorite action scenes of all time. Gee whiz, this is good stuff.

I mentioned a great cast earlier. Holden is typically excellent in the lead role. Richard Anderson, one of my favorite character actors (and the future Oscar Goldman on The Six Million Dollar Man), plays an officer who dislikes Roper and his methods, but turns out to be a good soldier in his own right. John Forsythe is the ranking officer among the Confederates.

My favorite characters are two Rebs played by William Demarest and William Campbell (who would later be both Trelane of Gothos and Klingon Captain Koloth on Star Trek). The two play off each other perfectly, gripping about their situation and often insulting each other, but looking out for one another when the chips are down. These two needed to have their own movie.

So Escape from Fort Bravo is worth watching if you enjoy a well-told Western, with that final action sequence really standing out. Here's the first few minutes of that sequence to wet your appetite: