Made in the period between two John Ford masterpieces, The Searchers and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", it lacks the completeness of both as well as that wonderful, overarching grandness of a larger theme that enriches Ford's finest efforts. I think this movie works in many of its parts, even if the sum is less than we've come to expect from the director.
The "Horse Soldiers" of the title are a Union cavalry company under command of Col. John Marlowe (John Wayne) who have to venture deep into southern territory to cut off confederate supply lines. Since they are our titular characters and because of the traditional slant of history on the war between the states, we would assume all our sympathies are supposed to be with the boys in blue. But Ford, a lifelong student of civil war history and a Yankee married to a flower of the southern aristocracy, does not ever really give either side the satisfaction of triumph (there are no decisively won battles in the film, only skirmishes and constant fight-and-flight) because he knows that there is no real victory in systematic destruction. Defeat, as usual in Ford films, is where more richness is to be found and by putting the Union army inside southern territory potential for casualties both mortal and moral is escalated. Neither side emerges unsoiled by their descent into what Col. Marlowe calls "this insanity".
Southerners are often depicted as alternating clowns and gallant heroes; genteel (Russell Simpson) and degenerate (Strother Martin & Denver Pyle); compassionate and sadistic. The Union soldiers under Marlowe's command are a ragtag bunch, some out for personal glory (the politician, played brilliantly by Willis Bouchey who seemed made for such roles); misfits that found themselves in uniform while doing what comes most naturally to them: wreaking violence and killing (Judson Pratt);ordinary men who will do whatever their fellows do and will follow most anyone who leads; and Bill Holden's doctor - doctors being a tribe hated by Marlowe because of his own wife's death at their hands. Holden was perfect for the part of Dr. Kendall. No one may have played cynical like Holden and he does it well for the entire film.
John Wayne's Col. Marlowe has to keep this disparate bunch in line, deal with his own disgust at being forced to destroy what he spent his whole life building up (the railroad--and by extension, his country)and on top of everything, he has to escort a most unwilling and uncooperative enemy lady and her servant. Needless to say, Marlowe has enormous pressures to pursue his objective, keep his temper and above all, keep these people alive. This tension fills the movie and along with the constant movement, keeps it from ever being static. This film is somewhat long but it moves.
Nobody in the company likes Col. Marlowe much at all until deeper into the film when both Hannah and Holden's Dr. Kendall come to appreciate him and his paradoxes in their respective ways.
The "Horse Soldiers" of the title are a Union cavalry company under command of Col. John Marlowe (John Wayne) who have to venture deep into southern territory to cut off confederate supply lines. Since they are our titular characters and because of the traditional slant of history on the war between the states, we would assume all our sympathies are supposed to be with the boys in blue. But Ford, a lifelong student of civil war history and a Yankee married to a flower of the southern aristocracy, does not ever really give either side the satisfaction of triumph (there are no decisively won battles in the film, only skirmishes and constant fight-and-flight) because he knows that there is no real victory in systematic destruction. Defeat, as usual in Ford films, is where more richness is to be found and by putting the Union army inside southern territory potential for casualties both mortal and moral is escalated. Neither side emerges unsoiled by their descent into what Col. Marlowe calls "this insanity".
Southerners are often depicted as alternating clowns and gallant heroes; genteel (Russell Simpson) and degenerate (Strother Martin & Denver Pyle); compassionate and sadistic. The Union soldiers under Marlowe's command are a ragtag bunch, some out for personal glory (the politician, played brilliantly by Willis Bouchey who seemed made for such roles); misfits that found themselves in uniform while doing what comes most naturally to them: wreaking violence and killing (Judson Pratt);ordinary men who will do whatever their fellows do and will follow most anyone who leads; and Bill Holden's doctor - doctors being a tribe hated by Marlowe because of his own wife's death at their hands. Holden was perfect for the part of Dr. Kendall. No one may have played cynical like Holden and he does it well for the entire film.
John Wayne's Col. Marlowe has to keep this disparate bunch in line, deal with his own disgust at being forced to destroy what he spent his whole life building up (the railroad--and by extension, his country)and on top of everything, he has to escort a most unwilling and uncooperative enemy lady and her servant. Needless to say, Marlowe has enormous pressures to pursue his objective, keep his temper and above all, keep these people alive. This tension fills the movie and along with the constant movement, keeps it from ever being static. This film is somewhat long but it moves.
Nobody in the company likes Col. Marlowe much at all until deeper into the film when both Hannah and Holden's Dr. Kendall come to appreciate him and his paradoxes in their respective ways.