A Man Called Horse (1970)

It was 1825 and John Morgan (Richard Harris) was a bored English lord.  Being a noble with a military commission and inherited wealth wasn't for him.  No, he had resigned his commission and left England.  In lieu of wealth and status, he was shooting "prairie chickens" in the wilds of North America with toothless bumpkins who served as his guides.  Even this had become tedious.  No sooner had he declared his intent to return to St. Louis than a band of Sioux warriors fell upon his camp.  The chief, Yellow Hand (Manu Tupou), took his as a slave.  He described him as no different from a horse, and thus he was thereafter called Shunkawakan, which means horse.

Morgan was ill-treated by the tribe, and his every attempt at escape was easily thwarted.  Soon he discovered an ally among the Sioux; Batise (Jean Gascon), another slave who was fluent in English, French, and Sioux.  From Batise, he learned how to survive.  From his own grit, he learned how to thrive.  In time, he was embraced by the tribe, rising to a valued member.  He was initiated by the Vow to the Sun and married Yellow Hand's sister, Running Deer (Corinna Tsopei).  So satisfying had his life become, all thoughts of escape vanished.

Here is a movie that long predates Dances with Wolves, another movie where a white man adopts Sioux ways.  Historically, there are many examples of whites being captured - mostly as children - by various tribes and then being raised among them.  A contemporary movie, Little Big Man (1970), saw comical take on the white man among the Cheyenne.  The big claim to fame is that Sioux participated, offering details on the culture, practices, and rituals.

Why in the world did Joe (Dub Taylor), Morgan's guide, take him so far from civilization to shoot nothing special?  Joe and his cohorts proved to be useless, clearly unsuited to wandering the frontier. It is only a couple of years since the Arikara War (1823), the start of which was shown in The Revenant (2015).  These guys really are reckless, but how else are we going to explain an Englishman captured by Sioux? Richard Harris reprised the role in two sequels.

Iron Eyes Cody, best remembered as the Indian who wept about pollution, has a role as the medicine man.  He made a career of playing Native Americans, claiming such ancestry, despite being of Italian heritage.

Just okay.

Eagle's Wing (1979)

White Bull (Sam Waterston), a Kiowa warrior, was out raiding.  He and his fellow warriors spotted several Comanche.  The Kiowa attacked, overcoming most of the Comanche but the leader, who was mounted on a magnificent white horse - Eagle's Wing, easily outran White Bull's horse.  Though the leader escaped, he died from the arrow wound he suffered.

Henry (Harvey Keitel) and Pike (Martin Sheen) were a pair of American trappers.  Henry was an old hand, having worked as a trapper for several years.  By contrast, Pike was a recent recruit, an Army deserter who sought a new start in the wilds.  Henry and Pike had a contentious relationship because Pike was too fond of drinking and not a diligent enough worker.  Henry expected to rendezvous with Comanche for trade, but the Comanche didn't show.  Instead, White Bull's band of Kiowa attacked, stealing horses, pelts, and most of the gear.

Elsewhere, Judith (Caroline Langrishe) rode in a funeral procession with her brother, a Mexican gentleman, a lady, and her servants.  Her brother was a priest who had sent for her from Ireland.  Judith spoke no Spanish.  The lady wore black as the procession was for her husband.  They were bound for her brother-in-law's hacienda when White Bull's band attacked.  White Bull took everything of value, including Judith.

Two Comanche warriors arrived at a burial ground to find their shaman was dead.  His woman told how a white man stole Eagle's Wing while the shaman was presiding over the chief's funeral.  The pair nod gravely and immediately departed to exact justice.

Judith's brother arrived at the hacienda and raised the alarm about the attack.  Soon, a band of vaqueros rode forth to rescue the widow and exact justice on the Kiowa.

The setting is uncertain.  Trappers were generally searching for beaver, which is not common in the desert.  The market for such furs crashed in the late 1830s, so one supposes this takes place before that.  The Kiowa and the Comanche would most likely clash in Oklahoma and North Texas.  Pike talks about going south to Mexico or north to Canada, implying he is not currently in either.  It was filmed in Durango, Mexico, which stood in for Texas in Texas Rising.

White Bull is inscrutable.  At one point, he has gold, jewelry, wine, a captive, and Eagle's Wing.  His only threat is Pike, whom he repeatedly refused to kill when given the opportunity.  Why?  Of course, he doesn't speak English and rarely utters a word in his own tongue.  When he does, there is no subtitle translation for it.  It becomes clear that he was trying to buy Pike off by leaving each treasure except the horse, but Pike would not settle.

Pike is a directionless man, a wanderer who happened to fall into this story.  When he got his hands on Eagle's Wing, the horse became his identity.  When he lost it to White Bull, recovering the horse became his sole goal.  It did not matter that a fortune in jewels and gold was offered, he would rather risk life and limb for Eagle's Wing.  Why?  What strange power does this horse have over men?

Mostly, this is a contest between White Bull and Pike to see who will ride Eagle's Wing.  The other characters add color and variety to the story.  It is not your usual Western, but still entertaining.

Major Lally's March

Colonel Louis Wilson of North Carolina was preparing to lead a relief column of 1000 soldiers to General Scott, but he contracted yellow fever.  With Wilson incapacitated, the next ranking officer, Major Folliot Thornton Lally, took command.  The command was a hodgepodge of regiments: 2 companies of the 4th Infantry, 2 companies of the 5th Infantry, 1 company of the 11th Infantry, 3 companies of the 12th Infantry, 2 companies of the U. S. Voltigeurs, 1 company of the 2nd Artillery, 1 company of the Georgia Volunteers, and a company of Louisianna Mounted Volunteers.  Lally himself was from the 9th Infantry, which had departed with General Pierce more than three weeks earlier.

Paso de Ovejas

The column set out on August 6th.  The pace was slow and guerrillas were always nearby.  Stragglers were frequently captured or killed.  Many soldiers abandoned their knapsacks on the side of the road.  On the 10th, the column neared Paso de Ovejas when gunfire erupted.  Luckily, the enemy was out of range for small arms.  However, the front of the column was soon charged by light cavalry.  Cannons quickly broke their charge and sent them in flight.  Before Lally's forces could engage the men off the roadside, they had fled.  One American was killed.

National Bridge

On the 12th of August, the column arrived at the National Bridge, an impressive structure that spanned the Rio La Antigua.  When General Scott's Army came to the bridge in April, it was abandoned.  When General Pierce came to the bridge in July, a minor skirmish ensued before the guerrillas retreated.  For Major Lally, National Bridge proved to be a fight.  The guerrillas were dug in and ready to repel the Americans.  Thinking to dislodge them with cannon, the artillery was rolled forward.  However, the soldiers were caught in a hail of fire and had to abandon the guns.  Suddenly, the Americans were exposed and at threat of being overrun.  Fortunately, the guerrillas did not take the opportunity to rush the Americans.  A Prussian Baron who happened to be traveling with the army urgently advised an attack, offering to lead it.  Fording the river rather than crossing the bridge, the Americans dislodged the guerrillas and took possession of the fortifications.  The 6-hour battle cost eleven dead and forty wounded, some mortally.

Cerro Gordo

On the 15th, the column arrived at Cerro Gordo, where General Scott had shattered Santa Anna's army in the middle of April.  When General Pierce marched through a month earlier, he experienced only harassment on the fringes of his army.  By contrast, Lally found himself once again in a battle.  The guerrillas had occupied the fortifications on the hills and contested his column's advance.  As luck would have it, a veteran of the April battle was part of the column and offered useful intel.  Lally's force assaulted the three hill forts, capturing 2 cannons, and 9,000 rounds of musket ammunition.  The battle cost another 3 lives and 10 wounded.

Xalapa

On the 19th, Lally approached Xalapa.  Once again, the guerrillas had taken up a position to oppose his advance.  For once, the guerrillas had not taken an advantageous position.  The Americans quickly flanked the enemy and sent them running in the 20-minute skirmish.  Despite the brevity, two more soldiers were killed and half a dozen wounded.  Lally waited until the following day to occupy Xalapa.  His thousand man column was reduced to 700 effective soldiers, the rest were sick, wounded, or dead.  To make things worse, the Louisiana troops deserted almost in mass and returned to Vera Cruz.  Lally opted to secure his forces in Xalapa.

A month later, Captain Sam Walker rode into Xalapa and declared that Colonel Childs was under siege in Puebla.  The sieging force was said to be 4,000 strong.  Despite the numbers, Lally prepared to march.  To his great good fortune, General Lane arrived the following day.  Lally attached his forces to Lane's and the army marched to relieve the Siege of Puebla and give Santa Anna his final defeat of the war.

Lally's column served as reserves at the Battle of Huamantla - October 9th - and later accompanied General Lane's forces for the Action at Atlixco on October 19th.  In December, his column went to Mexico City and the hodgepodge of companies joined their regiments, successfully delivering the reinforcements he had brought.

The End of Hollywood

There is a new moviemaker on the block and it's called Seedance.  Just a few minutes of watching what it can produce shows that $100 million movies are not long for the world.  Sure, there are clunky bits, but imagine what it will be like next year, or the year after.  We are on the cusp of where anyone can make a blockbuster quality film with just the correct series of prompts.  Behold the possibilities.  Any actor in any setting with crazy effects and essentially a limitless budget.

Damnation Alley (1977)

Lt. Jake Tanner (Jan Michael Vincent) and Major Eugene Denton (George Peppard) arrived at Fort Tipton AFB in the Mojave Desert.  Denton warned Tanner that he requested a change of assignment, as he doesn't think their styles mesh.  They had hardly taken their post at the launch controls of a nuclear missile silo when a missile strike from the USSR was detected.  Responding to orders, the pair launch all the Fort Tipton missiles.  World War III is over in an hour.

It had been two years and the survivors of Fort Tipton were isolated.  Jake left the Airforce but still lived on base with Keegan (Paul Winfield), another airman who quit the military.  Jake had a scouted around, but found no other survivors.  Meanwhile, Major Denton was busy working on an experimental military vehicle, the Landmaster.  He had only just received approval from General Landers to take it into the field when the base exploded in a tragic accident.  When the dust settled, only Tanner, Denton, Keegan, and Lt. Tom Perry were still alive.

Over the last two years, there has only been one repeated signal from Albany, NY.  Denton decided that would be their destination.  Of course, much of the area was an irradiated wasteland but their was a path through the destruction, a corridor named Damnation Alley.  With stops in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Detroit, the survivors of Fort Tipton must overcome hostile new lifeforms, extreme weather events, and bandits, while also collecting other survivors: Janice (Dominique Sanda) and Billy (Jackie Earle Haley).

Intended as a sci-fi epic, this was released the same year as Star Wars.  Amazingly, 20th Century Fox expected Star Wars to be the flop and Damnation Alley to be the hit.  The movie fits nicely into the disaster theme that was popular in the 1970s, even borrowing footage from Earthquake (1974), an earlier disaster flick.

Roger Zelazny, who authored the story upon which this was based, hated the film.  Looks like I'm going to have to read the book and find out why.

Anyway, the movie is just okay.  It feels more like a low budget SyFy channel movie than a big studio production.  In fact, I always thought it was made for TV until this latest viewing.

Mountains of the Moon (1990)

Richard Hanning Speke (Iain Glen) arrived on the coast of East Africa in 1854 with plans of exploring the dark continent.  There he met Richard Burton (Patrick Bergin), already famous for having gone on the Haj to Mecca.  Burton has planned a trek inland to find the source of the Nile and Speke is eager to go with him.  Speke brought lots of guns and ammunition, making him a welcome addition to the expedition.  They have hardly gone inland than they were attacked by tribesmen, killing most of the company.  Both seriously wounded, Burton and Speke escaped nonetheless.

The pair returned to England and sought funding for a new expedition.  In the interim, Burton met Isabel Arundell (Fiona Shaw), who proved to be a great admirer of his writing.  A torrid affair ensued.  Meanwhile, Speke was approached by Laurence Oliphant (Richard E. Grant), who wanted to both help fund the next expedition and publish the findings. Additionally, Oliphant plotted a split between Speke and Burton.  The second expedition set out in 1856.  The men explored inland from Zanzibar, reaching the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1857.  With Burton seriously ill, only Speke could explore to the shores of Lake Victoria.  The pair returned to England in 1859 with very different ideas on what had been discovered.  Their disagreements led to a break between the two.  The next expedition was led by Speke while Burton was left on the sidelines.

There are surprises here.  Omar Sharif has a cameo as an Arab Chief.  Fiona Shaw, who most will remember as Harry Potter's shrewish Aunt Petunia Dursley, is terrific as Burton's love interest.  The two have great chemistry, allowing a fully realized love story despite being secondary to the Burton-Speke relationship.

An enjoyable movie that gives a general look at exploring Africa in the mid-nineteenth century.  No discussion of this period would be complete without Dr. Livingston (Bernard Hill).  Sure enough, he makes an appearance.  The lighthearted bit where Livingston and Burton compared scars that they have received was most entertaining.

Recommended.

USS Cyane: Workhorse of the Pacific Squadron

The USS Cyane was a 22-gun sloop-of-war with a complement of 200 crew that joined the US Navy in May 1838.  In 1845, the Cyane was dispatched to the Pacific Squadron.  At the time, this was a monumental voyage around South America.  It was not until January 1846 that she arrived at Mazatlan.  In February, Lt. Archibald Gillespie of the US Marines came aboard; he had secret messages to deliver to Commodore Sloat, US Consul Thomas O. Larkin, and John C. Fremont.  The Cyane departed Mazatlan and sailed to Monterey, California, by way of the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands.  Gillespie was left in Monterey in April.  By the end of the month, the Cyane was back in Mazatlan where it found an English rear admiral commanding a line-of-battle-ship and two additional ships of the British fleet.  Were the British keeping tabs on the Americans in this tense period between Mexico and the United States?

The Cyane again set out for Monterey in May and arrived in June.  On the 2nd of July, Commodore Sloat arrived on the flagship Savannah, a 54-gun frigate with a complement of 480 men.  Sloat had received word of the battles in Texas but dallied.  Finally, on July 7th, he ordered the capture of Monterey, the capital of Alta California.  Captain Mervine of the Cyane led the landing party that raised the US Flag over California.  The Pacific Squadron was officially in the war.

On July 14th, the USS Congress arrived in Monterey with Commodore Robert 'Fighting Bob' Stockton.  He replaced Commodore Sloat in command of the Pacific Squadron.  The following day, the HMS Collingwood, an 80-gun ship-of-the-line, arrived in Monterey.   Would the American capture of California have been so easy if the Collingwood had arrived a week earlier?

Captain Mervine was transferred to the Savannah and Captain Samuel Du Pont took command of the Cyane.  The Cyane also took aboard Lt. Col. John C. Fremont's California Battalion, providing transport to San Diego.  The Cyane captured a Mexican brig, the Juanita, before it could leave the harbor.  Fremont was let off at San Diego where that port was captured with similar efficiency as Monterey.  Alta California apparently settled, the Cyane set out for a cruise along the west coast of Mexico.

In August, she captured the Primavera.  In September, she blockaded the port of San Blas where she captured two additional ships: Solita and Susana.  Crossing to Baja California and the port of La Paz, the Cyane took control of 7 ships from the harbor, including the Baltimore-built Julia.  The Julia was quickly added to the Pacific Squadron.  Sailing further into the Gulf of California, she captured the Libertad and the Fortuna on the 1st of October.  The following day, she seized the Rosita.  Two days later, she captured the Chapita and the Alerto.  A raid on Guaymas destroyed three additional ships.

In November, the Cyane blockaded Mazatlan, but the ship ran out of supplies.  As the US had no Pacific ports, it depended on friendly ports or supply ships.  Sailing north once again, the Cyane found orders in San Francisco to join the squadron in retaking California; there had been a rebellion during the Cyane's absence.

In January 1847, she provided men for the recapture of Los Angeles, joining in the Battles of San Gabriel (Jan 8) and La Mesa (Jan 9).  Los Angeles was occupied the following day.  But the Cyane was not done with the war yet.

The Pacific Squadron had other duties than just the war and the Cyane went looking for pirates and protecting the US whaling fleet.  In November 1847, the Cyane joined the Congress and the Independence in the capture of Mazatlan.

The Cyane's final operation during the war was to relieve the siege at San Jose del Cabo (Baja California) in February 1848.  The Cyane remained in the region, relocating to Mazatlan.  On June 7th, while at the port of San Blas, the ship recieved word that the peace treaty was signed and the war was over.

No other ship in the US fleet on either coast saw so much action as the USS Cyane.  The ship remained active on the coasts of North and South America until she was decommissioned in 1871.