Customer Reviews

Escape From Fort Bravo [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Escape from Fort Bravo is a very good western that deals with a time and place not often featured in westerns. Fort Bravo is a Union outpost in the Arizona territory during the Civil War. Colonel Owens, Captain Roper, and a company of Union cavalry must watch over the stockade full of Confederate officers while also dealing with the Mescalero Apaches. When four of the prisoners escape with a woman from the fort, Captain Roper and a small detail must chase them across the barren desert as the Apaches close in on them. This is a very good western from director John Sturges(The Magnificent Seven). It is a beautifully shot movie with a good score by Jeff Alexander and Stan Jones. While the first part of the movie is good, the climax is the best part. Stranded in the desert by the Mescaleros, the Union and Confederate troops must try and survive as arrows rain down on them. It is a great ending that should not be missed.

William Holden gives a typically good performance as the ruthless Captain Roper, who must try and bring the escaped prisoners back to Fort Bravo. Eleanor Parker is also very good as Carla Forester, a woman who comes to the fort with alterior motives but begins to fall for Roper. John Forsythe, William Demarest, and William Campbell play three of the escaped prisoners, Marsh, Campbell, and Young. The trio brings a humor to their parts that is otherwise missing in the movie. The movie also stars Polly Bergen, Richard Anderson as Lt. Beecher, the voice of reason, Carl Benton Reid as Colonel Owens, and John Lupton as Bailey. The VHS is of average quality, but the movie is well worth a watch. For a highly entertaing western with a great final showdown, check out Escape from Fort Bravo!

Bill holden portrays a cynical union officer at Fort Bravo. Despite his hard bitten reputation, he grows roses. He's in charge of protecting the fort from Indian attack and Confederate prisoner escapes. However, for all his experience, he gets distracted by a woman of course, who's secretly assisting a Confederate escape. This all leads up to an exciting climax, when confederate and union officer must join forces to survive Mescalero attack. Bill Holden shines in this role, bringing his usual natural charm to a western that quietly goes about it's business to it's suspenseful end. Some really romantic lines in this one too!

MGM presents "ESCAPE FROM FORT BRAVO" (9 December 1953) (98 mins/Color) (Dolby digitally remastered) -- Our story line and plot, In the Civil War, Fort Bravo is a prison camp for captured southerners --- Its isolated position and unfriendly natives make escape almost impossible, but anyone who tries is always brought back by by-the-book Captain Roper (William Holden) --- Another Captain John Marsh (John Forsythe) a Confederate and a group of prisoners hatch a plot to get away by bringing in a southern belle Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker) to distract Roper --- The plan seems to work, but the inhospitable desert, the murderous Indians, and - most importantly - the Colonel apparently wronged in love mean that this is only the start --- William Holden and John Forsythe both love Parker --- Besides the three main leads mentioned above, the supporting cast includes William Demerest, William Campbell, Richard Anderson, Polly Bergen, and in a pre "Broken Arrow" role, John Lupton --- Campbell and Demerest do provide some comic relief, playing off each other's abilities, but the lead actors do carry the picture and prevent it from becoming just another Cavalry-Indians western --- Filmed on location at California's Death Valley, "Escape from Fort Bravo" was co-written by Australian-born actor Michael Pate --- Another brilliant John Sturges film with excellent directing.

Under the production staff of:
John Sturges - Director
Nicholas Nayfack - Producer
Frank Fenton - Screenwriter
Michael Pate - Screen Story
Philip Rock - Screen Story
Robert Surtees - Cinematographer
Jeff Alexander - Songwriter / Composer (Music Score)
Stan Jones - Songwriter
George Boemler - Editor
Malcolm Brown - Art Director
Cedric Gibbons - Art Director
Ralph S. Hurst - Set Designer
Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer
Helen Rose - Costume Designer
Warren Newcombe - Special Effects

SPECIAL FEATURES:
BIOS:
1. William Holden (aka: William Franklin Beedle Jr.)
Date of Birth: 17 April 1918 - O'Fallon, Illinois
Date of Death: 16 November 1981 - Santa Monica, California

2. Eleanor Parker
Date of Birth: 26 June 1922 - Cedarville, Ohio
Date of Death: Still Living

3. John Forsythe (aka: John Lincoln Freund)
Date of Birth: 29 January 1918 - Penn's Grove, New Jersey
Date of Death: Still Living

4. John Sturges (Director)
Date of Birth: 3 January 1911 - Oak Park, Illinois
Date of Death: 18 August 1992 - San Luis Obispo, California

the cast includes:
William Holden ... Capt. Roper
Eleanor Parker ... Carla Forester
John Forsythe ... Capt. John Marsh
William Demarest ... Campbell
William Campbell ... Cabot Young
Polly Bergen ... Alice Owens
Richard Anderson ... Lt. Beecher
Carl Benton Reid ... Col. Owens
John Lupton ... Bailey
Fred Graham ... Jones
Charles Stevens ... Eilota
Glenn Strange ... Sgt. Compton

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc) and Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- If you're into the memories of B-Westerns with high drama, this is the one you've been anxiously waiting for --- please stand up and take a bow Western Classics --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 98 mins on DVD ~ Warner Home Video ~ (8/26/2008)

Very good film about the conflict and tensions between union army and southern prisoners during the Civil War. Minor flaws in the picture, such as weapons that were not issued until after the Civil War ended. However, William Holden is believable in this film and gives an excellent performance. The photography in Death Valley is outstanding.

William Holden is Captain Roper, a strict commanding officer in charge of a large group of Confederate prisoners in a dry heat stockade at Fort Bravo, Arizona, in 1863...

He is disliked by his captors as well by his captives because of his displeasing behavior toward the escapees whom he invariably recaptures... A main example, dragging back to the fort John Lupton with a rope around his waist...

To Fort Bravo arrived, one morning, the talented, and beautiful Eleanor Parker (Carla) apparently for the wedding of a friend (Polly Bergen)... In fact she is scheming the escape of a rebel, Captain John Forsythe...

Carla - a confederate agent - knows how to charm and handle beautifully Holden in her sojourn in the fort... Holden is the only danger to her plan, as he is the man who finds everybody...

One night, she escapes in a horse-drawn cart with three men, and a coward storekeeper, her Confederate ally... A deceived Holden receives with shock the striking notice that Carla, the woman he loves, is the one who planned the escape... He sets out in their pursuit, ignoring that outside, and around him, in the wilderness, common enemy is watching, the deadly Mescalero Indians...

Holden is stern, enigmatic and firm as the brusque young officer, who keeps the restless prisoners in Fort Bravo while trying to keep out marauding Indians... However Holden is an ideal human officer with integrity beneath his inflexible rules that discipline is fundamental in and around Fort Bravo...

The film carries cautiously, continuous tense action sequences as it incorporates into the exciting climax... The state of expectation and the quality of hopefulness are extremely controlled... The cast gives force and pressure to the nature of the drama keeping the actions spontaneous... The dynamic climactic redskin ambush, with brutal arrow-artillery, express great tension... The rain of the Indians arrows is vigorously presented by John Sturges who directed many fine Westerns like "Backlash," "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," and "The Law and Jake Wade."

"Escape from Fort Bravo" is a great Western and a good suspense drama with a sweet romance and spectacular action... The scenery is overwhelming: the jagged rocks, the dirt and the sage as well as the play of light and shade, all fulfilling, in Technicolor, one purpose, Grey against Blue and Indians against everybody...

The script deals around the relationship between the Union capitan (William Holden)and the people of Fort Bravo during the Civil War . A real management lesson .
Very fine actings and an outsatnding and tiur de force climax in the last battle in the nmiddle of the desert.
A great movie from John Sturges and also a towering performance of William Holden .

William Holden's screen presence and charisma elevates would would have been a run of the mill 1950s B western into a memorable film. Turner Classic Movies as been running the restored letter boxed version and I can only hope that the DVD release will measure up. Look for Eleanor Parker,John Forsythe, William Campbell, John Lupton, William Demarest and Richard Anderson as a solid supporting cast.

This reviewer fondly remembers "Escape from Fort Bravo" from his first viewing when he was 7 years old. This is still a good one albeit a movie with 2 distinct segments. ESB is set against a provocative background: A Union prisoner of war camp for Confederates in the Arizona desert.

The first part of ESB contains much fuss and feathers, mostly with garrison life at the Fort. Watch! A newcomer to the base is a Confederate agent. ESB switches gears sharply when the operative engineers a breakout!

William Holden leads a detail to bring the fugitives back. The Blues and Grays are thrown together against a deadlier enemy: the Mescalaro Apaches, who trap the good guys in a gully. In a positively ingenious military maneuver, the Apaches rain arrows down on the soldiers. An Apache on a bluff directs bracketing fire! The whine of the deadly arrows is chilling. The Apaches give a very good account of themselves, as they surely did in real life. Viewers can feel the sun beating down and the water running out as the soldiers wait to die, one by one. Looking back, the resolution is foreshown but so quickly and furtively that many viewers, as did this one, will not notice.

ESB is a good solid, gritty, workmanlike production from the 50s, when Hollywood still made serious westerns with no political strings attached.

I enjoyed watching this film, doesn't drag along but it's not just a shoot-em-up either. If you like William Holden then you will like this movie, I think he does a good job in his role.

Escape from Fort Bravo is a good western, not a classic, but worth watching. William Holden is strong in the lead role. Set in Arizona during the Civil War, it is not a typical Western, but more along the lines of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, or Dark Command. The plot is interesting, the rest of the cast solid, and the action pretty decent (especially during the last 20 minutes). I liked the scenery that was used, but some of the footage came across as fuzzy, which was a little distracting. If you like Westerns, you will most likely enjoy this one, especially if you like William Holden. But, if you are looking for a classic western look somewhere else first.