Grade: C-
Synopsis: During the Civil War, a Union Cavalry Colonel (John Wayne) clashes with a pacifist surgeon (William Holden) assigned to his outfit for a raid deep into confederate territory.
Despite the combined talents of director John Ford and stars John Wayne and William Holden, The Horse Soldiers is a disappointment, and if anyone’s to blame, it’s likely Ford.
Wayne and Holden are fine, with Holden doing a great job holding his own against the usually overpowering Wayne. Yet, the film come across as very uneven, with Ford’s usual intimacy and humanity feeling forced instead of organic, and just about the entire supporting cast failing to register opposite the two leads.
Granted, some of the fault lies with the script, which can’t seem to decide just what it wants to say about the true story on which it’s based. The ideological conflict between Wayne and Holden’s characters begins as a question of pacifism versus violence but morphs into the merits of medicine as a legitimate science. While this does make Wayne’s character a bit more likeable, it weakens the film as a whole.
Thus, The Horse Soldiers never lives up to its potential. All the ingredients are there, yet the film never really gels the way even Ford’s throwaway pictures, like Rio Grande (1950) do. Still, for fans of the talent involved, it’s worth a look, if only to see if you can pinpoint where, exactly, they went wrong.
