Cheap Santa Fe Trail (DVD) (Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland) (Michael Curtiz) Price

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Customer Reviews of Santa Fe Trail

Action, Romance, Comedy, Politics
Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan star as soldiers out to thwart abolitionist John Brown in this action film set in the years just prior to the start of the Civil War. The U.S. is divided on the issue of slavery, and Brown has managed to stir the pot quite a bit. Flynn's best leading lady Olivia de Havilland is along again, this time as the tomboy that both Flynn and Reagan love. Van Heflin is a former fellow cadet of theirs who works for Brown, and Alan Hale is along for another ride with Flynn, providing the comic relief as usual. The performances are all good, with particular praise going to Raymond Massey as Brown, giving an insane, Jesus-like turn as the man whose motives are right, but whose means are very, very wrong. The script mixes a lot of action with humour and romance, plus a few political speeches. The happy ending seems tacked on, but other than that, it works well enough. A lot of people comment on the historical inaccuracies of this film (it's even mentioned on the video box description!), but my reaction has always been that you don't watch a Hollywood movie for a history lesson. Dramatic necessities will always lead to changing history to suit the film's needs. Instead, just sit back, enjoy the action, the chemistry of Flynn and de Havilland, the humour, the great score, and simply take away the idea of what the time must have been like, rather than the facts.

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Flynn romances de Havilland on the eve of the Civil War
"Santa Fe Trail" is a fine action film giving viewers another chance to watch Errol Flynn romance Olivia de Havilland, with Ronald Reagan playing the best friend who loses out on the gal. Just to make things interesting in this 1940 film directed by Michael Curtiz, Flynn plays James Elwell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart and Reagan plays George Armstrong Cuter (Olivia is Kit Carson Halliday, but she's not THAT Kit Carson). Screenwriter Robert Buckner takes some of the better known generals from the Civil War--Stuart, Custer, Sheridan, Longstreet, Pickett, Hood--and turns them into a young band of brothers out to bring order to the frontier at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The true Civil War history buff will marvel every time the film gets something right (e.g., Stuart really did graduate from West Point in 1954), and the film ends on an ominous note with Robert E. Lee (Moroni Olson) commanding the troops that capture John Brown (Raymond Massey) at Harpers Ferry. I am not complaining because I saw a movie version of "Moby Dick" where Ahab kills the whale, so I certainly do not expect much from Hollywood at that point in time. So when the characters never actually make it as far as the Santa Fe Trail, I am not overly surprised. As the tagline for "Santa Fe Trail" declared: "They carved a path through the wilderness... then paved it with bullets and lives!" Flynn gets the girl, Reagan helps him get the bad guys, and Alan Hale provides some comic relief as legendary scout Tex Bell. For my money the action sequences are better in "Santa Fe Trail" than when Flynn gets his chance to play Custer in "They Died With Their Boots On."

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Strange Classic
Many people are no doubt thrown off by the odd politics of this film. This never actually bothered me. Today we have become so mired in political correctness outlook that we can't view a film like this objectively anymore. Sure some of the views are a bit dated. But this is a hollywood 1930s film, made around the same time as Gone With the Wind. The views in that film are also strange, but its considered a classic none the less.

The main premise of this film is to show the looming storm clouds of Civil War. The historical facts here are certainly off the mark in many places. The film enjoys giving us a popular image of West Point in the Ante-Bellum days before the war. Many famous cadet names are bandied about that we know would be come famous just a few years later. The point here is not how accurate the data is, but to show that all these men did attend the same institution and that many would become famous adversaries on the battlefied. The film does a nice job of showing this even if it does get a lot of details wrong in the process. The bit with John Brown is amusing. Again, its a difference of perspective here. Hollywood was in love with the old South back then. Today we are in love with polotical correctness which is offended by the fanatical views expressed by the character of John Brown, who is beautifully played by Raymond Massey.

Its amusing to see Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan playing off each other here. I think the best thing to do is forget their so-called historical roles in the film, and just view them as two newly commissioned officers of the period sent to police Kansas. This way you can forget the JEB Staurt /Custer comparisons! The funny thing about seeing Reagan in a film like this is to compare him with what he would later become. We have just eulogized his recent passing in this country. The fact remains if Reagan had been a better actor he might never have become our president! This film was one of the best roles he ever had in movies! He and Flynn go round and round, and its amusing to see Reagan try and hold his own. He actually does better than one would expect next to the powerhouse Flynn with all his sex appeal back then Still, the best actor in the film is Raymond Massey by far. His portrayal of the fanatic Brown may offend some, but Brown was not unlike this. In fact its easy to compare this religious zeal to that of Bin Laden and other fanatics of his ilk. For the 1850s, Brown was seen as a fanatic by many. Abolitionism was a minority view even in the North. No one was too keen to shed blood over freeing slaves, sorry PC people, but this was so!

The final battle scene at Harpers Ferry is exciting, but wildly inaccurate. Colonel Lee actually stormed the place with a company of US Marines, not dis-mounted cavalry! And Brown had only a dozen or so mis-guided follwers by that time. The whole event was quite small compared to what the movie shows us here. Again, try to view this film from the context of both when it was made and the times it is attempting to show. By doing so you can sit back and enjoy a classic adventure romp with a little history thrown in for color.