Review of Run of the Arrow

Rod Steiger's accent is so bad I didn't realise until some way into this picture that he was supposed to be Irish.German?Polish...Lithuanian?He certainly had me guessing I can tell you.Fortunately when he got to make "Henderson" 18 years later he got the Belfast accent down a lot better. Being a Reb does have a certain romance to it I suppose,fields full of waving cotton, ante - bellum houses just like "Tara",blinding white in the Southern sun,slaves singing in their quarters........sorry, my pity for the beaten Confederacy is strictly limited.And,of course,being an Irishman,he would be a natural reb anyway,so he would.Mr Steiger,when I finally sorted his accent out,is portraying a glorious double - cliché figure,a man without a country who,even if he had a home,wouldn't want to go back there. He marries the Indian woman who saves his life (the way you do),becomes accepted in the tribe and represents the Sioux nation in talks with the treacherous white eyes.After lots of adventures he decides he doesn't fit into either culture and wanders off with his family and some survivors of the U.S. Army unit his erstwhile people have pretty much slaughtered.That's "Run of the arrow" for you.Jay C.Flippen,one of the best known Western character actors plays an Indian scout with a ludicrous syrup.Where's the respect for Native American culture there? He looks as embarrassed as I felt watching him.The voice of Steiger's wife is dubbed by Angie Dickinson.Charles Bronson - under gleaming gold make up - plays a Polish Indian chief . Samuel Fuller,beloved of the auteurists,was a good pro who did what he had to do and,if he could,did at least a bit of it his way. Unfortunately for "Run of the Arrow",not much of it was done his way.