Santa Fe Trail

Released Dec 28, 1940

1h 50m

Western

List

56%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

51%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

After graduating from West Point, Jeb Stuart and George Custer are both stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Once there, they find that the violent abolitionist John Brown has laid waste to the state, killing anyone who gets in the way of his anti-slavery crusade. While the duo must work together to battle the murderous revolutionary, they also come to blows over their competing love for Kit Carson Holliday.

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Red T

This has multiple problems but is passable enough. More importantly this should'nt be called Santa Fe Trail. A more proper name would be The Last Crusade of John Brown. The main issue is the editing which isn't that good. This feels like a western adventure in the first half and a John Brown biopic in the second and never makes the two work together. On top of that the romance triangle between Olivia, Errol, and Reagan feels unneeded and doesn't add anything. They really make things drag and feel out of place. I also can't tell you who the main character in this is. It's very unfocused and jumps around quite a bit especially in the middle. Mainly becuase none of them have much character which is another issue. Everyone is just ok in this. Flynn is ok enough but he doesn't have any charisma in this and is very subdued. Olivia should'nt be in this and feels like her character is almost useless and doesn't add anything except to advertise its another Errol & Olivia picure for the marketing. John Brown isn't bad but doesn't have much character versus preaching. The dialouge in this is very pretentious, self rightious, and feels very forced. Flynn also basically disappears in the second half of the movie also as Brown takes center stage. The cinematography is probably the best part but even that has issues. While its solid enough with good camerawork, memorable sets, and a couple of really good action scenes, its always weighed down by something. Pretentious dialouge, unfocused narratives, tone issues, or the boring romance holds it back. The barn fight is also too dark to see what is happening half the time. The music is solid overall but a bit over the top at points. And the pacing is just ok. This is much better in the first half when it focuses on being a rivalry battle between two former classmates with different ideals on the eve of the Civil War. But this gets really boring in the middle when that takes a backseat to the romance and John Brown himself and tries to overcorrect with the ending which is action packed but feels like it drags also. From the time John Brown leaves Kansas it feels like a completely different movie. This needed to focus squarely on John Brown more than anything and not be as preachy. I can't really recommend this to anyone even Errol & Olivia fans because they don't add much suprsingly and aren't the main focus. Skip This.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/25/23

Full Review

Theodore G

A good old fashion Western.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

09/16/23

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Audience Member

Well worth watching James Welch, Henderson, Arkansas February 11, 2023

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I thought it was interesting - for an oldie - that they let a lot of the gray area of the premise stand. John Brown was a complicated issue and they left it as that (rather than making him pure evil and having Errol Flynn the unquestioned hero.) As a whole, the movie was not entirely without problems but I generally liked it. 6.1 out of 10.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Good film, that depicts john brown for the mad man he really was that brought about the biggest waste of life in America history die to the civil war, however large parts of the film are inaccurate it is still a good film

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Fascinating film. As entertainment it is decent enough, but quite disappointing when you compare it to other team ups from Curtiz, Flynn, and DeHavilland - it doesn't have the same exuberance of spirit or mythic heroism or cheeky joy or clever action as Captain Blood or especially Robin Hood - and DeHaviiland is all but wasted here. Reagan as an actor, makes a great president, unsurprisingly. He's a dull ham. The most compelling character and performance here is Raymond Massey as John Brown - all righteous fire and brimstone. The fascination with the film comes from the fact that the BAD guy (dodgy methods, granted) wants to ABOLISH SLAVERY, and the good guys want to stop him. This film was set in 1859, but made in 1940, so the politics are just as despicable as those in Gone with the Wind (if not more so). The good guys shrug non-committedly whenever the issue of slavery (and the impending conflict over it) comes up - "oh, that's what the rest of the country is trying to figure out, we're soldiers, we just do what we're told, and look good doing it". Odd, very odd. Yet...there is a hint of ambiguity here hinting at what could have been (and probably would have been, post 1970s) a much better film. The good guys are kind of chumps, and the supposed villain is not entirely unsympathetic, you kinda feel for him (as well as his cause, obviously). Shame about this then. I guess entrusting a real, complex, uncomfortable story to dudes best of pure white hat vs black hat movies wasn't a great idea.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

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Michael Curtiz

Director

Errol Flynn

Jeb Stuart

Olivia de Havilland

"Kit Carson" Holliday

Raymond Massey

John Brown

Ronald Reagan

George Custer

Alan Hale

Tex Bell

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Danielle Solzman

Solzy at the Movies

It's understandable why Warner Bros. might have seen the onset of the Civil War in Santa Fe Trail as a way to comment on WWII but it only comes off as an epic fail.

Rated: 1/5

Mar 14, 2023

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

Disregarding the film's egregious reframing of history, Santa Fe Trail is one of Curtiz's blandest and most pedestrian films - competently structured but otherwise unremarkable considering the high points of his career.

Rated: 1.5/4

Nov 29, 2021

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

What really sinks this one is its standing as a racist document only slightly less offensive than D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation.

Rated: 2/4

Oct 2, 2021

Full Review

Elena de la Torre

Cine-Mundial

The film is notable because it presents a character and an episode of the American life that is still unknown for many. [Full review in Spanish]

Sep 17, 2019

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Jose Maria Santos

Cine-Mundial

An enormously interesting movie due to the realism with which it was directed and acted. [Full Review in Spanish]

Sep 11, 2019

Full Review

Louis Proyect

rec.arts.movies.reviews

Racist and reactionary tripe whose closest relative is "Gone with the Wind".

Apr 10, 2012

Full Review

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Synopsis

After graduating from West Point, Jeb Stuart and George Custer are both stationed at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Once there, they find that the violent abolitionist John Brown has laid waste to the state, killing anyone who gets in the way of his anti-slavery crusade. While the duo must work together to battle the murderous revolutionary, they also come to blows over their competing love for Kit Carson Holliday.

Director: Michael Curtiz
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Screenwriter: Robert Buckner
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Production Co: Warner Bros.
Genre: Western
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 28, 1940, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2009
Runtime: 1h 50m

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