The Horse Soldiers - Movie Reviews

Publish date: 2024-05-08

Apr 5, 2023

While this movie is, on the surface, just another John Wayne/John Ford flick, there's actually a good deal of moral complexity going on. William Holden's character actually addresses slavery multiple times in the film, one of the Union troopers used to work on the Underground Railroad and black people, both free and slave, make regular appearances onscreen. Though it by no means grapples with the horrifying reality of slavery on a visceral level, this was pretty good for 1959. In addition, the film makes some jabs at the farcical "glory of war". Characters who constantly seek the limelight in battle are parodied and they compare poorly to Colonel Marlowe's consummate, quiet professionalism. The pupils from the southern military academy are at once hilarious playacting as adults and terrifying in their military bearing and efficiency. Ultimately this movie succeeds because of its realism (Constance Towers' performance notwithstanding). A slow death from Civil War medicine or the death sentence of Andersonville are constantly present, and when Marlowe and his command ride away at the end of the film, it's left an open question whether they make it through to New Orleans or not. In The Horse Soldiers, war is deadly serious.

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