MovieChat Forums > Drums Across the River Discussion > Why I can never like this movie..

Why I can never like this movie..

posted 16 years ago by sockscats
2 replies | jump to latest

Attention spoilers!

This like hundreds of other westerns is not a terrible movie but has it's share of problems and over sights and this one takes the cake.

Gary, the audie murphy character is railroaded on a bogus murder robbery charge. The bad guys seem to outnumber the good guys 20-1 and the sheriff is a moron. Gary is placed in jail and barely any time goes by before he is being led to the gallows. It's pouring rain the only time in the movie it rained and the scene looks like it came from an entirely different place. As gary is being escorted to the gallows I notice something that I can't ignore, a gun belt!

Gary is wearing a gun! On the way to being hanged! Now I seriously doubt if it is normal police procedure to place men in jail with a loaded gun and enough ammo to kill 15 people but the audie murphy character has just that on him. What a moronic oversight!

Combine that with the plastic ponchos from the same scene and the fact the knives the indians used looked like ordinary kitchen knives and one can gather that attention to detail here is atrocious.

This was not a low budget B type film. Murphy was a big star then and walter brennan also and the movie was made in technicolor. No excuse for it. Nobody should ever give this film more than 5 stars.

[–] sockscats 16 years ago

Audie murphy did have post traumatic issues from the war and was known to sleep with a loaded gun under his pillow and even have guns on set. I seriously doubt that had anything to do with the scene and why he was carrying. Most of audie's post traumatic issues didn't peak until the 60s anyway not in 1954 when the film was made.

[–] Jason_Radley 10 years ago

He was wearing a gun belt, an empty one. And those period macs would likely be made of vulcanised rubber.