- Actors: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale
- Directors: Michael Curtiz
- Writers: Robert Buckner
- Producers: Hal B. Wallis, Robert Fellows
- Format: PAL
- Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: U
- Studio: Waterfall
- DVD Release Date: 4 April 2005
- Run Time: 110 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0001KZNTW
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 43,126 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Confused politics, distorted history but decent entertainment - if you can find a good copy
26 Feb 2012
Format:DVD-R
Along with Silver River, Santa Fe Trail is the only one of their Errol Flynn Westerns that Warners haven't done a proper DVD release of (excluding a French release), and one suspects it's less to do with the slew of atrocious quality public domain prints on the market as the touchy political incorrectness problems that delayed the DVD release of Jolson's The Jazz Singer. In telling the downfall of deluded Abolitionist John Brown it's stuck between the attitudes of the 40s, the censorship strictures of the Hays Code (as a lawbreaker Brown can't be seen to be heroic) and a desperate attempt to please all sides on the whole fuzzy slavery/civil war thing. Thus its West Point buddies Jeb Stuart (Flynn), George Custer (Ronald Reagan) and co are constantly reminding us that it's not a soldier's place to decide laws, merely to abide by and enforce them, Van Heflin's abolitionist agitator in the ranks is shown up as a mercenary turncoat, them freed slaves want none o' dat freedom Massa Brown wants ta gives them and Stuart stresses that the whole civil war thing is unnecessary because, given time, the South will sort it all out themselves without losing their pride. As a result it's a bit of a confused mess filled with confused characters who don't know what to think - though there's a minor consensus that Brown's cause is right but his methods are not - leaving audiences wondering just who they're supposed to be rooting for as history gets trampled underfoot. Which is a pity, because Raymond Massey is such perfect casting as Brown that it's a shame they didn't just make a film focussing on him and the real man's bizarre contradictions - which Massey indeed did with 1955's sadly obscure Seven Angry Men.
Still, if the script isn't sure what or whose story it's telling, the studio lavished their best on it, reuniting Flynn with his Robin Hood team of Olivia de Havilland, Alan Hale, cinematographer Sol Polito and director Michael Curtiz, among others, and there are enough good moments en route to the final battle sequence - best among them a scene with a native fortune teller whose prophecy that the main characters will all win fame as enemies is met with disbelieving laughter - to keep it more than watchable. Which is more than can be said for the truly terrible public domain DVD and video transfers out there, which makes Warner's French PAL DVD seem a lot better than it is. It's not an outstanding transfer by any means, but it's a more than acceptable one even if it's not much of a step up from a decent video master. There's no remastering or extras but it does boast the original English titles and soundtrack while the French subtitles are removeable.
Still, if the script isn't sure what or whose story it's telling, the studio lavished their best on it, reuniting Flynn with his Robin Hood team of Olivia de Havilland, Alan Hale, cinematographer Sol Polito and director Michael Curtiz, among others, and there are enough good moments en route to the final battle sequence - best among them a scene with a native fortune teller whose prophecy that the main characters will all win fame as enemies is met with disbelieving laughter - to keep it more than watchable. Which is more than can be said for the truly terrible public domain DVD and video transfers out there, which makes Warner's French PAL DVD seem a lot better than it is. It's not an outstanding transfer by any means, but it's a more than acceptable one even if it's not much of a step up from a decent video master. There's no remastering or extras but it does boast the original English titles and soundtrack while the French subtitles are removeable.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This film was made during that halcyon Hollywood period at the end of the thirties, when romance took strong precedent over historical accuracy. That is certainly true of this film which has understandably been strongly criticised in the past. One has to remember films like this were children of their time from a more innocent and less cynical age. Political correctness tended to go out of the window! Even so, this one plays particular havoc with the facts and some of it borders on bad taste.The film opens at West Point in 1854 and we follow fellow cadets J.E.B Stuart, Custer, Sheridan, Hood, Pickett and Longstreet, who contrary to history all graduate from the same year. All these men were to become prominent figures in the coming Civil War on opposing sides. Robert E Lee presides over the academy to add a further reminder of the coming war. Following graduation the new officers are sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to keep peace between pro and anti-slavery factions in the area. Stuart and Custer do battle with John Brown and with each other for the hand of the beautiful `Kit Carson' Holliday, played by Olivia De Havilland. We head to a fiery finish at Harper's Ferry.
Although I have no problems with the West Point inaccuracies there are a couple of things that don't sit easily with me. Firstly there is the offensive stereo typical portrayal of eyeball rolling blacks that modern audiences struggle with. This was a problem in Hollywood that persisted through to the fifties. Then there is Raymond Massey's overblown portrayal of John Brown as a bible spouting religious crackpot. Fanatical perhaps, but he was certainly no crackpot. The rest is the typical dashing fare of the period with Errol Flynn as Stuart leading the plucky Cavalry into action. A very youthful looking Ronald Reagan gets to play Custer. Flynn was to portray him the following year in Raoul Walsh's stirring film "They Died with Their Boots on". Van Heflin gets to play the bad guy on this occasion. Flynn's oft used stalwart support Alan Hale appears for comedy relief with Guinn `Big Boy' Williams. The film does contain a few stirring action scenes but is generally uninspiring formulaic stuff. It was critically well received in its time but has not dated particularly well. Most interesting perhaps is how the portents of the shortly to come conflagration between the North and the South hang over proceedings like a dark ominous cloud, but this is not enough to give it more than three stars. This is an old black and white film so picture quality is not the greatest.
Although I have no problems with the West Point inaccuracies there are a couple of things that don't sit easily with me. Firstly there is the offensive stereo typical portrayal of eyeball rolling blacks that modern audiences struggle with. This was a problem in Hollywood that persisted through to the fifties. Then there is Raymond Massey's overblown portrayal of John Brown as a bible spouting religious crackpot. Fanatical perhaps, but he was certainly no crackpot. The rest is the typical dashing fare of the period with Errol Flynn as Stuart leading the plucky Cavalry into action. A very youthful looking Ronald Reagan gets to play Custer. Flynn was to portray him the following year in Raoul Walsh's stirring film "They Died with Their Boots on". Van Heflin gets to play the bad guy on this occasion. Flynn's oft used stalwart support Alan Hale appears for comedy relief with Guinn `Big Boy' Williams. The film does contain a few stirring action scenes but is generally uninspiring formulaic stuff. It was critically well received in its time but has not dated particularly well. Most interesting perhaps is how the portents of the shortly to come conflagration between the North and the South hang over proceedings like a dark ominous cloud, but this is not enough to give it more than three stars. This is an old black and white film so picture quality is not the greatest.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
"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 takes losing out on the girl like a real man. However, the more you know about American history the more likely you are to cringe at some of these going on because Flynn plays James Elwell Brown (J.E.B.) Stuart and Reagan plays George Armstrong Custer. Of course, the year after this 1941 film was released Flynn would play Custer in "They Died With Their Boots On," where once again de Havilland would play his love interest; this time she plays Kit Carson Halliday, but most viewers should be able to realize she is 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 fresh out of West Point trying to bring order to the frontier at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. All this takes place under the watchful eyes of Colonel Robert E. Lee (Mornoi Olsen), Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy while the future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis (Erville Alderson), is Secretary of War.
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 1854), because mostly it gets things wrong (e.g., Custer finished last in his class in 1861; Oliver Otis Howard graduated in 1854 with Stuart, but he was just another corps commander in the Union Army of the Potomac). The film does end on an ominous note with Lee commanding the troops that capture John Brown (Raymond Massey, who plays the same role in 1955's "Seven Angry Men) at Harpers Ferry. The title for the film has to do with the fact that Kit's father, railroad magnate Cyrus K. Holliday (Henry O'Neill), wants to extend to railroad along the Sante Fe Trail. However, we usually associate the trail with westward expansion and not the slavery issue, which is what gives this film what historical gravity it maintains.
The easiest explanation for the difference between history and this film would be the tagline, which declares: "They carved a path through the wilderness... then paved it with bullets and lives!" Screenwriter Robert Buckner does get some points for coming up with some real figures, even if he jettisoned their real history and left it to the audience to figure out which characters would end up on which side fighting against each other in the Civil War. As an action film "Santa Fe Trail" is better than "They Died With Their Boots On," and the character Flynn plays better deserves are sympathies.
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Vintage Flynn
I enjoyed this DVD very much. It is a typical Errol Flynn film with all the ingredients we have come to expect from him. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Geordie70
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... Read more
Published on 6 April 2003
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