From his background as a chronicler of crime, both as novelist and newspaper reporter, Fuller concocted equally fast 'n furious movies......rapidly paced, hyper violent excursions into a variety of genres....war movies, westerns, noir.......everything was grist for Sam's mill.
As a reporter, Fuller knew the first paragraph better grab you by the throat and grip you for the rest of the story. He followed the same golden rule in crafting his films........the first scene in any Fuller movie is guaranteed to pin you to your seat.....
"Run Of The Arrow" kicks off its irresistibly compelling story on the last day of the Civil War at Appomattox. A thoroughly unreconstructed, Irish immigrant Confederate soldier (Rod Steiger, with his trademark Steiger-ish intensity always set at High Heat) fires the last shot of the war, seriously wounding a Union officer (Ralph Meeker).
Embittered beyond all measure and incapable of assimilating himself back into the re-assembled United States, Steiger exiles himself to the Southwest frontier......in hopes of joining up with a group who hates the U.S. Military even more than he does, the Sioux Indian tribe.....
He's promptly captured by the Sioux and manages to barely survive their 'run of the arrow' ordeal....(which means giving him a head start before bloodthirsty warriors chase him down to kill him). His survival's due to his rescue by a compassionate Sioux widow (Sara Montiel, whose gentle, honey-voiced dialogue comes out of her mouth dubbed in by Angie Dickinson)
After pledging his allegiance to a Sioux chief (a young, impressively muscled Charles Bronson), Steiger finds himself part of an uneasy, tentative treaty between the tribe and the U.S. Cavalry.....forced to function as a scout to lead a contingent of Army engineers to terrain where their construction of a fort won't interfere with Indian hunting grounds.
And here's where Sam Fuller's passion for white-hot melodrama blooms........because among the Cavalry expedition is.....surprise, surprise.... Meeker, Steiger's old Civil War nemesis and final gunshot victim, now an Indian-hating gloryhound officer who's itching for battle and doesn't much care for treaties.
The rabid Meeker is temporarily held in check by the troop's more humane commanding officer (Brian Keith), who calmly tries to bring a little common sense and simple wisdom to the always simmering-to-a-boil Steiger. (Fuller doesn't allow this conversation to dig too deep, just enough to further unsettle Steiger's character.....when Kieth brings up the Ku Klux Klan, Steiger defensively mutters, "I don't know anything about that....")
In true, pulpy Fuller fashion, the script comes up with a way to bring its two primary antagonists full circle, right back to that unforgettable opening scene......and providing the volcanic, conflicted Steiger with something approaching an epiphany......
What's timely, disturbing, and still true here........Fuller's final title card, which instead of providing the closure of "The End", tells the audience that it's up to them to write the end of the story.....(which, to put bluntly by us, comes down to "are you good ole boys from the South gonna put the Civil War behind you and join the U.S.of A. with the rest of us?".......)
Judging from the nonsense topic of whether we should hold on to Confederate monuments (we say melt 'em down into school playground equipment)....and the rise of Baby Orange, the Klan's and Nazis' most favorite President since Jefferson Davis and Hitler........we'd sadly say that "Run Of The Arrow"s finale still hasn't been written......
Which further proves that any Samuel Fuller movie is always worth a look.......we promise he'll never bore you......3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2)......and good luck to all of us writing the ending....
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