{"id":37208,"date":"2016-09-09T14:08:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T21:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=37208"},"modified":"2020-12-23T16:58:56","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T23:58:56","slug":"santa-fe-trail-1940","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=37208","title":{"rendered":"Santa Fe Trail (1940)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Our job is to be a soldier, not to decide what is wrong or right.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Poster-191x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"191\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-37210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Poster-191x300.jpg 191w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Poster-82x128.jpg 82w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Poster-768x1205.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Poster-652x1024.jpg 652w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Poster.jpg 1317w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 191px) 100vw, 191px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter graduating from West Point Academy, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/J._E._B._Stuart\">J.E.B. Stuart<\/a> (Errol Flynn) and his friends &#8212; including future Confederacy leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Armstrong_Custer\">George Custer<\/a> (Ronald Reagan) and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_Longstreet\">James Longstreet<\/a> (Frank Wilcox) &#8212; battle against a classmate (Van Heflin) who has joined forces with militant abolitionist <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Brown_(abolitionist)\">John Brown<\/a> (Raymond Massey).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alan Hale Films<\/li>\n<li>Errol Flynn Films<\/li>\n<li>Historical Films<\/li>\n<li>Michael Curtiz Films<\/li>\n<li>Olivia de Haviland Films<\/li>\n<li>Raymond Massey Films<\/li>\n<li>Ronald Reagan Films<\/li>\n<li>Slavery<\/li>\n<li>Van Heflin Films<\/li>\n<li>Westerns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis dubiously historical western features a roster of famous characters inaccurately co-existing for the sake of convenience, and an egregiously demeaning portrayal of a controversial yet critically important figure in America&#8217;s ongoing civil rights movement (John Brown). (Interestingly, Massey played Brown once again in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0048602\/\">1955&#8217;s <em>Seven Angry Men<\/em><\/a>, giving what was apparently a much more nuanced portrayal of his life and convictions.) <em>Santa Fe Trail<\/em> is competently directed by Michael Curtiz and features typically excellent cinematography by Sol Polito, but otherwise isn&#8217;t worth seeking out unless you&#8217;re curious for some reason. (It&#8217;s available as a <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/Santa_Fe_Trail\">public domain title<\/a>.) One scene does deserve mention, however: as Brown&#8217;s compatriot defends an African-American family on a train, we see a rare glimpse of the devastating racism and fear rampant across pre-Civil War America. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An attempt to show the sins of slavery and racism in a reasonably authentic light<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Family-on-Train.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Family-on-Train.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"386\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-37383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Family-on-Train.png 480w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Family-on-Train-128x103.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Family-on-Train-300x241.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Sol Polito&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"386\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-37211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography.png 480w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography-128x103.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography-300x241.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"386\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-37212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography2.png 480w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography2-128x103.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Santa-Fe-Trail-Cinematography2-300x241.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; you can skip this one. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0033021\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/3623\/santa-fe-trail#articles-reviews?articleId=92453\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tvguide.com\/movies\/santa-fe-trail\/review\/116753\/\">TV Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/us\/film\/santa-fe-trail\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Our job is to be a soldier, not to decide what is wrong or right.&#8221; Synopsis: After graduating from West Point Academy, J.E.B. Stuart (Errol Flynn) and his friends &#8212; including future Confederacy leaders George Custer (Ronald Reagan) and James Longstreet (Frank Wilcox) &#8212; battle against a classmate (Van Heflin) who has joined forces with militant abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey). Genres: Alan Hale Films Errol Flynn Films Historical Films Michael Curtiz Films Olivia de Haviland Films Raymond Massey Films&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=37208\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37208"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59207,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37208\/revisions\/59207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}