Tomahawk

Historický / western, USA, 1951, 82 min.



In 1866, in Wyoming, Sioux chiefs and officials of the U.S. Army meet to discuss a treaty that will enable the government to open the Bozeman trail through Sioux territory. Jim Bridger, a frontier scout and fur trader, speaks out passionately against the trail, arguing that it will destroy hunting ground crucial to the Sioux's survival. After Bridger reveals his knowledge that the government is already building a fort along the proposed trail, Chief Red Cloud angrily ends the meeting, but he promises that he will not go to war unless the Sioux are attacked first. Col. Carrington, the commander of Fort Phil Kearny, the Army's new installment, offers Bridger and his partner, Sol Beckworth, positions as scouts, but Bridger at first declines. He changes his mind, however, when Monahseetah, a young Cherokee girl to whom Bridger serves as guardian, points out Lt. Rob Dancy and whispers her suspicion that he participated in the massacre in which her entire tribe was killed. Shortly after, while escorting a wagon carrying vaudeville performers Dan Castello and his niece, Julie Madden, the Indian-hating Dancy shoots a Sioux teenager and keeps the murder a secret. Dan is seriously wounded by an arrow when the Sioux retaliate, but back at the fort, Dancy claims that the attack was unprovoked. Dancy attempts to impress Julie with tales of his Indian fighting days with the infamous Reverend Shivington and his renegade militia, the Colorado Volunteers. However, Julie is attracted to Bridger, who has saved her uncle's life by removing the arrow. Jealous, Dancy denounces Bridger as an Indian spy and "squaw man," claiming that Monahseetah is Bridger's common-law wife. Bridger returns from a scouting expedition to report that the Sioux are preparing for a full-scale war, and, although Dancy and the like-minded Capt. Fetterman want to go on the offensive, Carrington orders everyone to remain in the fort. Disobeying orders, Julie sneaks out of the fort to go riding and ends up being chased by Sioux warriors, forcing Bridger to kill Red Cloud's favorite son in the effort to rescue her. After Julie expresses her mistaken belief that Monahseetah is Bridger's wife, Bridger explains with great sorrow and anger that Monahseetah is the sister of his beloved Cherokee wife, who was killed along with her infant son in a massacre carried out by the bigoted Shivington and his Colorado Volunteers. Julie then informs Bridger of her knowledge of Dancy's participation in the Volunteers, confirming Monahseetah's and Bridger's suspicions. In the meantime, the soldiers at the fort are becoming more and more anxious to fight after being subjected to the drone of Sioux war drums for four days. After Dancy convinces Fetterman and his men to disobey orders by following a small band of Sioux, the soldiers ride straight into a trap laid by the Sioux. All are killed, save for Dancy, who escapes into the woods where he is tracked down by Bridger. Bridger confronts Dancy as the murderer of his wife and child and they begin to fight. Before he is killed with a Sioux arrow, Dancy admits to the massacre, but claims he was only following orders. Carrington's troops go to battle using the "breechloading" weapons shipped to them by the government. The soldiers quickly prevail over the Sioux, whose methods of battle cannot succeed against the new guns, which can be reloaded with lightning speed. To Bridger's relief, Carrington allows Red Cloud to pick up his dead and leave the battlefield in peace. However, Red Cloud ultimately wins the battle when word arrives from Washington that a new treaty will be signed, closing the trail and the fort. Once Carrington's men are gone, Red Cloud's warriors burn down the fort, erasing all traces of the white man's presence in their land.
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Režie: George Sherman
Herci: Van Heflin, Yvonne De Carlová, Alex Nicol, Preston Foster, Jack Oakie, více...

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