Two Flags West
| Two Flags West | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Robert Wise |
| Produced by | Casey Robinson |
| Screenplay by | Casey Robinson |
| Story by |
Frank S. Nugent Curtis Kenyon |
| Starring |
Joseph Cotten Linda Darnell Jeff Chandler Cornel Wilde |
| Music by |
Hugo Friedhofer Music Director Alfred Newman Orchestration Earle Hagen Maurice de Packh Composer Julia Ward Howe Daniel Decatur Emmett William Steffe |
| Cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
| Edited by | Louis Loeffler |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
92 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Two Flags West is a 1950 Western drama set during the American Civil War, directed by Robert Wise and starring Joseph Cotten, Jeff Chandler, Linda Darnell, and Cornell Wilde. The opening credits contain the following statement:
On December 8th, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Special Proclamation, whereby Confederate Prisoners of War might gain their freedom, provided they would join the Union Army to defend the frontier West against the Indians.
Based on the historical service of "Galvanized Yankees", the film tells the story of a company of imprisoned Confederate Army cavalry troopers given such amnesty. The company of Georgia veterans journeys to a remote New Mexico post commanded by an embittered, Southerner-hating major who expects them to desert at the first opportunity. The fulfillment of that expectation is challenged by an attack on the fort itself by Kiowa.
Two Flags West was one of a wave of Civil War reconciliation-themed Westerns in the 1950s, in which soldiers from North and South combine against a common foe, that included Rocky Mountain (1950), The Last Outpost (1951), Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), and Revolt at Fort Laramie (1957).
In the autumn of 1864, remnants of the Confederate 5th Georgia Cavalry are prisoners of war in the Union prison camp at Rock Island, Illinois. Sick and dying in deplorable conditions, they find a chance for survival when Union Captain Mark Bradford (Cornel Wilde) offers them release from "this stinking pesthole" if they will join the Union Army to garrison a fort on the western frontier, undermanned because its able-bodied regulars have been sent east, leaving only "greenhorns or casualties" like Bradford to fight Indians. Although promised that they will not be compelled to fight against their own, many of the Georgians resist the offer. Putting the decision to a vote, the issue is deadlocked when the last soldier dies before he can choose. Compassion for his men, and Bradford's sincerity, compels their reluctant commander, Col. Clay Tucker (Joseph Cotten) to break the tie by agreeing to the conditions offered.
...
Wikipedia