The Great Sioux Uprising (1953)

The greatest movie ever made..!

Disturbing yet enthralling

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

My title summarizes one of the more unusual features of this Universal Technicolor Civil War western. I should explain that that the veterinarian(Jeff Chandler, as John Westgate) used to be an army surgeon, before he got discouraged trying to save limbs and lives. The screenplay basically is about a major procurer of army horses(Lyle Bettger as Steve Cook) from the northern and central Plains , who has been recently obtaining his horses by stealing from the Sioux , in order to fulfill his contract with the army. Independent horse procurer Joan Britton tried to buy horses from the Sioux, but Red Cloud declined. .... Some of the subplot components are as follows: 1)Joan's friendship and romance with business competitor Cook vs. newcomer Westgate. It didn't take long for Joan to forget Cook, and team up with Westgate. 2)Cook vs. the small procurers, who look at him with envy, with his army contract. Westgate suggests they band together and pool their resources. But, for a while, they want to lynch Westgate as a suspected murderer.3) The question of whether Westgate will eventually reverse his decision to give up on human surgeries, especially after he does the appendectomy on Cook. 4)The question of whether the Plains tribes will join up with Cherokee Confederate General Stand Watie. After the General gives a pro-Confederate speech at a council of all the major Plains tribes, Westgate gives a speech advising them to stay out of the War..... Stacy Harris, as one -eyed Uriah, serves as Cook's sidekick, who has a penchant for shooting or knifing anyone he sees in his way. ...Peter Whitney turned out to be a friendly blacksmith, who often neglected his work to follow Westgate around as his sidekick. They were often seen with Joan....John War Eagle served as Chief Red Cloud, who did nearly all the talking for the Sioux. ... Glen Strange, who played General Stand Watie was appropriately part Cherokee. His name was derived from that of real Cherokee general of the Confederacy.....Stephen Chase served as Major McKay, commander of the nearby fort.. His detachment helped to capture Cook, after Cook had a tussle with Westgate: the second such episode...... Cook stole horses from the same Sioux , not once, but several times, with the Sioux giving chase the last time: constituting 'the great Sioux uprising'....The film is moderately interesting, not pretending to be a classic. At least, the Sioux Chief was played by a real Indian. Don't confuse this film with "The Great Sioux Massacre", which is yet another expose of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Not a great or even a very good Western, but notable, for 1953 (more than ten years before Cheyenne Autumn), for its relatively strong anti-racist message with reference both to the Abolitionist issue in the Civil War and to the long history of failed promises to Native Americans. Given the standard tendency of Westerns (at best) to skirt over race entirely or to present a favorable interpretation of the Confederate cause, this is no small issue. Apart from Dr Westgate's (Chandler) obvious sympathy for the Indian position, he presents his case for Indian neutrality in the Civil War to the Sioux Council, citing the clear racism of the Confederate general (which he implied would be transferred to the Sioux if they made common cause with the Confederates) and the sacrifice being made by Northern troops in the cause of racial equality. Elmer Daves' Broken Arrow of 1950 with James Stewart and Chandler had already raised the issue of Indian grievances against US Indian policy, but this was emphasizing the message in a 'B' Western context.

The Great Sioux Uprising in the tradition of B westerns is a misnomer of a title. No great uprising takes place though not for Lyle Bettger's efforts to get one started.During the Civil War Bettger is a horse dealer and the biggest one around. He'd like to merge with another dealer, Faith Domergue and crush his other competitors. The reason he's the biggest horse dealer around is that Bettger steals his horses from the Indians and gets top dollar for them from the army. Kind of an unfair advantage don't you think?Enter Jeff Chandler former Union Army surgeon now a veterinarian who has given people doctoring because of a war wound and now tends to animals. He sees what Bettger is doing and tries to organize the opposition, but Bettger is a very clever villain if a little less psychotic than he usually is in films.There's also a Confederate general in the area looking to make his own deal with the Sioux. It all adds up to an interesting western of the Civil War era.There are some interesting supporting performances by friendly blacksmith Peter Whitney and from Stacy Harris a really mean psychotic sort who is Bettger's right hand man. For Jeff Chandler's loyal legion of fans.

This low-budget, low-ambition western actually contains the line, "white man speak with forked tongue." Well, nearly. A doctor poses as a vet to track down two horse thieves and prevent the great Sioux uprising. Rather slow-moving and the liberal speeches at the end are the last straw.