As with most pre-1960s westerns, The Indian Fighter is charming but problematic. It does mark an evolution in how the genre handled America’s first peoples from the middle of the century, but there remains a long distance to go.

It has extremely violent moments very well filmed, such as the duel on horseback with a machete, reminiscent of the best adventure movies of the time, signed by Richard Thorpe or Henry Hathaway. [Full Review in Spanish]

The screenplay lacks intensity.

_**Rip-roaring 50’s Western shot in the heart of Oregon with Kirk Douglas**_ A frontiersman who functions in the region of the Bozeman Trail & Oregon Trail (Kirk Douglas) assists a wagon train and tries to keep the peace between a tribe of Lakota Sioux living in the area and the new Americans, including a fort of soldiers nearby. "The Indian Fighter" (1955) is similar to "The Last Frontier" (aka "Savage Wilderness"), released earlier the same month of December. They’re both Fort & Indians Westerns taking place in the Northwest with Red Cloud & his braves as the antagonists. The assault on the fort in the movie recalls Red Cloud’s real-life siege of Fort Phil Kearney in the shadow of the Big Horn Mountains in the Wyoming Territory where attacks were launched against troops & settlers for two years from 1866-1868. One great thing about this Western is the character played by Kirk Douglas, Johnny Hawks. He’s a robust individualist who refuses moronic sectarianism in the wilderness conflict. He sees beyond mere skin color & culture and focuses on character and mutual benefit while driven by self-interest, albeit not in an ignoble way. He’s brave & confident, yes, but he’s neither a blind hero nor a sullen antihero out for revenge; he’s a nonconformist loner brimming with joie de vivre that doesn’t care if people hate him (unjustly) and absolutely refuses social manipulations. T…