Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Leofwine_draca DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK is a full-colour, full-blooded settler western made by the iconic John Ford. It's one of the favourites movies I've seen from him. The story sees a youthful and handsome Henry Fonda playing a settler who must protect his family against various frontier challenges, from political revolt and turmoil to attacks by local Native Americans. DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK is a well-paced production with superlative production values and real depth to the story. Fonda is excellent as the protagonist driven to the edge while the likes of John Carradine prove up to the challenge in support. For a film made in 1939, this one feels surprisingly modern, with a tough edge that really pays off.

LeonLouisRicci There are a Couple Things that make this an Endurable John Ford Sermon. The Early Technicolor, and a Few Good Scenes of Tension and Battle. What is Hardly Endurable is the Preaching and Overacting that is Typical Ford. The Overt Sentimentality and Overplaying Certain Aspects that were so Near and Dear to the Director.The Birthing Baby Scene just goes on Forever and becomes Somewhat Intolerable, the Cartoonish Characters like the Happy Drunk (even while being tortured and burned to death), Patriotism as Religion, and just so much Heavy Handedness. Then there's Propaganda like Fonda's (read American) Proclaiming, "No Indian alive can outrun me!".But it is an Entertaining Film and the Final Siege at the Fort is Stunning in its Gripping Brutality. Fonda and Colbert are All Right and Edna May Oliver is again a Scene Stealer, but the Supporting Cast is nothing but a Silly Conglomerate of Overt Stereotypes and Overacting.Certainly Worth a Watch for the Aforementioned Good Parts, but Far from a Classic or Enticing Cinema. That is Typical of most John Ford Stuff. Some rather Great Scenes, but His Movies as a Complete Piece of Art, Generally with a Few Exceptions, cannot Withstand the Weight of Ford's Ego.

Tad Pole . . . Gilbert "Gil" Martin (Henry Fonda) tells his bride Lana (Claudette Colbert) on the second night of their honeymoon, after smacking her across the face. This is a marriage screaming out loud for more "back story;" namely, exactly HOW did log cabin bumpkin Gil even meet city mansion dweller Lana? It's as if THE GREAT GATSY did not show us how Jay Gatz met Daisy Buchanan when he was poor at a military USO-style dance, or like ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS failing to show that he did NOT go directly from a log cabin to wedded "bliss" with Mary Todd, but had become a prominent lawyer during the interim period. Furthermore, I've always wondered why some of the teachers at my school seem to pick on the kids who have "Mohawk" haircuts. Turns out most of the faculty seem old enough to have watched DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK in actual movie theaters when it first came out, during their younger, more impressionable years. In a somewhat racist depiction, all the Native Americans here (except one) are wearing the ORIGINAL Mohawk hair style, and all they seem to do is whoop in high pitched giggles while burning down crops and houses in the New York river valley named after them. While the settler homes may not have had electricity and TV's, no Mohawk homes are shown at all--implying that this tribe was homeless, like today's war veterans suffering from PTSD. My question is, Who would have been dumb enough to burn these crops, cabins, and lodges?! They could have just gathered the crops and moved into the habitations, or used them as second homes, at least. Since the river and valley already were in the Mohawk's name, who could have objected? The U.S. Constitution, which says "possession is nine-tenths of the law," was fresher in peoples' minds then than now. My late dog was named Herkimer, after a town that my family once visited in New York, which--it turns out--was named after a general who gets his leg cut off in DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK and dies. "Herky" ate too many bunnies in our yard, dying from that; before he expired, he'd do a superstitious multi-lap one-dog race around a tree near our driveway every time we backed out a car, to insure that someone would return home to continue feeding him. Eventually "Herky's Oval" was carved four inches into the ground. Henry Fonda is shown out-running a trio of Native Americans who are wearing attire more appropriate for Marathoning than Henry's cumbersome fringed leathers in DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, which I find a trifle hard to credit. I just KNOW Herky would have run circles around Henry.

jc-osms A typically enjoyable John Ford frontier romp, set around the time of the American War of Independence and filmed in glowing colour. It contains the usual mix and at times unusual juxtaposition of broad humour with great pathos, although the accent is more on the latter, particularly the lengthy scene of the returning first-time soldier frontiersmen, battered, bruised and weather-beaten but not bested In battle. In the end they're required to put up an Alamo-type defence of their homestead, until the cavalry comes, summoned by Henry Fonda's Gil character after an extended marathon race against three pursuing Indians which must have broken the Olympic record. As stated, Ford's sometimes abrupt changes of mood and scene jar somewhat, for example, in an early scene Claudette Colbert's prim city girl Lana goes native at the sight of a native Indian, requiring a sock on the jaw from Fonda to calm her down, from which point she becomes the perfect supportive wife, helping on the farm, delivering children and even fighting back marauding Indians by the end.For me, the Fonda / Colbert relationship didn't convince, however. She seems too old to be the sweet, virginal wife and is rather matronly throughout. Fonda, if anything seems too young for his part, a fresh-faced youth which no amount of trying experiences seems to age or weather. That apart, it's impossible not to like other aspects of the movie, including Ford's direction of crowd scenes and some wonderful cinematography, none more so than when Fonda outruns his pursuers under the golden hue of a setting sun. Ford made better movies than this in this year never mind the rest of his long career, even if it is one of those "Indian-bashing" films he would live to regret later in his career. However it's made so well that it's probably best to let the story simply unfold of itself, without looking for logic.