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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

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The Horse Soldiers (1959)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Civil Western

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Director John Ford combined his two strong suits, the western and the war movie, for this Civil War-era tale of Union soldier Wayne and pacifist doctor William Holden marching deep into Rebel territory and facing all kinds of challenges; Southern Belle Constance Towers among them. Wayne and Holden bicker constantly and even attempt the usual Ford fistfight. It's a lesser Ford, rife with his backwards attempts at humor, but even a lesser Ford is still a film by one of the cinema's greatest poets. It's still very much worth a viewing. MGM's 2001 DVD transfer is slightly grainy, but the 2011 Blu-Ray release looks much sharper.

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Trailer | Poster | Soundtrack | Book

Starring: John Wayne, William Holden, Constance Towers, Judson Pratt, Hoot Gibson, Ken Curtis, Willis Bouchey, Bing Russell, O.Z. Whitehead, Hank Worden, Chuck Hayward, Denver Pyle, Strother Martin, Basil Ruysdael, Carleton Young, William Leslie, William Henry, Walter Reed, Anna Lee, William Forrest, Ron Hagerthy, Russell Simpson, Althea Gibson
Written by: John Lee Mahin, Martin Rackin, based on a novel by Harold Sinclair
Directed by: John Ford
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 119 minutes
Date: July 26, 2001