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Stream Santa Fe Trail Online.
Movie Title: Santa Fe Trail Santa Fe Trail is available for streaming or downloading. |
For all those DVD owners who are Errol Flynn fans or just plain love movies of the 30’s and 40’s, Santa Fe Trail is a fine film. Never mind political correctness or historical accuracy (none to be found), just smile and emerse yourselves in great entertainment by great stars…Errol Flynn (JEB Stuart), Raymond Massey (an awesome John Brown), Ronald Reagan (Custer), Olivia de Havilland, Alan Hale, et al. Solid performances by all.
The Roan Group did a good job transferring the movie to DVD…the sound is good and the picture clear. One can only hope that more of Flynn’s movies will be transferred to DVD. To date none of his truly great movies, The Adventure’s of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Gentleman Jim, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Dodge City, Captain Blood, and Objective Burma are no where to be seen on the DVD horizon. A real travesty for all fans of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan star as soldiers out to thwart abolitionist John Brown in this action film set in the years just prior to the start of the Civil War. The U.S. is divided on the issue of slavery, and Brown has managed to stir the pot quite a bit. Flynn’s best leading lady Olivia de Havilland is along again, this time as the tomboy that both Flynn and Reagan love. Van Heflin is a former fellow cadet of theirs who works for Brown, and Alan Hale is along for another ride with Flynn, providing the comic relief as usual. The performances are all good, with particular praise going to Raymond Massey as Brown, giving an insane, Jesus-like turn as the man whose motives are right, but whose means are very, very wrong. The script mixes a lot of action with humour and romance, plus a few political speeches. The happy ending seems tacked on, but other than that, it works well enough. A lot of people comment on the historical inaccuracies of this film (it’s even mentioned on the video box description!), but my reaction has always been that you don’t watch a Hollywood movie for a history lesson. Dramatic necessities will always lead to changing history to suit the film’s needs. Instead, just sit back, enjoy the action, the chemistry of Flynn and de Havilland, the humour, the great score, and simply take away the idea of what the time must have been like, rather than the facts.