The Horse Soldiers 4 stars out of 5 stars

I know some of you just will never watch a John Wayne movie and thats a shame.Forget his politics or a few really bad movies,he did make some real good ones and since he's dead,you only hurt yourself by not checking some of them out.

I took off 1 star because the movie seemed to be a little like "Gone with the wind"meets "Santa fe trail"in the sense of the glory of the south is violated and a woman struggles against it and war splits fellow friends onto opposite sides in a fictional build around of real actions and incidents.
That said,its jolly good fun !!!
John Wayne as Col. John Marlowe is picked to lead a Union calvary incursion deep into the south to destroy railroad facilities at Newton Station.Col.Marlowe is forced to take William Holden as  Surgeon,Maj. Henry Kendall to care for wounded if any.Now one of the sub plots is that Marlowe hates Drs of all kinds and blames them for his wifes death.
Along the way they are forced to bring along Constance Towers as Miss Hannah Hunter of Greenbriar  and her house slave Althea Gibson as Lukey or they will tip off the Rebs of their presence after stopping at their plantation and learning that Hannah had overheard their plans.
Their is also a funny turn by Hank Worden    as Deacon Clump who plots a passage through the swamps for the Union calvary as well as a very funny scene when a "Boys academy"tries to attack the column.
A serious and poignant side is added by Carleton Young as Col. Jonathan Miles, CSA who had been friends with Marlowe before the war but now as a one armed defender leads a counter attack to stop him.
Some say the reason this isn't a bigger hit is because the director and friend of John Wayne,The Legendary John Ford, wanted to make a different film,one about General Grant but had to settle for this script.That may be so,but both he and Wayne give it their all and its shows as a fair film for its time on a issue that still resonates today,the 150 anniversary  year of the start of the worst war in our countries history.Released in 1959 and running a good 115 minutes it stands well for a 52 year old film.VERY well.Trailer URL is below pix.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x41se3_the-horse-soldiers-trailer_shortfilms