The Horse Soldiers

John Ford’s only feature with a Civil War setting (1959), starring John Wayne as a Union colonel leading the cavalry behind Confederate lines and William Holden as the doctor who accompanies him. This isn’t considered one of Ford’s major workspartly, I suspect, because Holden isn’t a very Fordian presence and partly because stories told from the Union perspective rarely come off. The secondary cast includes Constance Towers, Hoot Gibson, and Strother Martin; John Lee Mahin and Martin Rackin signed the script. 119 min. (JR) Read more