Playhouse 90 (TV Series) Massacre at Sand Creek (1956) User Reviews

Worthy fictionalised account of Sand Creek Massacre

[Marlburian · 7/10 · 18 November 2016]

Seeing that I'm the first to review MASC, I guess it must be one of those hard-to-find films that have recently become available thanks to the Web; I watched this on Youtube. It's based on one of the most unhonourable acts by soldiers in the history of the United States, instigated by Colonel Chivington, named in the film as Templeton. John Derek plays an amalgam of the two officers who refused to fire on the Native Americans when ordered to do so.

There are a couple of clichés in the film, with Derek saving the life of a son of the Indian chief and becoming his blood brother. Unusually there is absolutely no love interest and the only females I can recall are squaws. (I congratulate the film's makers on not including the gratuitous and often contrived romance that features in nearly all Westerns.) The film gives the impression that the white participants were part of the Union Army, rather than the more informal volunteers that committed the actual massacre. They are armed with breech-loading rifles, not the muzzle-loaders that must surely have featured in the real battle of 1894.

All the cast members perform well enough. I was glad that I discovered this film.

A study of Chivington as relates to the massacre

[weezeralfalfa · 8/10 · 5 April 2017]

A fictionalized account of the infamous massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women and children, at Sand Creek, CO by a Colorado militia led by Col. John Chivington, who hated all Indians as much as he hated slave-holding southerners. He had done his part in stopping a Confederate advance through present NM, with the ultimate goal of taking over the gold fields in CO. Since then, he had focused on keeping the Indians in CO in check by raids on their villages, etc.. In Nov. 1864(not1894, as one reviewer claims!),Chivington set out with 250 men to punish the Indians as a whole, by destroying a peacable encampment on Sand Creek. When he attacked, most of the warriors were elsewhere, thus those killed or maimed were predominantly women, children, old men, and teenagers. Nonetheless Chivington hailed it as a great victory, which should virtually eliminate Indian depredations on white settlers and gold seekers(It just increased such depredations!) He claimed several hundred warriors were killed, whereas only a few were actually killed. He hoped this 'victory' would advance his military and political ambitions. But, in fact, it had the opposite effect, shocking many people with the barbarity involved. Chivington was hauled before a congressional inquiry committee, and generally ostracized afterward.

In the film, Chivington is renamed John Templeton. Lt. Tucker presumably represents the historical Lt. Cramer: one of two officers who refused to order their troops to fire on the encampment. Chivington ignored the raising of the American flag and a white flag of truce by the Chief Black Kettle(renamed 'Little River" in the film). Interestingly, after the massacre, he gives a rendition of the famous speech by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce,13 years later, concluding with "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever".

The actual massacre consumes only a small part of this short(70min.)film. The rest is devoted to getting acquainted with the main characters and the consequences after the battle. Considerable time is spent on the court martial of Lt. Tucker for disobeying Chivington's order. I couldn't find any evidence that either of the two actual disobedient officers were court martialed, although there was reason to suspect they should have been. But, actually, the arguments in this case were intriguing.

The much better known "Soldier Blue" deals more graphically with the actual massacre. However, most of the time is otherwise focused on a woman captive and her relationship with a disillusioned officer. In contrast, no woman, other than a few screaming squaws, appeared in the present film. "Soldier Blue" was filmed in color, whereas the present film was filmed in B&W. It's now available at YouTube