Abrupt ending?


Does anyone else think that this film has an extremely abrupt ending to it? Nothing, to my way of thinking, was resolved. The thing about this that makes me REALLY crazy is that this is based on the real raid led by Col. Grierson. I wish they had shown him finishing his mission. Just having them leave the doc and riding off into the annals of history is a bit lame. Mind you, I LOVE this movie, and watch it whenever it's on, even though I burned it onto a DVD. :)

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As has been discussed in a number of books about John Wayne's and John Ford's films (and also I seem to recall that it has come up in other threads on this board that have expired) the original scripted ending was for the brigade to ride into Baton Rouge, filthy, exhausted but in triumph with General Hurlbut greeting them and congratulating Marlowe as they rode in. But after the death of stunt rider Fred Kennedy (in the scene where he is shot off his horse as he rides back across the bridge after scouting the far side) John Ford's mood and that of most of the cast and crew soured considerably, and Ford decided to end the movie the way he did. They were already behind the filming schedule and approaching their budget limit, as other contributing factors to that decision.

BTW, one of the regimental surgeons in Grierson's brigade really did volunteer to stay behind with the wounded men who couldn't be moved, the way Hank Kendall did. His name in real life was Erastus Yule, and he knew he would eventually be exchanged as they were still doing POW exchanges at the time, and as was pointed out in the Goofs section here on IMDb, Andersonville Prison wouldn't be built for over another year. Not to take away one iota of Yule's heroism.

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I think that it makes more sense for the movie to end where it does, anyway; just on its own merits, independent of any behind-the-scenes explanations.

I've never seen the The Horse Soldiers as being "the story of a cavalry raid" at its heart. I see it as the story of two relationship arcs (CO - Dr. and CO - female prisoner). The raid is just the circumstance that brings them together.

Therefore, once both of those relationship arcs have reached their final endpoint, the movie is over. That's especially true since both pairs of characters are actually physically separated. Anything beyond that, I would have seen as anticlimactic.

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Good way to look at it. I'll keep that in mind the next time I watch the movie.

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I think that it makes more sense for the movie to end where it does, anyway; just on its own merits, independent of any behind-the-scenes explanations.
I agree. The ending works as it is. Marlowe may get back with Hannah after the war and Kendall does the right thing ethically.

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As Mad Tom said in his post, the script may have called for something after this battle at the river, but nevertheless I think this is still a reasonable place to end the film. The Confederate forces at the river represented the last hurdle betwwen JW's troopers and Baton Rouge. Once they got past this blocking maneuver by the Confederates, they could prcceed to BR unimpeded but it was important that they clear this path quickly as Nathan Bedford Forrest was coming up behind them. Right as they left Newton Station the townspeople saw they were heading southwest toward Baton Rouge rather than west if they were gong to Vicksburg as they wanted the townspeople to believe. The onearmed Confederate Major whom Kendall had saved told two riders to go to tell General Forrest which way they were going. This valuable information enabled Forrest to close the gap and almost catch them. If the Confederate forces could have held awhile longer at the bridge, Forrest would have caught them from behind.
jtb01

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And I always wondered just who won that war? Where there any other movies made about it? :)

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[deleted]

I just watched this movie the past couple days for the first time ever and I'm in my mid 50's. I caught it on the Ipad TCM app and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I do like some of John Wayne's movies but not all of them. Probably a select few with McQ being my absolute favorite. But this movie was wonderfully done and I loved every aspect of it. The only part I consider a negative and I'm not sure it can be construed as a negative is the ending, so ldthompson77 I agree with you in its abrupt ending. When I saw there was 5 minutes left, I started to wonder how they'll end this so fast and have it come to a good conclusion. I'm not sure though how much more time should've been added. I'll leave that to you huge fans that know movies and movie making better than me.

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