This is a good western!

**Spoiler**

As a western, i.e. a Saturday afternoon oater, this indeed was good. The visuals were very effective (esp. the color, which imho John Ford should have used in his three cavalry flicks with John Wayne) and the plot was in the western tradition of virtue over villainy.

However the substance of the story was altered completely from Paul Horgan's great and epic novel in doing so.

Laura and Kitty, while reasonably accurate in matching descriptions of their literary counterparts, have characters (i.e. traits) that are completely at odds. Laura in the novel was the quiet, dignified, loving and devoted Army wife, not the domineering social-climber depicted through Diane McBain, remaining true despite Matt's fall from grace awaiting their marriage, while Kitty was lonely, neurotic and ultimately pathetic in all her choices.

But much worse, the novel stayed true to history while the film abandoned it for a feel-good Roy Rogers or Gene Autry ending. Horgan in the forward explains that he wrote the entire novel based on Matt's refusal of the Medal of Honor and resignation from his beloved Army (without telling you in advance what that entailed--he called it a family "anecdote"). The Apaches (and "Joe Dummy"/White Cloud) WERE betrayed, not by the cavalry but by the War Department and the administration, and they were exiled to Florida. Matt refused his medal and left the Army (with Laura faithfully by his side) to seek his fortune in the West as a civilian. Conscience and honor prevailed.

The original story had depth and significance that could have been kept intact amidst all the visual grandeur and action to make a memorable film. Too bad it wasn't.

It has some really lovely photography and good Native American scenes. But it doesn't have much of a story.