A big waste

"A Time for Killing" had so much going for it. Good cast; good production values and good photography and it ultimately amounts to a total waste of a movie. It also has a good musical score deserving of a far better movie than this. The real problem is the story eventually becomes too muddled and ultimately renders the movie worthless. Oh, yes there is some slight development of the characters in the beginning. You have Maj. Walcott (Glenn Ford), a union officer trying to be decent and respectful to the reb prisoners lead by Capt. Bentley (George Hamilton), an embittered confederate officer who apparently resents Walcott`s willingness to treat him and his men with respect. Bentley wants to get back at Walcott for no justifiable reason and THAT`S the story. He resents Walcott for being a nice guy although it didn`t help when Walcott personally executed a convicted reb at the beginning of the movie. So Bentley and his men promptly escape and kill some yanks in the process. You also have angelic Inger Stevens, Walcott`s woman, who is taken prisoner by the escaping rebs. As the movie progresses, Hamilton`s character is revealed to be a cold-blooded martinet who has no regard for even his own men. For me, "A Time for Killing" shoots off in the wrong direction far too greatly when Max Baer Jr. walks into a saloon and shoots a sitting yank in the face in cold blood for no apparent reason (other than the guy`s a yank) while giggling. Of course, by the time that scene rolls around Max Baer Jr.`s character has already been revealed to be a giggling kill-crazy psychopath. After learning the war is over, Bentley persuades Jethro to keep it a secret, that way he (Jethro) can go on killing bluebellies. After angelic Inger Stevens is raped by Hamilton and learning from him that the war is over, humilliated angelic Inger does not tell her man Ford that the war is over because she wants him to pursue the rebs into Mexico in revenge for the rape and she even makes sure by prodding him a little. Most of the rest of Walcott`s depleted company are killed at a fort thanks to angelic Inger...and that`s all, folks. Since 'A Time for Killing" was made in the mid-1960s while the vietnam conflict was raging, I assume the intention of the producers was to make a anti-war statement in the form of a civil war western. That`s what "A Time for Killing' is apparently suppose to be. IT IS ALSO a remake of 1953`s "Escape from Fort Bravo" with William Holden, John Forsythe and Eleanor Parker which has an escaping band of confederates led by Forsythe with Parker in tow doggedly pursued into the desert by Holden.