Westerns are generally concerned with shootouts btw desperadoes and law-abiding officers. It is no secret the westerns gave us the terms "the man in white" and the "man in black" to correspond to its basic colloquialism. But this is Disney making this movie, and so in such, we get a History lesson in the form of the Western. It's about the first men to win the congressional medal of honor. It is also about an army offensive that failed. Those Northern boys failed to get the better of the Johnny Rebs in this civil war tale. Fess Parker, he of the brimstone and iron voice, you know, that Gregory Peck way of manly speaking speaking that has totally disappeared from movies today and society in general - except maybe in the Midwest leads the Dirty dozenish crew who are to destroy the railway lines and communication system of the South so that the North can perform their beta version of D-Day. Pesky Jeffrey in a fine stone-walled performance picks up chase as they steal his train for this mission. In this movie, failure isn't really failure but success. The chase is the thing but not the thing and heroics are measured in a leader that his crew consider cowardly. Sharp writing and character is the star of this Disney opus. All in all, a fine western, a fine movie.
Review of The Great Locomotive Chase
