The story of this film, and some of its goofs have been gone over here so I will leave them alone. This is fictionalised history and after all 1950's Westerns had their own vision of the ' old ' Wes misguided or not. Personally I like this vision as it makes exciting viewing and plays on the imagination more than it does on so-called reality. If I want that reality of approach in film I look elsewhere. Among the few finest actors of Westerns of this decade Sterling Hayden is in my opinion the finest. And he is at his best in ' Kansas Pacific ' trying to ward off Quantrill and his men from destroying the trains. Despite the goof of the dynamite it makes excellent fantasy and a lot of excellent suspense is created out of it. The violence is there but it is not excessive or sadistic, and the child in all of us can watch this fantasy without cringing away from the screen. Eve Miller plays Hayden's love interest and I only wish her role had been slightly more built up. A fine actor and unknown to me. As cinema I found the experience of watching the trains of this distant past recreated, plus the scenes when they upstage the actors, and B-movie it maybe it rates as an A quality for me. I give it a 10 for its fast pace, intelligent dialogue and fine acting, and having such a fine mythical ' hero ' as Hayden.
Review of Kansas Pacific
