Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Distant Drums Blu-ray Movie Review

Call of the wild.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 22, 2014

Somewhere out there in the vast halls of academia perhaps there’s a doctoral thesis in sociology exploring the kind of weird concatenation between the apparently complacent 1950s and the rise in popularity of the western, both in film and (especially) on the then nascent medium of television. The “Eisenhower” decade was a study in contrasts—seemingly calm and placid on the surface, but roiling with both geopolitical and maybe even sexual tension (of the Masters and Johnson variety) just beneath that surface. The threat of the Cold War getting very warm via the hydrogen bomb perhaps made American audiences yearn for a world where any threat of disorder was usually met with a guy in a white hat galloping in with guns blazing. The very term “western” brings along a host of preconceptions, usually including locations that might not initially suggest Florida to some aficionados. While Distant Drums was marketed as a western and even bears some genre conventions, especially some midcentury conventions, it’s a somewhat uniquely sited piece that highly fictionalizes a long gestating conflict in America’s southernmost clime between the Seminole and United States Navy forces in the 1840s. Brightly shot in Technicolor and bearing an opening shot of fanciful looking Native Americans (or Indians, as of course they were referred to in the 1950s) with extremely colorful face paint, Distant Drums might at first glance appear to the very model of a midcentury western. But this is no tale of the Badlands or the Rockies or even the Mississippi—and the Florida (and, ultimately, Everglades) setting of Distant Drums may well be its most memorable feature.

Could Werner Herzog have seen Distant Drums in his youth and somehow subliminally filed away one iconic idea that would later inform Fitzcarraldo? Distant Drums begins with some narration from a Navy lieutenant named Tufts (Richard Webb), who is on a reconnaissance mission in the Florida “jungle” to find a legendary captain named Quincy Wyatt (Gary Cooper). Tufts is also tasked with getting a boat inland for the expedition’s use, and as odd as it may sound, a very Fitzcarraldo-esque montage ensues with scenes of workers hoisting the ship over land. The fact that Wyatt is a mysterious hermit who lives in the wild surrounded by friendly natives (in this case, the Creek) may remind some of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (and, of course, Apocalypse Now ), but despite these tangential referents, Distant Drums really has no grand cinematic or literary ambitions, and instead concentrates more on a desperate squad’s attempts to get to safety in the wilds of the Everglades.

The fifties were an interesting time for the Western (even those located in Florida). The old “cowboys vs. Indians” tropes were slowly falling by the wayside, soon to be replaced by more nuanced interpretations of what life was like not only for the hardy American pioneers but for Native Americans themselves. Distant Drums appeared at the very beginning of this transition, and so some aspects of the film are hopelessly old fashioned (the overly made up “Indians” at the head of the film, for example, as well as a running gag about how hard it is to extricate oneself from shaking hands with a Native American), while other elements at least hint at a more progressive formulation. This includes an interesting character backstory for Wyatt, who is a widower formerly married to a Native American woman and who is now raising his (to quote a certain Cher) “half breed” tyke of a son. There’s an implication here that Wyatt has forsaken his Caucasian roots in favor of a native lifestyle, a concept that is borne out when the details behind the demise of his wife are made clear as the film progresses.

The main thrust of the plot involves an isoated fort which has been captured by the Seminoles and which the tribe is using to store weapons they’ve stolen from the American forces. In the meantime, gun runners are also trying to get access to the armory, and Wyatt is tasked with recapturing the fort and securing the cache of weapons. Along the way he and Tufts ultimately help a woman named Judy (Mari Alton), a woman who seems torn between the two men, although the fact that Tufts has already disclosed he’s happily married with a young son of his own back home would seem to fairly clearly point the way forward for which romantic pairing is ultimately going to win out.

The capture of the fort turns out to be but a wayside in the overall journey of the film, albeit one that allows for a fun sequence filmed in heavily filtered blue that has Wyatt’s team executing their plan in the dead of night. Unfortunately, the Seminole are on the warpath, requiring Wyatt, Tufts, Judy and several others to hightail it into the Everglades, where a number of deadly scenarios await. (The most famous of these involves an alligator, which necessitated the development of the iconic sound effect now known as “The Wilhelm Scream”, a foley element that was famously used in scores of subsequent films, including Star Wars and Indiana Jones.)

Distant Drums doesn’t radically reinvent the genre, despite its somewhat exotic setting. Cooper is appropriately stolid and resolute as the hero, though he gets to show a more vulnerable side with the scenes involving his adorable little boy. Arthur Hunnicutt is on hand providing the comedy relief early in the film with several of the “hand shaking” sequences. Raoul Walsh, the legendary director who actually helped to establish many early Western cinematic genre conventions with such films as The Big Trail, doesn’t seriously push the envelope here, but makes the most of the Florida locations while guiding Cooper, Webb and Alton toward convincing, if typically “Hollywood-ized”, performances. This film was probably a slight cut above many of the routine programmers that were being churned out during this period, and it remains an interesting curio that offers some exciting locations and a couple of well done set pieces in an overall fairly trite presentation.

Distant Drums Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Distant Drums is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The elements utilized for this transfer are in generally quite good condition, with only typical age related wear and tear in evidence. The best news about this high definition presentation is the general accuracy of the palette. While some very slight fade is in evidence, generally speaking this retains a lot of the original luster of the film's color, with some especially evocative blues and reds, as well as the omnipresent Everglades greens, on display. That said, there's a slight but noticeable shift in registration and the overall color space at times that tends to give fleshtones a slightly purplish quality, something that is only increased with the many sequences which have been aggressively filtered with blue to approximate a nighttime ambience. Grain is naturally resolved and consistent, and close-ups offer some commendable fine detail in things like weaves in costumes. The outdoor photography also features some nice depth and clarity. There are some minor issues with lack of detail (especially shadow detail) in the day for night sequences, but overall this is a really nice looking release without any fringing issues or other distractions.

Distant Drums Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Distant Drums' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track nicely supports Max Steiner's forceful score as well as dialogue and the occasional Wilhelm scream (audiophiles should listen starting at around 45:00 for the sequence where it's utilized). Fidelity is fine, with the expected boxy sound of this era's soundtracks, but a nicely full accounting across all registers.

Distant Drums Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Distant Drums Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Distant Drums doesn't quite have the gravitas of the Anthony Mann fifties' outings with James Stewart, but it similarly isn't the simple minded affair that many 1930s and 1940s westerns were. Cooper is fine as the isolated would be family man who is called into action, and the Florida setting provides a lot of dash and color to the proceedings. A lot of Distant Drums is unabashedly hokey, but it's solid, entertaining fare just about all of the way. Recommended.