Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Escape from Fort Bravo Blu-ray Movie Review

ARROW'D!

Reviewed by Randy Miller III June 4, 2021

John Sturges' ever-shifting action/drama hybrid Escape from Fort Bravo feels like a project with more than one writer. Which it was, naturally: Michael Pate and Phillip Rock, both first-timers with few other credits to their name, worked off a screenplay by Frank Fenton, whose more prolific output even includes an uncredited contribution to Out of the Past. Its patchwork flow quickly shifts from Civil War-era drama to a more conventional love story, which eventually leads to a daring nighttime escape and a prolonged, violent standoff with the film's closest thing to a true adversary: savage Mescalero Apaches, who aren't afraid to defend their native land from Northern or Southern invaders.

Though hardly overlong at just 98 minutes, Escape from Fort Bravo takes a long and winding road to its conclusion. We're first introduced to our protagonist, Union Captain Roper (William Holden, Sunset Boulevard), in an unflattering way: he's dragging an escaped Confederate soldier back to camp by a rope. Reprimanded by Colonel Owens (Carl Benton Reid, In a Lonely Place) for his inhumane actions, Roper is shown as a strict authority figure... but one with a sensitive side, as seen by his ability to maintain a flower garden in the dry Arizona heat. That side comes in handy after the arrival of beautiful Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker, The Sound of Music), who's visiting Colonel Owens but actually plans to aid the escape of Confederate soldiers, including her former flame Captain John Marsh (John Forsythe, The Trouble with Harry). Soon enough, Carla and Roper develop what seems to be a mutual attraction but, considering her real intentions, we're not sure if she's being honest. Regardless, the escape plan more or less goes off without a hitch and, during an attempted re-capture by Roper and Lieutenant Beecher (Richard Anderson, Forbidden Planet), everyone gets pinned down by the Mescalero, who launch volley after volley of arrows at the soldiers (and Carla).

It's a pretty suspenseful turn of events for a film that, up until its final 30 minutes or so, seems fine enough limiting itself to romantic drama and a bit of intrigue surrounding that escape plan. But everything leading up to this climax isn't consistently engaging: Escape from Fort Bravo is loaded with too many supporting characters and not enough organic elements, including the central romance between Roper and Carla which never really amounts to much more than a few fitfully passionate -- and mostly unrequited -- exchanges. (Even the quasi-triangle that forms courtesy of Captain Marsh never really seems all that believable.) Collectively, this is a film that aims for too wide of an audience and probably didn't please anyone completely, although it still seems to do more right than wrong. And the beautiful backdrops -- mostly captured in Gallup, New Mexico and California's Death Valley National Park -- create a memorable Western atmosphere made unique by Robert Surtees' somewhat soft and subdued Anscocolor cinematography.

Both are served well on Warner Archive's welcome new Blu-ray. which features predictably rock-solid A/V merits but no historical or retrospective extras. It's perhaps not the most essential of their recent releases but, for fans of the cast and genre(s), Escape from Fort Bravo makes a decent pick if you're in the mood for something different.

Escape from Fort Bravo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Unlike more boldly saturated Eastmancolor or Technicolor films of its era, Escape from Fort Bravo's use of Anscocolor photography makes it a subdued and almost pastel-colored affair, with this outstanding 1080p transfer maintaining all the hallmarks and quirks of the format. There are times when the soft greens and browns of its dry, dusty landscapes nearly resemble that of a colorized film, an observation bolstered by the format's lightly soft appearance in wider shots. Other odds and ends stand out too -- and not always in a good way -- including a few very questionable day-for-night shots; this technique rarely produces convincing results, and especially not in this case. But it's still dangerously close to a flawless transfer, all things considered, as evidenced by Escape from Fort Bravo's respectable amount of fine image detail, consistent film grain, and an ultra-clean appearance sourced from a brand-new 4K scan of the original camera negative. Although I'll admit to having seen very few films of this particular photographic format on home video, this one seems to have made the transition exceptionally well -- I dread to think what Escape from Fort Bravo would have looked like in the wrong hands, or on a much lower-resolution format like VHS or even DVD.

For these reasons and more, it achieves the mark set by most Warner Archive catalogue releases: basically perfect marks, thanks to the boutique label's careful touch and excellent disc encoding which holds the film on a 50GB Blu-ray and ensures a complete lack of compression artifacts, banding, and other eyesores. Simply put, Escape from Fort Bravo is a somewhat unusual-looking film that, for obvious reasons, has never looked better than it does here.

As usual, Warner Archive has uploaded a few YouTube videos showing off their new transfer; these include the full three and a half-minute opening sequence and an early nighttime interlude between Captain Roper and Carla.

Escape from Fort Bravo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio follows suit with a very capable mix that supports Escape from Fort Bravo's modest one-channel roots. As expected there's a lot of variety here: bustling outdoor activity, the cozier locale of an evening wedding celebration, a few intimate one-one-one exchanges, thundering horse pursuits, and a few eerily quiet moments during the final standoff peppered by the faint whistle of overhead arrow volleys. Although all of this material is obviously reined in pretty tightly due to its format limitations, Escape from Fort Bravo achieves a modest amount of depth, direction, and sonic intrigue during key moments, many of which are also strengthened by Jeff Alexander's original score... even if the main theme kinda rips off the first line of "Jesus Loves Me" if you squint your ears hard enough. Overall, it's obviously not going to stack up to modern Westerns for overall sonic clarity or dynamic range, but what's here is more than acceptable and gets the job done with no distortion, drop-outs, or sync issues.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only.

Escape from Fort Bravo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with original one-sheet poster art, no inserts, and one extra.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:23) - This vintage promotional piece can also be seen here.

Escape from Fort Bravo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Director John Sturges made many better films in his career than the somewhat uneven Escape from Fort Bravo, but this fitfully great hybrid of romantic drama and action-adventure has its fair share of entertaining moments. So call it what you will -- I'm sticking with The Not-So-Great Escape -- but, at the very least, it's worth another look thanks to Warner Archive's predictably solid Blu-ray treatment. Featuring another top-tier A/V presentation but sadly light on extras, this one comes Recommended to established fans; newcomers might want to try before they buy.