Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Tomahawk Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 22, 2023

George Sherman's "Tomahawk" (1951) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new audio commentary recorded by critics Lee Gambin and Rutanya Alda and vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

If the West was populated by the types of people you would see in George Sherman’s film Tomahawk (1951), its history would have been very different. For example, despite the numerous provocateurs that roamed the West, this history would have been full of terrific examples of great diplomatic efforts that prevented many notorious battles and massacres. The economic development of the West would have been different, too. The settlers and the Indians would have taken advantage of business opportunities that slowly but surely would have made most and perhaps even all their disagreements meaningless. Then, rather quickly, the West would have evolved into a place dominated by visionary businessmen and local leaders that enthusiastically worked together to keep it peaceful and prosperous.

But the people that dominated the West were different, which is why you often see it described as the Wild West. These people turned the West into a dangerous playground and they all had different legit reasons for doing so. The best of these reasons was staying alive. Some played the survival game while trusting only their gun. Some played the survival game while trusting their gun and intellect. Contrary to what you would see in a lot of older westerns, the West was not a place where ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people routinely challenged each other. The ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people simply had different ideas of how to stay alive and succeed in the West, and some of these ideas were more primitive than the rest. Also, in the early days when the game of survival was particularly intense, the West was not a place that tolerated ‘civilized’ behavior and views because they were synonymous with ‘weakness’. In the West, the weak did not last long -- they either drank themselves to death, got killed in disputes, or invited Mother Nature to crush them.

In Tomahawk, there are two kinds of people playing the survival game and you can instantly recognize them by the way they speak and handle themselves. The ‘good’ ones, like veteran trapper Jim Bridger (Van Heflin), have an almost perfect grasp of the local conflicts and are always ready to be mediators. They value peace so much that, if needed, they are willing to compromise themselves to preserve and promote it. The ‘bad’ ones, like Lt. Rob Dancy (Alex Nicol), are bigoted opportunists often driven by self-preservation instincts that make them look like caricatures. When they speak to rationalize their decisions, you can tell that they are doomed to self-destruct because they are out of sync with their environment. During the Laramie Conference where the U.S. government begins discussing with the Sioux a passage through Montana that would rearrange the way of life there, some of the ‘good’ and some of the ‘bad’ people clash and collapse the event, ensuring a violent conflict that could have lasting ripple effects. Bridger, acting as a mediator because he has married an Indian woman and proven to be fair, is then forced to choose a side, and while he struggles, a future disturbing image of the West quickly overshadows his inevitable decision.

The main events that are depicted in Tomahawk -- from the gathering in Wyoming to the big battle in which Red Cloud (John War Eagle) sacrifices most of his warriors -- are real. However, all are embellished for maximum dramatic impact, plus the characters that participate in them are completely unbelievable. For example, many of these characters recite statements that would be appropriate in a documentary feature. (A narrator does the same too -- he ‘explains’ the significance of key events and the proper context in which they should be placed). Also, the efforts to highlight particular arguments from the two sides that make each appear more morally superior or inferior are so basic that much of the drama begins to look childish.

Heflin shines the most but only while he is addressing the tension between the Indians and the U.S. soldiers. His interactions with Yvonne De Carlo and Susan Cabot, which are supposed to expand the story in a different direction, are quite underwhelming.

Tomahawk Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.36:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tomahawk arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. Unfortunately, this master has a lot of the familiar shortcomings that problematic older masters coming from the major's vaults are known for. For example, there is light but noticeable smearing that exaggerates many of the color registration issues that impact delineation, clarity, and depth. As a result, the bulk of the panoramic footage looks quite weak. There are noticeable traces of sharpening adjustments that make a lot of the close-ups look quite harsh. This mix of smearing and harshness gives the film a digital quality that could become quite distracting if you view your films on a big screen. Interestingly, color balance is quite good, often even very good, so I have to speculate that without the adjustments that are mentioned above this master could have delivered a pretty solid organic presentation of the film. Select areas of the presentation still would have revealed the age of the master, but the visuals would have had a good organic appearance. Image stability is very good. I noticed a few blemishes and nicks, but there are no distracting large cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to report. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Tomahawk Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

THere is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is very strong. I am not surprised because the current master could have produced very nice organic visuals without the digital adjustments that were made on it. I think that some party at Universal wanted to have a good master for Tomahawk but after it was created it was digitally 'improved' to hide the aging limitations on the source that was used to create it. The audio did not need such 'improvements'. Clarity, sharpness, and balance are very, very good.

Tomahawk Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Lee Gambin and Rutanya Alda.

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer for Tomahawk. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

Tomahawk Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

George Sherman's Tomahawk gathers several terrific actors but mismanages a good story and fails to impress. Frankly, it looks and feels like a small and rushed project that would have emerged from Republic Pictures. I am a big fan of Van Heflin and expected him to be predictably excellent as the iconic trapper Jim Bridger, but while occasionally good, he plays a different man that is not right for the story. Also, Tomahawk does quite a bit to convince that it can be as authoritative as a documentary feature but enthusiastically embellishes different events and relationships of historic significance. Kino Lorber's recent release is sourced from an older and quite shaky master that was supplied by Universal Pictures.