Two Rode Together an even darker version of The Searchers is a grim story.
Ford, wrapping up his long career when he made this, was working on material that was often well below his standards. Ford just liked to work and he had a hard time pulling together projects that interested him.
The script starts out with some humor and a light tone but it quickly gets serious with the arrival of Stewart and Widmark at the army fort. Stewart and Widmark, sent on a mission to negotiate with an Indian tribe to return some white captives taken years ago, find is that the captives are now fully integrated Indian society. They return some of the captives to the fort and their waiting families with disastrous results.
Ford lost interest towards the end of the film and the scenes of the Indian captives being reintegrated into white society seem kind of rushed. He wants to make a point about the two different cultures, but is conflicted himself on what direction he wants to take the story.
The idea of Stewart as a greedy vain opportunist doesn't work. Stewart worked a lot better with Anthony Mann who always managed to keep his Jimmy Stewart caricatures under control. Richard Widmark has to adopt himself to the usual Ford low humor stuff which he does pretty well. Shirley Jones plays the tomboy love interest a character completely unnecessary to the story.
Ford's contempt for white society seems pretty evident throughout Two Rode Together. Ford has a more complex view of Indian society than usual in a early 60's Hollywood film. It's usually a given that Ford became very pessimistic about America towards the end of his life. The bottom line on this, the film is only OK.
A disappointment, Two Rode Together looks pretty good compared to a bloated self righteous piece of film like Dances with Wolves.
109 minutes.
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