The McMasters

"Benjie" (Brock Peters) is a young black man living in the South who stole a horse in order to join the Union forces during the Civil War. After the war he returns to his hometown and is greeted with hatred and animosity by almost everybody. Fortunately, the man who raised him since he was a child "Mr. McMasters" (Burl Ives) has always had a great fondness for him and welcomes him back whole-heartedly. Not only does he give him half ownership of his ranch but he is especially pleased when Benjie decides to take his last name as well. Not long afterward Benjie helps some starving Indians and in appreciation is given a woman by the name of "Robin" (Nancy Kwan). At first he is repelled by the idea and treats her quite cruelly but eventually he comes to love her and make her his wife. But things don't go smoothly after this. Anyway, rather than detail the entire movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was an interesting movie that captured the harsh and brutal conditions faced by non-whites who tried to rise above their surroundings during this particular time in the United States. Additionally, while I liked the performance of Nancy Kwan and David Carradine (as "White Feather") I thought both of them were slightly miscast in their respective roles. Be that as it may, while I consider this movie to be slightly above average I should also warn parents that this is not a movie that one would want to watch with smaller children due to the rather graphic content depicted.