''The Return of a Man Called Horse'' is a 1976

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by

Irvin Kershner Irvin Kershner (born Isadore Kershner; April 29, 1923November 27, 2010) was an American film director, actor, and producer of film and television. He gained notice early in his career as a filmmaker for directing quirky, independent drama films ...

and written by Jack DeWitt. It is a sequel to the 1970 film '' A Man Called Horse'', in turn based on

Dorothy M. Johnson Dorothy Marie Johnson (December 19, 1905 – November 11, 1984) was an American writer best known for her Western fiction. Biography Early life Dorothy Marie Johnson was born in McGregor, Iowa, the only daughter of Lester Eugene Johnson and Ma ...

’s short story of the same name, with

Richard Harris Richard St John Francis Harris (1 October 1930 – 25 October 2002) was an Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, notably as Corrado Zeller in Michelangelo Antonioni's '' Red Desert'', Frank Machin in '' This Sporting ...

reprises his role as Horse, a British aristocrat who has become a member of a tribe of Lakota Sioux. Other cast members include

Gale Sondergaard Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm Sondergaard; February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985) was an American actress. Sondergaard began her acting career in theater and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Awar ...

Geoffrey Lewis Geoffrey Lewis may refer to: * Geoffrey Lewis (actor) (1935–2015), American character actor * Geoffrey Lewis (scholar) (1920–2008), British professor of Turkish * Geoffrey Lewis (philatelist), Australian philatelist * Geoffrey W. Lewis (died ...

, and

William Lucking William Lucking (June 17, 1941 – October 18, 2021) was an American film, television, and stage actor, best known for his role as Piney Winston in '' Sons of Anarchy'' (2008–2011), and for his movie roles in '' The Magnificent Seven Ride!'' ...

. Like its predecessor, the film is a Mexican-American co-production shot primarily on-location in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Like its predecessor, the film was largely a critical and financial success, but was criticized by some for rehashing earlier plot elements. It was followed by a sequel in 1983, ''

Triumphs of a Man Called Horse ''Triumphs of a Man Called Horse'' is a 1983 Western film directed by John Hough and written by Ken Blackwell and Carlos Aured. It is the second and final sequel to '' A Man Called Horse'' (1970), following ''The Return of a Man Called Horse ...

''.

Plot Summary

Trappers with government support force the Yellow Hands Sioux off their sacred land. The Indians retreat, but await supernatural punishment to descend on their usurpers. John Morgan, 8th Earl of Kildare, who had lived with the tribe for years and is known as Horse, leaves his English fiancée and estate and returns to America, where he discovers the Yellow Hand people have been largely massacred or put into slavery by the unscrupulous white traders and their Indian cohorts. He finds the tribe dispirited, because of the actions of the trappers, and he begins to devise a strategy to overpower the trappers' stronghold, convincing the Indians to take direct action. Soon even the Indian women and boys are assigned tasks to aid the assault to regain their ancestral land.

Cast

as John Morgan / Shunkawakan *

as Elk Woman *

as Zenas * Bill Lucking as Tom Gryce * as Running Bull * Jorge Russek as Blacksmith *

Claudio Brook Claudio Brook (born Claude Sydney Brook Marnat, 28 August 1927 – 18 October 1995) was a Mexican actor. Life Born in Mexico City, Brook had a prolific career, making around 100 film and television appearances in his 38 years as an actor. ...

as Chemin De Fer *

Enrique Lucero Enrique Lucero (October 9, 1920 – May 9, 1989) was a Mexican-American film actor. He was known for such films as '' Macario'' (1960) and ''Two Mules for Sister Sara'' (1970). He also played the role of the "Indian Chief" in '' Buck and the Prea ...

as Raven * Regino Herrera as Lame Wolf *

Pedro Damián Pedro Muñoz Romero (born 29 November 1952), known as Pedro Damián, is a Mexican actor, television producer and director, executive producer of popular teen telenovelas, ''Clase 406, Lola, Erase Una Vez, Mis XV,'' ''Rebelde, Like La Leyenda ...

as Standing Bear * Humberto López as Thin Dog * Alberto Mariscal as Red Cloud * Eugenia Dolores as Brown Dove * Patricia Reyes Spíndola as Gray Thorn * Ana De Sade as Moon Star

Filming

Much of the film was shot in 1975 in

Sonora, Mexico Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...

, with additional scenes filmed in

Custer State Park Custer State Park is a South Dakota State Park and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills, United States. The park is South Dakota's largest and first state park, named after Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The park covers an area of over of v ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Reception

The film received mixed reviews on its release. Roger Ebert, while not highly critical of the film, noted that the film attempted to take itself too seriously and paid unnecessary attention to detail. According to Ebert "The film reveals its basic white-chauvinist bias, but it certainly seems to take itself seriously. It's of average length, but paced like an epic. There are four main movements in the plot: Return, Reconciliation, Revenge and Rebirth. If this seems a little thin for a two-hour movie, believe me, it is, even with all that portentous music trying to make it seem momentous."Chicago Sun-Times review by Roger Ebert
August 19, 1976, Retrieved on July 7, 2008 Ebert also criticized the repetition in the film from the original '' A Man Called Horse''. Ebert commented that "What gets me is that initiation rite, which is repeated in this film in such grim and bloody detail you'd think people didn't have enough of it the last time. First Morgan has his pectoral muscles pierced with knife blades. Then eagle's talons are drawn through the wounds and tied to leather thongs. Then he hangs by the thongs until sufficiently purified. You'd think one ceremony like that would do the trick, without any booster shots."

DVD

''The Return of a Man Called Horse'' was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1, 2003 as a Region 1 widescreen DVD.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Return Of A Man Called Horse, The 1976 films 1976 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films American sequel films Films about Native Americans Films based on works by Dorothy M. Johnson Films directed by Irvin Kershner Films scored by Laurence Rosenthal Mexican Western (genre) films United Artists films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films 1970s Mexican films