Northwest Passage (1940) User Reviews (59)

Bloody and spectacular raid by Rogers' Rangers against Indians in hostile territory

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 19 May 2010]

Exciting picture with open-air spectacular scenes starts depicting in a foreword : ¨This is a story of our early America..of the century of conflict with French and Indians .. when necessity made simple men, unknown to history, into giants in daring and endurance . It begins on Potmouth New Hampshire in 1759...¨ This Technicolor MGM classical describing the troop of Rogers' Rangers battling the hostile Indians and wilderness. The historical novel Northwest Passage (1937), by American author Kenneth Roberts, portrayed the events of Rogers' Rangers' raid on the Abenaki town of St. Francis. The first half of the novel was adapted in this film by Talbot Jennings and Laurence Stallings , being lavishly produced and uncomprimisingly directed by King Vidor . It actually intents to be the first of a two-part epic but the second half was never realized and the Northwest passage itself is never seen. The picture is packed with spectacular battles, heroism , heartbreaking scenes and blood-letting deeds . The main cast ans secondary support give good performances with special mention to Spencer Tracy , Walter Brennan and Robert Young. It contains marvelously photographed in glimmer Technicolor by Henry Jaffa and adequate musical score by Herbert Stothart. This is a winner for Spencer Tracy fans.

The story is based on real events , these are the following : During 1759, the Rangers were involved in one of their most famous operations: they were ordered to destroy the Abenaki settlement of Saint-Francis in Quebec. It has been the base for raids and attacks of British settlements. Rogers led a force of 200 rangers from Crown Point deep into French territory. Following the October 3, 1759 attack and successful destruction of Saint-Francis, Rogers' force ran out of food during their retreat through the wilderness of northern Vermont. Once the Rangers reached a safe location along the Connecticut River at the abandoned Fort Wentworth, Rogers left them encamped. He returned a few days later with food, and relief forces from Fort at Number 4 now Charlestown, New Hampshire, the nearest English town.In the raid on Saint-Francis, Rogers claimed 200 enemies were killed, leaving 20 women and children to be taken prisoner, of whom he took five children prisoner and let the rest go . The French recorded that only 30 were killed, including 20 women and children. According to Francis Parkman Ranger casualties in the attack were 1 killed and 6 wounded; however in the retreat, 5 were captured from one band of Rangers and nearly all in another party of about 20 Rangers were killed or captured. One source alleges that of about 204 Rangers, allies and observers, only about 100 returned.

Rugged Film About Some Rugged Men

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 25 September 2006]

Kenneth Roberts was a distinguished novelist who wrote many fine fictional works about colonial and revolutionary America. Probably his biggest seller was Northwest Passage a fictionalization of the exploits of Roger's Rangers during the French and Indian War.

His books sold well at the time and we have to remember that in viewing Northwest Passage we are seeing a fictional story rather than the real story of Roger's Rangers. At that we are only seeing part of that book, nothing at all about a search for a land route across North America.

The historical significance of the Rangers is that Robert Rogers had an idea that one should be living and thinking like the American Indian in order to fight him. His ideas about specialized units who could meet the enemy on his own terms in colonial America have been followed right down to the Green Berets in Vietnam. His is a distinguished contribution in military history.

To do that and lead such a group you have to be one charismatic leader. And in Spencer Tracy, Rogers has the best kind of interpreter.

This was Tracy's first color feature for MGM and Louis B. Mayer spared no expense for this film. No back lot backwoods here, the company went on location to the Payette River in Idaho for the outdoor scenes depicting colonial era New York State. No stunt doubles here either, that's Tracy, Walter Brennan, Robert Young and the rest of the company waist deep in those rapids forming that human chain. Some of the stars nearly drowned making this film.

One aspect of this film is rarely discussed and that was the politics surrounding the Indians. Please note that while Tracy is burning the Abinagi village, he has some friendly Mohawks with him. When the British and French went to war in this theater of the Seven Years War, the various Indian tribes chose up sides, trying to figure which group of whites would give them the better deal. The Mohawks are part of the Iroquois Confederation and they aligned themselves with Great Britain. Various other tribes allied with with French. Both were supplied with the white man's weapons of war and both fought on each side. And neither got a really great deal in the end.

Northwest Passage is definitely not for the politically correct of the day. Tracy is leading a savage reprisal against the Abinagi, he burns the town, kills all the males of fighting age, steals their meager food supplies to feed his men who are hungry themselves. Tracy makes it clear this is reprisal for raids against the British colonists. Prominently displayed for the camera just before the shooting start is that large exhibit of settler's scalps in the village.

Of course the real story is the retreat back, fleeing a much larger force of French in the area. The men are starving as they reach the rendezvous point which is an abandoned fort. Tracy races ahead of the men who've been promised a feast when they get there and as he makes it there he realizes the supplies haven't come. He starts to break down, but as he hears his men behind him, he regains control of himself and starts issuing the orders necessary for their survival. It's all done in a few minutes without dialog and its own of Spencer Tracy's greatest film moments.

Northwest Passage will not find too much favor with a lot of today's audience. But taken for what it is worth, it is a story about brave men and their struggle for survival in the colonial wilderness.

Colorful and Exciting Hollywood Adventure.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 11 May 2010]

Spencer Tracy is the real historical figure Major Robert Rogers, leader of an elite group of Rangers within the British Army during the French and Indian Wars of about 1760, known in Europe as the Seven Years' War. Everyone else in the army dresses in outlandish red coats, high feathered hats, stockings, dirndls, tutus and whatnot. Rogers' Rangers dress in fringed buckskin of forest green and they wear moccasins like the real woodsmen they are. Well, they might make room for ONE elitist. Robert Young has just been booted out of Harvard College, intent on becoming an artist. Tracy has no particular use for artists but he does need a map maker and he enlists Young, and Young's comic sidekick, the ever-irascible Walter Brennan. There is a long and perilous trip by longboats from New Hampshire up to the Canadian border, one of those trips in which we can't stop for any wounded men. There is a fierce battle in which the Rangers wipe out an entire village of Abenaki Indians. When the Rangers discover that the French have captured their boats, it means they must make a ten-day march without food across a mountain wilderness. Starving, they vote to break up into smaller parties. Two of the parties are captured and slaughtered by the hostile Indians loyal to the French. The pitiful remnants catch up with the main body, tattered in mind and body. The movie has been called "racist" and it really doesn't treat all the Indians fairly. At the same time, the tribes of the Northeast woodlands were tough customers, rough not only on white settlers but on their Indian enemies too. The butchery was expected on all sides. Tracy keeps promising them that when they reach their goal, Fort Wentworth, in the middle of nowhere, the British will be waiting for them with sides of beef, vegetables, hot buttered rum, arugula salad, and diverse configurations of sushi. "Come on, men!", Tracy keeps shouting. "It's only a thousand more miles! A Ranger can walk it on his hands!" Alas, when they reach Fort Wentworth, it's falling apart, deserted, overgrown with sagebrush (in the mountains of New England). Either the British Army is late for the appointment or Rogers' message to them never got through. "Plenty of good ROOTS here," Tracy declaims, waving his arms operatically, "and Moses went for 40 days without food or water. And we've got plenty of WATER. Buckets full of water!" The Rangers, too pooped to pop, sink to the ground. Just as Tracy is leading them in a final prayer, salvation arrives. It's interesting to consider this movie from the perspective of the audiences of 1940, from which the whole story must have seemed like a metaphor. The Rangers are Americans. We are the allies of the British. The Indians are brutal maniacs who butcher women and children. In 1940 Britain was in the middle of a great air battle with the brutal Nazis. America wasn't yet at war but our sympathies were clearly with the Brits. The movie doesn't show us any villainous Frenchmen. Why not? Because in 1940, the French had just been overrun by the German Army and shifted its government to Britain. How could the movie paint the French as "bad"? The friend of my friend is my friend. (There's a good explanation for this dynamic. Google "balance theory" or "Fritz Heider.") The performances are good. Most of the acting looks like acting, which was expectable in a Hollywood product of the time. But Walter Brennan is, as always, Walter Brennan; and Spencer Tracy could play anything from Mr. Hyde to Clarence Darrow. Ruth Hussey's appearance is brief and that's just as well. She's pretty bland. As a tale of adventure, this is unimpeachable. As a war story, it's unusual in that it focuses not on the usual things -- battles, banter, shoehorned cardboard romance -- but on physical fatigue, on the difference between hope and despair. (In this way it reminds me a little of Norman Mailer's novel, "The Naked and the Dead.") The plot is so good it showed up a few years later, morphed into a story of American paratroopers isolated behind Japanese lines, in Warners' "Objective Burma." Well worth catching, not just because it represents Hollywood at its craftsman-like best, but because it's like looking into a time capsule.

A Great Film, But The Sequel Would Have Made It Sublime

[theowinthrop · 13 November 2004]

There are few films about the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763) which is surprising. Given the rising solidity of Anglo-American relations in the late 1930s into World War II more films should have been made. I can only think of this one and THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (with Randolph Scott and Henry Wilcoxen) as the best - possibly sole - examples. But NORTHWEST PASSAGE is a marvelous example of how to make an interesting historical film. Briefly, it is 1759, and Major Robert Rogers and his famous Rangers (probably America's first example of a special forces unit) are sent into territory in the hands of an enemy Indian group. The film shows all the problems of 18th Century forest fighting, with supply problems, ambushes, and personal problems. Rogers does not have to only worry about Indian attacks (off screen we hear of the massacre of part of his men who separated for security reasons to rendezvous at a later spot), but with starvation and madness (witness Addison Richards insane ranger). But the mission is accomplished, and one step brought forward to the successful completion of the war.

But the story was not fully told, due to the expenses of filming (it was filmed mostly outside the studio). The actual title is NORTHWEST PASSAGE: PART I. Robert Young plays Langdon, a young college student (actually he looks slightly old for that role) who is skillful in drawing and drafting. So he is taken under Major Rogers' wing (Langdon and his best friend - played by Walter Brennan - were almost arrested for quasi-seditious remarks about a local British government official played by Montague Love) and go on the trek. Tracy/Rogers needs Young/Langdon as a map maker. He has plans to find the Northwest Passage with his Rangers once the war is finished. The present film ends with Langdon married and watching Rogers and his Rangers marching off on their next mission.

The sequel would have been a downer, but a brilliant one - and I suspect the subject matter of the sequel had more to do with killing the problem than the actual expense (after all, the first part was a hit film, and made back it's cost at the box office). In the sequel Rogers tries to get his exploration plans under way, only to run afoul of history: it seems the colonies and Britain are becoming less and less friendly due to the issue of taxation and British legislation like the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts. Rogers (as he was an officer - albeit an irregular one - in the British army) is a loyalist, and Langdon and his friends are not. Gradually Rogers becomes more and more isolated due to his political stand. In the end he goes into exile, and becomes a bitter, defeated ex-hero. The Northwest Passage is not to be discovered by this remarkable man. It would be first sited by Thomas Simpson, an explorer for the Hudson Bay Company, in 1838-39.

The ill-fated Franklin Expedition (1845-49) would find the key to the passage, but perish in the course of the discovery. This would not fully become notable until Sir Robert McClure (in 1851) and Sir Leopold McClintock (in 1859) rediscovered the passage while seeking Franklin's men. Finally Roald Amundson would successfully sail through the passage on the Gjoa in 1903-1905.

The sequel, as you can see, became increasingly anti-British (the audience in America would have to be pro-American if shown in America). Therefore it would have been out of place in a period when American films were to be pro-English. That's more likely the reason that the sequel was not made with Tracy being shown going slowly to seed. An understandable reason, but it would have been Tracy's greatest part - the hero denied his just claim for glory by sheer historical chance. The completed NORTHWEST PASSAGE would have been one of the masterworks of 20th Century motion picture making.

Rogers' Rangers' History Is Far More Exciting (and Unbelievable) Than the Film (2of2).

[Vermunster · 7/10 · 7 January 2018]

Harking back to Kenneth Roberts' Roberts' "Northwest Passage," Rogers' life after the legendary mission to destroy the nest of Abenaki vipers equally unbelievable.

Did you know that Rogers undertook with just two companies of Rangers an equally legendary 1763 expedition into what was called the Northwest (the Ohio territory) to accept the surrender of the French posts to the British, who had in that year won the French and Indian War?

This trip afoot took Rogers nearly halfway across the continent. In fact, Rogers proposed to the British Crown an expedition to the Pacific, an exploration which one of his captains later partly accomplished while Rogers was stuck commanding Fort Michilmackinac in what would later become Michigan.

Thus Rogers almost achieved in 1763 what Lewis and Clark wouldn't actually fully achieve till some 40 years later -- an expedition of exploration to the Pacific Ocean.

Rogers was indeed turned down by George Washington at the start of the American Revolution as a volunteer Ranger in the colonial forces. Instead, Washington had Rogers arrested and tossed into prison.

Understandably rankled by this, Rogers broke out of jail and went over to the British.

Rogers is the guy of whom George Washington said: "He is the only man I ever feared."

We have our unfathomably brave predecessors in the Rangers to thank for the British colonists' ultimate victory in the 150-year-long war against the French and Indians -- America's longest war, and one that NO elementary or high school ANYWHERE in America teaches ANYTHING about.

Robert Rogers was larger than life. He is often called the Father of U.S. Special Forces, for his work pioneering the colonial rangers in early America. His Rules for Ranging are still required reading by the U.S. Rangers and Green Berets.

But Rogers wasn't the first colonial ranger. It is uncertain who could claim that title, because the tradition of "ranging" goes back to early England and Scotland. The colonists took that tradition with them when they settled America. Rangers were deployed in Jamestown.

Ranger Benjamin Church, who was instrumental in winning King Philip's war (1675-1678) in New England, is also called the Father of the Rangers. It was his team that hunted down and killed King Philip (aka Metacomet) in Rhode Island.

King Philip's War is another one of those gigantic historical struggles not taught in our schools.

This was the war in which the Indians pushed the American colonists all the way back to the shoreline towns all across New England (except in Connecticut, where there were just a few battles), and almost into the ocean.

Did you know that New England's colonists almost starved during that war, and would have had it not been for ships full of emergency provisions sent from England? The Indians banded together -- most of them, but not all -- to exterminate the white man.

But the colonists won that war.

They won all of the other Indian wars in New England too.

Rogers is the guy who turned the tide in the last such war.

If you read anything about Rogers and the men he fought with, you will not believe the hardships they endured to bequeath us our free and easy lives of today. Those who sling arrows at Rogers and his Rangers from their easy chair in a warm home on land won by their forebears from the Indians have no conception - absolutely none - of just how feral the so-called native Americans were.

FACT: Like most Stone Age peoples, most Indian tribes engaged in constant warfare. Tribal death rates, as a percentage, were far higher than any of the white man's wars. The Comanches would become the apex tribe in North America when it comes to aggression, outstripping even the Abenakis and Pequots. In fact, the Comanches were so powerful that they hunted the terrifying Apaches for fun, and chased all of the Apache tribes off the plains. Read "Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History" by S.C. Gwynne if you want to understand Stone Age pathologies.

The "noble savage" is a myth. Most tribes, given half a chance, would exterminate enemy tribes in a New York minute. They extracted positive orgasmic delight in the most heinous and protracted tortures. These cultures refined torture for century upon century. This had nothing whatsoever to do with the New Age apologetics about "absorbing a victim's spirit." Balderdash. They just liked torture.

Rogers' bushwhacking victory over the Abenaki Indians -- the Northeast's Islamofacist terrorists of one-quarter of a millennium ago -- helped finally end the last of the five consecutive French and Indian wars in New England. Ironically, these wars had been going on pretty much continuously almost from the year of discovery -- 1609 -- i.e., the year that Samuel de Champlain (the "Father of New France") discovered the lake named for him, the same year that Henry Hudson sailed up the river named for him.

Yes, the year of discovery was 400 years ago in 2009 and the year of British victory in the 150-year war against New France was 1759, 250 years ago in 2009.

Tempus fugit.

historical adventure for its time

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 27 August 2019]

It's 1759 Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It's the French and Indian War. Langdon Towne (Robert Young), a rope maker's son, returns home after getting expelled from Harvard for speaking his mind. He faces imprisonment after speaking against the King's men. He is helped by woodsman friend Hunk Marriner (Walter Brennan) in an escape west. The two encounter Major Robert Rogers (Spencer Tracy), the leader of Rogers' Rangers. He's on a mission to attack the Indians and dreams to find a northwest passage to the Orient.

It's a fine action adventure for its time. It's got good action for its time. As for its inherent racism, I put it down to the times. The enemy cannot be anything more than targets. The Indian allies are no more than background characters and any racism towards them is fitting for the Rangers. The Rangers' racist attitudes are probably very truthful. It's telling that the Mohawks don't speak english and the audience don't get to understand them. There is no excusing the native guide as a drunken comedic sidekick but again, it is a different time. He's still an important character. The start is a bit slow. There is no need for the romance or some of the extraneous parts of the first act. While I question Young as the lead, it doesn't get better than Spencer Tracy. As an interesting aside, there is a small character called Lt. Dunbar. I don't know if it has anything to do with Dances with Wolves' Lt. Dunbar but that scene involves a female white prisoner taken by the Indians when she was a child. Despite being a product of its time about another time with its racist nature, this is still a very well executed historical action adventure.

History More Interesting Than Film - Northwest Passage

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 4 April 2022]

This is a prime example of when the book is far more entertaining than the film. The history of Rogers and Clark is fascinating; this film, on the other hand, is not all that attractive due to the harsh treatment of Native Americans who actually own the land of the Northwest Passage. Of course, the Eurocentric elitists of the New World believed all land in North America belonged to them. Spencer Tracy makes a fine enforcer of Eurocentric policy, and the supporting cast does a good job as well. History from the Hollywood perspective.

An exciting movie ..... holds up well.

[munson-2 · 9/10 · 3 November 1998]

Northwest Passage was produced in one of the golden years of the golden era of Hollywood....1939-1940., and contains all of the best of what MGM had to offer. Based on the Kenneth Roberts novel of the same name, Northwest Passage covers "Part I - Roger's Rangers" of that epic work. Set in Colonial American during the French and Indian Wars, it recalls the true exploits of a group of Rangers sent up into the French-Canadian woods to wipe-out a village of enemy-aiding warriors..... and especially the agonizing hardships on the trip home as they are pursued by the French. The scope of this movie has always impressed me, from the coziness of the firelight of a Studley's Tavern, the richness of The Reverend Brown's palor, the solid construction of Crown Point, and the beauty of the forest.

The Cast is top-notch headed by Spencer Tracy as Major Rogers. Robert Young, Walter Brennen, Ruth Hussey, and others help to make this a real treat to watch. The technicolor is of the fine old process, and we see hues and tones that are not visible in today's movies. Also, the musical score is compelling. This movie is absorbing, and when watched without interruption, the viewer gets swept along as though part of the story.

Good adventure movie but not as entertaining as you would hope and expect.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 7/10 · 17 November 2010]

This movie is definitely a good watch but it's also definitely not a movie that is without its disappointments. You can't really blame anyone involved with this movie for that, since this movie was a troubled production from pretty much the start on already, which is also the reason why the initially planned sequel never got made.

It's a movie with an adventurous story but yet at the same time there is also very little interesting, action- and entertaining-wise happening. It's mostly being a traveling movie, in which there is lots of talking but just too little action and else to enjoy and to consider this an entertaining movie to watch. They should had really attempted to spice up things a bit more, by perhaps putting in stronger characters and tell the story from some more different perspectives. That way the story would at least had been more lively and interesting to watch. The movie now mostly feels like a very long sit, even though the movie is just over 2 hours long.

But all these complaints don't mean that it's an horrible movie, by any means. It's still a good movie for what is is and you also have to keep in mind that this was an early '40's movie. Movies back in those days just weren't as fast paced and action packed as movies now days. They also certainly don't feature so much corny dialog as this movie does. It was quite laughable at times really and it made me cringe more than once.

It's great that this movie got shot in full color. They make the wooded environments more vivid and also help the story to get more alive and involving to follow. Also definitely great to see Spencer Tracy in color, at a still relatively young age. Most big Hollywood leads from the good old days, like for instance Humphrey Bogart, never looked too well in color but Spencer Tracy is definitely an exception to this.

Under the circumstances, it's not really a movie that did an awful lot wrong but it also at the same time didn't do much original or specular with its story either. This movie is definitely a good watch but it's just not a movie that I want to watch again, any time soon.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Clearly a movie of it's time - - - - - but still worth a watch !

[dgrahamwatson · 10/10 · 13 October 2006]

Northwest passage is one of those films that your parents probably watched when they were growing up. Despite having seen it or parts of it many times over the years its still very entertaining. Like other classics of it's times, DODGE CITY, ROBIN HOOD etc that has been given the Technicolor Hollywood treatment of the late 1930's, for what ever reason Northwest passage stands out as being the best. Watching it in 2006 almost 60 years after it was made on a digital plasma wide-screen one can really appreciate the efforts that went into filming this back in the 1930's as well as the work gone into keeping it restored.

As for the movie, some of the rangers looked to be a bit long in the tooth to be credible rangers, a bit old, scrawny and tired looking but perhaps it only enhanced the disheveled appearance that you might expect after such a long treks. Ironically, it's the tension throughout the movie keeps you on your toes because it's really not that violent. There is one major battle and that's it, for a move that is well over two hours long it's not really that much, but it's worth watching it for the cinema photography, the atmosphere as well as the scenery alone. However, if that's not going to keep your attention you'll find Spencer Tracy at his finest. Although Robert Young and Walter Brennan are fine in support, Tracy just steals the show as the enthusiastic tough as nails ranger ready to conquer North America.

I say conquer, he's not a raving maniac that is just out to kill, he'll fight if he has too, but its' discovering routs and new territory that's important to him. He commands respect not through fear but through admiration. There is nothing he asks his men to do that he is not prepared to do himself. If it's not going without food, or hauling a boat over a mountain he's the first link in a human chain trying to cross a swollen river riddled with rapids. He shows no fear but he's not reckless and is not looking to kill the enemy just for the sake of it. Discipline is important but the safety of the expedition as a whole is paramount, he wont slow down his troop and endanger it by carrying a wounded man.(Interesting thought, no medivac helicopter ready to swoop in and take out a casualty).

He has courage demands loyalty but is prepared to listen to his junior officers when they want to split up despite his reservations(which apparently they are entitled to do)he acquiesces. He rallied his command to go on at every opportunity and encourages them when in doubt with resolve as well as humor. He certainly understands his responsibility as leader. At the end of the movie when he is addressing the new expedition he delivers it with humor that clearly motivates the men into relishing the challenge, I was almost sorry I couldn't go along as well! (Note:one of these days I'll have to try drinking rum and hot water with brown sugar and butter added!)

Cassandra Calling part 6784934

[KingCoody · 6/10 · 28 August 2005]

With the increasing dangers of another major bloodletting about to occur twenty-two years after the Armistice was signed,a still Depression and myopic saturated United States started becoming aware of the new,fiercer agressors on the world scene. Hollywood not wanting to lose any foreign revenue had tiptoed around Japanese and Italian invasions of China and Ethiopia respectively,and I believe made only one film about the Spanish Civil War "Blockade" starring Henry Fonda. With September 1,1939 and the Hitlerian invasion and conquest of Poland things started to change. Warner Bros."The Sea Hawk" and this film and a host of Bs Cs and what were they thinking film productions started praising up the English for both commercial and political reasons a world spanning empire and the need/use for it as a potential ally in an increasingly dangerous world. So in "NorthWest Passage" the film there is a spurt of why the American Revolution occurred early on,and a brawl between Yank and Limey before the expedition gets fully underway,mostly it's an alliance of equals, united in a common purpose: to defeat the French and annihilate their Indian allies. The cleaned up massacre at the Abenaki village hides the fact like hundreds of other films contemporary and later,that not just fighting men were killed,everybody who didn't escape became victims. Neither the English nor the colonial Americans had any view to sharing the land so the Indian Wars east of the Mississippi contrary to popular belief (the feathered horseman circling the wagons or posed menacingly on the horizon)were far more bloodier than those in the American West.

The film is preparing the American public for the time when they would have to be drawn into the struggle,the cinematic labors of the films grunts would mirror the coming travails of actual GIs in Europe and the Pacific with all classes and races involved. Spencer Tracy for better or worse would become the role model for 2nd lieutenants,Robert Young the post war reflection of a return to normalcy,and Walter Brennan the filmic ancestor of a Jerry Springer panel member.

One of King Vidor's best!

[IlyaMauter · 9/10 · 12 May 2003]

Northwest Passage is based on a novel of the same name by Kenneth Roberts, in fact it is an adaptation of its first part The Roger's Rangers, the second part was also originally planned to be filmed by King Vidor, but MGM dropped the project fearing the costs involved. As a consequence only the first part of the novel was brought to the screen where passage through the northwest never actually happens but only is talked about.

The story is centred on Major Robert Rogers (Spencer Tracy) and his rangers who take a dangerous and adventurous journey through the territory controlled by the Indians and the French troops in 18th century America in order to destroy a hostile Indian village from where English settlements are constantly being attacked.

Right in the beginning the rangers are joined by right out of Harvard idealistic young cartographer Langdon Towne (Robert Young) who is dreaming of becoming a great painter `like Velasquez or Rubens' and is enthusiastic about the journey because of possibility it offers to paint portraits of Indians and landscapes in contrast with the other rangers who are mainly driven by yearning of revenge for relatives murdered during Indian raids.

Northwest Passage is possibly the best and the most visually impressive King Vidor's adventure film. Breathtakingly beautiful landscapes shown here certainly stand out as the most wonderful even among King Vidor's work who was well known for beautiful Technicolor exteriors in his movies. A beautiful film, definitely worth watching. 8/10

OK

[kyle_furr · 7/10 · 5 February 2004]

I heard that the book was too long to make into one movie so they decided to make a sequel, but they never got around to making it. I don't know if the characters of Robert Young and Walter Brennan would of been included. Spencer Tracy does a good job, as does Young and Brennan, but Ruth Hussey is only in two scenes and King Vidor did a good job as director.

Doesn't Stand the Test of Time

[ezechar · 4/10 · 25 July 2006]

This adventurous tale spends most of its time showing the hardships endured by the Rangers. Major Rogers and "Harvard" are the main characters, and they have an interesting relationship as comrades - Rogers is teaching Harvard how to be a "real man." It's almost a father/son thing they have going. Anyway, the acting isn't particularly impressive from any of the cast, but it's not terrible either, especially considering the time in which it was made.

Speaking of which, the main problem I saw in this film is that it is quite dated in its views of morality and life. It was made during World War II, during a time you went to war and became a man through the test of battle. It shouldn't be surprising then that it glorifies war by subjugating and dehumanizing the enemies - in this case primarily Indians (Native Americans). It is a testament to the attitudes of the time that the Indians are treated mostly like slaves (good Indians) or rabid dogs (bad Indians). They really are less than human. The racism is difficult to ignore, and detracts heavily from the film.

Overall, it was a fine movie in its time, but that time has passed, and the movie does not hold up under the scrutiny of modern values.

Well, it's well photographed, but .....

[dpingr1 · 20 November 2007]

Northwest Passage is one of the few films about the Seven Years' War that isn't based on a James Fenimore Cooper novel, and in that sense, it's a welcome lesson in how that important period has come to be mythologized in popular culture. I've never read the Roberts books, so I can't comment on how faithful the film is to its source material. I can only make a few comments on how movies have their own sensibilities and cultural rules. Like most films, this one tells us more about the era in which it was made than the time period in which the film's events take place. It's certainly an exciting story, but it has a number of cringeworthy elements (and they would have elicited just as many cringes back in the 1930s, I assure you.)Here's a few comments:

Jeffrey Amherst and Sir William Johnson: As anyone who has read any of the fine studies of this era can attest (I recommend the works of James Axtell, Gregory Evans Dowd, Daniel Usner, Daniel Richter, Richard White, and many others as fine introductions to Indian-White relations in the 17th and 18th centuries), this film takes a rather interesting view of these historical figures. Amherst is here depicted as the realistic good guy, who is in tune with Rogers's vicious sentiments. Johnson, on the other hand, is seen as part of the problem because of his private relationships with several Indian groups, especially the Mohawks. Johnson's Mohawk allies are here shown as lazy, duplicitous, suspicious interlopers. In fact, Johnson and his many Indian allies throughout Iroquoia and the Ohio country were indispensable to the British victory in the Seven Years' War, while Amherst, a capable officer but a virulent anti-native racist, instituted policies that helped start the 1763-64 Indian uprising ("Pontiac's War") and actually approved using germ warfare on Indians near Fort Pitt (he approved a plan to give them smallpox-infected blankets.)

Uniforms: If you squint, Roger's Rangers look like they should be in the Confederate Army. This may be a Technicolor issue. In fact, Roger's men often dressed as Indians and other backcountry residents did. It is the demands of movie convention that put them all in blue buckskin uniforms -- just as Japanese and German soldiers always wore particular shapes of helmets, so you can tell them apart from the other guys. Even the Mohawk and Abenaki Indians wear similar "uniforms," i.e. matching loincloths. The Indians in this movie look like they belong in the Southwest or the plains -- not in the Eastern Woodlands, especially late in the year.

Rogers himself: Well, his anti-Indian rants probably do illustrate something of the man himself. It should be noted that Rogers's sensationalized exploits made him a problematic celebrity during his life. He was always distrusted by his British superiors, who nevertheless bowed to public acclaim and gave him important positions after the war, including a brief command of Fort Detroit, and his disastrous tenure commanding Fort Michilimackinac after the Indian uprising. Like many outpost commanders, Rogers let his personal greed take over in the relative freedom of the pays d'en haut, and ended up being arrested and returned to Niagara in irons. Amherst gave him guarded trust, but Amherst's successor, Thomas Gage, and Indian Supervisor William Johnson, considered him a villain. As for the native Americans, everyone knew about Rogers's Indian killing, and he had few Indian friends and many enemies. Everywhere Rogers went became a tense place of interaction between Indians and Europeans.

Indian issues: Well, it's true that Indians, Abenakis and others, used brutal tactics in war. But this movie, like other movies such as Drums Along the Mohawk, definitely take the settlers' side in their confrontations with native Americans. In one scene, Rogers tells his men how the Abenakis should be killed for brutally hatcheting innocent settlers, who were just trying to make lives for themselves and weren't bothering anyone. It should be noted that settlers were often a great bother to Indians, just by their presence alone. Indians who lived in transitional regions resented the encroachments of white settlers more than anything else, including the presence of forts and soldiers. Settlers used land for farming, which was an exclusive operation. Unlike the skin trade, which used native residents as partners, farmers viewed Indians as being in the way. All Eastern Indians knew that farming was the one operation that turned Indian country into European territory exclusively, and did everything they could to oppose it. And as far as relative levels of brutality go, backcountry settlers and soldiers were capable of all the worst kinds of viciousness. Reference the Gnadenhutten Massacre during the Revolutionary War if you want to read about some really vicious behavior by America militiamen.

This movie is a great mirror on its time. Americans looked to their settler past, mythical or otherwise, whenever they wished to differentiate their national identity from the "bad old" Europeans, or the brutal state of nature. The rugged, idealistic frontier settler, hacking a life out of the wilderness but imbued with democratic virtue, was a popular model for Depression-riddled Americans who felt that their agency and power was slipping away. People today might like these movies for the same reasons!

As for me, I think the film is well-acted and filmed, and somewhat exciting, but too laughable to take very seriously. That is, it's laughable when it is not deplorable. This is the most virulent anti-Indian movie I know, worse even than most westerns. Some of the comments here label this as a "family" film. The hero of this film repeatedly labels all Indians as brutes, thieves, and cowards. I wouldn't let any child see this movie.

Rogers and Heart

[Lejink · 7/10 · 17 March 2019]

Based on the true-life exploits of early American colonial frontiersman, Robert Rogers, who served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, he formed his famous green-liveried Rogers' Raiders, trained for raiding and close combat behind enemy lines. The film deals principally with his celebrated expedition far behind enemy lines against the Abenaki Indians at Saint-Francis in Quebec and the forced marches to and from there.

Spencer Tracy is ideally cast as the grizzled but inspirational Rogers who Robert Young, an aspiring artist who has recently flunked his Harvard scholarship for the ministry and his rebellious, mischievous confederate, Walter Brennan, happen upon whilst on the run from likely imprisonment. Recruited on the promise of nothing more than hard work, soldier's ratiions and a noble cause, they fall in with Rogers and his sometimes not so merry men in their great campaign.

Tracy, who once claimed that movie acting wouldn't tax an embryo, here throws himself full-bodied into the action, whether that be taking the lead in starting a human chain of his men to get them over a rapid rolling river, marching for miles on an empty stomach or killing those pesky Abenaki Indians.

About that, political sensitivities in 1940 being a lot less heightened than they are now, today's viewer of course being mindful of the treatment of indigenous natives has to accept the historical context of the events depicted even if it means we see Rogers and his men slaughter in time-honoured Hollywood fashion, dozens of the "enemy Indians", although there is a scene where we see him stop his massacring, fire-raising men from murdering women and children, although only with the rider that alive they would make good servants.

Be that as it may, this was still a highly entertaining blockbuster entertainment. Director King Vidor marshals the big outdoor scenes ably as well as stopping the action for the appropriate stirring speeches, usually by Tracy. He doesn't shy away either from the rigours of conflict with more than one of the Raiders exhibiting what we call today battle fatigue or post traumatic stress. Tracy is excellent as Rogers, making the big decisions for his men's welfare but always leading by example and keeping his eyes on the prize of getting the job done. Young I was less convinced by as the sensitive, lovelorn recruit who toughens up under orders but Brennan as ever is enjoyable as his querulous sidekick.

A favourite movie of my old dad's who's never given me a bum steer yet, this is a colourful, action-filled Golden Age feature impossible, for more reasons than one, to replicate today.

A good old adventure.

[Filmnerd1984 · 7/10 · 20 February 2011]

Pretty good film about the Major Rogers Rangers. The film start off a little slapstick but quickly progresses into an action adventure in the wilds. It was unsettling to hear the Indian stories , you know slaughtering woman and children while torturing the men to death after wards, playing ball with heads and stuff like that. Spencer Tracy did an all right job, not his finest performance but still a memorable one. Too bad the quality of the DVD was very poor, because this film deserves a decent transfer. A recommended watch even if the quality is poor. King Vidor may not have been a genius Director but he made some fun films with interesting story's.

Rogers And His Jolly Green Rangers.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 17 August 2011]

Northwest Passage is directed by King Vidor and adapted to screenplay by Laurence Stallings and Talbot Jennings from the Kenneth Roberts novel of the same name. It stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Young and Walter Brennan. Music is by Herbert Stothart and cinematography by William V. Skall and Sidney Wagner.

"This is a story of our early America….of the century of conflict with French and Indians….when necessity made simple men, unknown to history, into giants in daring and endurance. It begins in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1759…."

Hurrah! What with the film having a reputation as one of the greatest adventure films of all time, that opening salvo for Vidor's movie doubly whets the appetite.What follows is more a case of a visually great picture, dotted with action, that is more about actual heroes than heroic deeds. Certainly the first hour of the picture leans more towards the slow burn than anything raising the pulse. However, characters are well drawn by Vidor and his team, with quality performances to match from the leads, and when the action dose come, such as the excellent battle at the Abenaki village, they more than pay back the patience of the viewer. We need to be forgiving for the overtly racist fervour that permeates the plot, so instead just rejoice in men triumphing over many obstacles, both of the mind and the body. 7/10

Why a sequel was never made

[fortdearborn1 · 10/10 · 3 January 2005]

If you read the following thread of comments you will find much speculation as to why a sequel was not made of the movie, Northwest Passage. It's a great book, historically quite accurate so much so that the first edition actually includes Rogers' Orders to attack the Abanaki village on the St. Francois (Saint Francis) river. The sequel would have been an acting tour-de-force for Spencer Tracy as it would have chronicled the deterioration of a great man, mostly through his constantly being distracted from organizing an expedition to discover the fabled Northwest Passage.

Why no sequel was made is explained by Spencer Tracy in his memoirs. He spends a few paragraphs relating how difficult a shoot it was, on location in northeastern Washington State. Tracy spent days and days partially submerged in half freezing water; battling insects and discomfort reminiscent of Rogers own trek before and after the sack of St. Francis. The director, King Vidor, was a harsh task master. That is obvious from the tremendous movie that resulted of the hard labor conditions of its making. However, during the production Tracy came to loath Vidor and swore he would never work with that director again. And, he never did. Hence, no Northwest Passage Part II was ever made.

Decent old-fashioned period adventure-drama

[grantss · 6/10 · 29 July 2023]

New Hampshire, 1759. After insulting the most powerful man in the region and having their lives threatened, friends Langdon Towne and 'Hunk' Marriner are on the run. Due to Towne's map-making skills, they land themselves positions in Rogers' Rangers, an elite force of Indian fighters. They soon regret this as Rogers' Rangers sets off on a highly dangerous mission.

A decent period adventure-drama, made as only the 30s and 40s could. Full of danger, long odds, heroism, action and general derring-do. A bit one-dimensional and clichéd though.

Solid performance by Spencer Tracy as Major Rogers. Robert Young is okay as Langdon Towne. However, I found Walter Brennan portrayal of 'Hunk' Marriner a bit clumsy and the folksiness overdone.

Frequently ripped-off historical plot seen here first.

[Kittyman · 9/10 · 9 June 2011]

Two months before his death in 1957, Kenneth Roberts received a special Pulitzer Prize for his historical novels. Of them, Northwest Passage was his most famous. It consisted of two distinct parts, and was the second best selling American book of 1937 (after first having been serialized in the Saturday Evening Post).

MGM's 1940 movie is based on the first, and in my opinion, better part of the book. It recounts Major Robert Rogers' 1759 raid on St. Francis, an Abenaki village, during the French and Indian War. As Rogers, Spencer Tracy gives a powerhouse performance, King Vidor delivers the directorial goods, and the storyline, itself, is very exciting. Indeed, I remember Northwest Passage fondly from my childhood, and consider it a classic. However, because of today's values, it probably appeals more to conservatives than liberals.

In 1945, Warner Brothers' Objective, Burma! (starring Errol Flynn) used the same plot without attribution--a Japanese transmission station replacing the Indian village. (Directed by Raoul Walsh, it too is very well done.) Then, in 1951's Distant Drums (starring Gary Cooper), director Walsh again used the same plot without attribution. This time the movie (which is not so well done) occurs during The Seminole Indian Wars (1835–1842), and the initial objective is an old Spanish fort, lying deep within the Everglades.

In conclusion, I'm not shocked that Hollywood recycled Roberts' plot without attribution. (You only have to remember Dorothy Parker's quip "The only 'ism' Hollywood believes in is plagiarism.") I am, however, somewhat shocked that Roberts did not sue. (His reputation was that of an acerbic curmudgeon.) But, then again, maybe he just didn't know.

Better off in jail.

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 4 February 2008]

It is no surprise that a movie about travel in the Northwest would be nominated for Best Cinematography. In fact, another film that year, North West Mounted Police, competed in the same category. They lost, as we currently are to The Thief of Bagdad.

A political comment is appropriate when reviewing this film as it is a statement of our feelings in the middle part of the 18th century in America. Just as Major Rogers (Spencer Tracy) was trying on moccasins, he says, "Don't any of these red hellions have man-sized feet?" A statement that indicates just what he thought of the Native Americans he, and his band of Roger's Rangers, were wiping out. Well, they managed to cross the frontier and slaughter a village full of 'Indians," in fulfillment of their mission as mercenaries for the British in the French and Indian War. (Shades of Blackwater!) The film concerned itself mostly with the trip home, which was hellacious, and cost him most of his men.

I enjoyed seeing Spencer Tracy (Oscars for Boy's Town and Captains Courageous, and seven more nominations) in his prime. This movie came out just after his two Oscar wins, and you see him at his peak.

Robert Young ("Father Knows Best", "Marcus Welby, M.D.", The Enchanted Cottage) was quite interesting as a more humane individual (Harvard grad, artist, mapmaker), who tagged along to escape jail (Gitmo?) for criticism of the administration.

Walter Brennan, who won an Oscar in 1939 and 1940 for The Westerner and Kentucky, and won one just a few years prior for Come and Get It, and who would get a nomination in the following year for a favorite: Sgt. York, was at the peak of his career and really shone as Young's sidekick.

I am just glad that Young gets home to his fiancée, Ruth Hussey (The Philadelphia Story). Tracy goes off to kill more Native American in hopes of a promotion in the Tory Government, not knowing that he had hooked up with the losers.

Directed by five-time Oscar nominee King Vidor, who is in the Guinness World Records as having "The Longest Career As A Film Director", spanning 67 years beginning with Hurricane in Galveston (1913) in 1913 and ending with the documentary The Metaphor (1980) in 1980.

They Don't Make Them Like This Anymore

[Theo Robertson · 8/10 · 4 November 2003]

Apologies for the clichéd summary above but this is a great adventure from the good old days of Hollywood . The story is very simple : Map maker Langdon Towne finds himself in a spot of bother and in a slightly unlikely turn of events is drafted into Rogers rangers who are on a mission to attack a hostile red skin stronghold . Hardly a radical plot but director King Vidor and screenwriter Talbot Jennings craft a very good film that only Hollywood in its hay day could produce .

It's not only a great adventure but a technically brilliant film for its time. Check out the wonderful cinematography where the primary colours are at the fore , rather similar to the colours used in GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ . Make up your own mind how successful the colouring is but I found it absolutely beautiful . There's also a show stopping scene where the camera follows the line of sight of a ranger taking aim at a red skin . Wonderful cinematography

There are one or two flaws though . One is that not only are some of the characters too old to be elite fighting men but they seem too old to still be alive . Honestly how old did people live to in the mid 18th century ? The rangers themselves are written as being a good bunch o blokes but I found them just a little too good to be true while no doubt the thought police will complain about the native Americans being portrayed as a bunch of blood thirsty savages , but this was made before revisionary westerns like the overrated DANCES WITH WOLVES and before Marlon Brando sent native Americans to collect Oscars , but at least King Vidor has cast real natives in the part of Indians and hasn't dressed up a bunch of white guys pretending to be injuns

Good Hollywood movie featuring the rangers . Probably brought more recruits to the regiment than SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and BLACK HAWK DOWN put together

Only Spencer Tracy Makes This Watchable

[trescia-1 · 6/10 · 25 October 2023]

If you know ANYTHING about living in the outdoors, you'll probably be better off not watching this historically important film -- just because the way these "rangers" operate is just completely crazy. The movies suffers, very seriously, from a lack of realism, and I'm not just being a "fussy" old history buff. It's one dumb thing after another.

Even if you're willing to accept the bizarre premise and the ugly racism, how can it be acceptable to begin an attempt to secretly drag boats up a mountain, under the noses of the enemy "while making the least noise possible"-- by setting off a barrel of gunpowder?? And crossing a raging river using a "human chain" is pretty stupid-- and this takes up WAY too much of this movie. The rangers rescue some "hostages" by firing a cannon into the room where they live at point blank range! Yow!

Much of the film revolves around the rangers' lack of food. Huh? I think any competent woodsman should have been able to find SOMETHING to eat. When the rangers finally DO "collect" some local animals, they just throw all the critters in a pot and boil them up, feathers and all.

Suuure they did.

Of course, when a man is shot in the gut with a musket, he can overcome that by being tough and walking it off.

Suuure he can.

Unfortunately, just about every scene in this epic features this kind of silliness. But then Spencer Tracy gives a speech and all is forgiven. Oh well... watch it if you're a student of film, Otherwise, pass... PASS!

(Added two stars for Tracy...would be four stars otherwise).

Northwest Nap Time

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 4/10 · 7 March 2019]

Was this movie considered entertaining at one time? My gawd it's mostly a bunch of unwashed doofuses standing around talking and yelling at each other. Or Spencer Tracy outlining strategy for his men. Maybe it struck a chord during WWII but its a dull, dated relic at this point. Plus, I think the color film works against it. it looks like a bunch of Hollywood actors playing frontier dress-up.