# Run of the Arrow
**Run of the Arrow** is a 1957 American Western written, produced, and directed by [Samuel Fuller](https://www.edgepedia.org/samuel-fuller), in which a Confederate veteran who refuses to accept the South's defeat at Appomattox rides west, passes a Sioux endurance trial, and joins the tribe to continue his personal war against the Union[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow). It was released on September 5, 1957, runs 86 minutes, and stars [Rod Steiger](https://www.edgepedia.org/rod-steiger), Sara Montiel, and [Brian Keith](https://www.edgepedia.org/brian-keith)[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | September 5, 1957; 86 minutes; Technicolor[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957) • [3](https://wchsutah.org/videos/movie-memories-clark-nelson.pdf) |
| Filmmaker | Written, produced, and directed by Samuel Fuller[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow) |
| Lead cast | Rod Steiger (Pvt. O'Meara), Sara Montiel (Yellow Moccasin), Brian Keith (Capt. Clark), Ralph Meeker (Lt. Driscoll), Charles Bronson (Blue Buffalo)[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow) |
| Dubbing | Montiel's voice was dubbed by RKO contract player Angie Dickinson[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow) |
| Crew | Cinematography Joseph Biroc; original music Victor Young; editing Gene Fowler, Jr.; art direction Albert S. D'Agostino and Jack Okey[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow) |
| Signature scene | The title ritual, a race for the prisoners' lives in which pursuers give them a head start and chase them, shot largely on the runners' feet[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow) • [6](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53489-RUN-OF-THE-ARROW) |
| Legacy | Critics noted that Dances with Wolves (1990) follows an almost identical plot[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The film opens at Appomattox in 1865, where Confederate Pvt. O'Meara (Rod Steiger) fires what turns out to be the final shot of the Civil War, wounding Union Lt. Driscoll ([Ralph Meeker](https://www.edgepedia.org/ralph-meeker)), who recovers[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow). Unwilling to accept the defeat of the South once the peace treaty is signed, O'Meara refuses to surrender, returns home to Virginia to say goodbye to his mother (Olive Carey), declares himself a man without a country, and heads west hoping to fight alongside the Sioux[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow) • [1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957).
On the trail he falls in with Walking Coyote (Jay C. Flippen), an old Oglala scout returning to his people to die, who teaches him the [Sioux language](https://www.edgepedia.org/sioux-language) and customs[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957). Captured by warriors under Crazy Wolf (H. M. Wynant), O'Meara survives the run of the arrow, which is a race for their lives where pursuers give the prisoners a head start, and is accepted into the tribe[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957) • [6](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53489-RUN-OF-THE-ARROW). He presents himself to the chief Blue Buffalo ([Charles Bronson](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-bronson)), marries Yellow Moccasin (Sara Montiel), and renounces his American identity[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow) • [4](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/run-of-the-arrow/umc.cmc.5j2fvohr6gzwki9x3xpxgzemo).
Tension builds when the U.S. Army, led by Lt. Driscoll, builds Fort Abraham Lincoln just beyond a hallowed Sioux hunting ground. After a Sioux warrior kills Capt. Clark (Brian Keith), Driscoll uses the killing as an excuse to attack, and O'Meara's attempt to keep the peace fails; a bloody battle follows in and around the fort[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow). The ambiguous ending leaves O'Meara done with his personal Civil War but torn between the Sioux and the world he left behind[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow).
## Production
Fuller made the film for his own company, Globe Enterprises, with RKO Radio Pictures and [Universal Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/universal-pictures) also credited as studios on the release[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957). The Sioux-territory scenes were shot at Snow Canyon and Pine Valley Lake in [St. George, Utah](https://www.edgepedia.org/st-george-utah), far from actual Sioux country[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957), and TCM's synopsis records that 150 Navajo tribespeople appeared in the film[5](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/3172).
**The run of the arrow sequence.** Fuller later recalled that Steiger sprained his ankle just before the sequence was shot and was taken to a hospital, so a young Indian doubled him. Fuller said he would have filmed about eighty percent of the scene on the feet anyway, "because that's the whole idea of the Run," but would occasionally have liked to show Steiger's face[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow). Critics at the time praised the choice to keep the camera on the runners' feet[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957).
**Music.** Fuller supplied the balladeer Frank Warner, making his screen debut, with a genuine Confederate war song, using the original lyric rather than the more polite segments usually recorded; Warner, a leading interpreter of [American folk music](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-folk-music), sings it in the scene where O'Meara says goodbye to his mother[5](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/3172) • [6](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53489-RUN-OF-THE-ARROW). Victor Young wrote the score, and a song called "The Purple Hills," with music by Young and lyrics by [Milton Berle](https://www.edgepedia.org/milton-berle) and Buddy Arnold, was reported written for the film but is not heard in the viewed print[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53489-RUN-OF-THE-ARROW).
## Reception and interpretation
TCM's retrospective essay by Paul Tatara calls the film a revisionist Western that makes complex statements about race, identity, and loyalty, and describes its image of the American Indian as among the most open-minded in 1950s cinema, with the lead character siding with the Indians for most of the film[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow). Film scholarship places it in the wave of Indian-themed Westerns begun by Broken Arrow (1950) that offered sympathetic, at times heroic, portrayals of Indian characters and greater attention to Indian customs[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/refocus-the-films-of-delmer-daves/dont-be-too-quick-to-dismiss-them-authorship-and-the-westerns-of-delmer-daves/A138863D6777EACDB9EC000E2EB92F3C).
The contemporary reception was cooler. Bosley Crowther's New York Times review of August 3, 1957 called it "just an ordinary cavalry-Indian film," conspicuous for raw blood-letting and Steiger's method acting, and judged that Fuller "has in no way broken the familiar mold"[8](https://www.jacknilan.com/nativeamerican/runofarrow.html). Later commentary has noted the film's overstatements, including Sioux characters kissing on the lips and a threatened skinning, practices the Sioux did not follow, and doubts that supporting actor Tim McCoy, a former Indian agent, did much technical advising[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow).
## Legacy
When [Dances with Wolves](https://www.edgepedia.org/dances-with-wolves) was released in 1990, reviewers such as the Los Angeles Times' Jeremy Arnold and the Library of Congress' Angela Aleiss observed that the film's storyline closely mirrored that of Run of the Arrow: a disillusioned soldier from the Civil War heads west, draws renewed vigor from the ways of the Sioux, and is forced to prove his adopted convictions once fellow veterans of the war set foot on Sioux territory[1](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow). Fuller's treatment, Tatara notes, is more inclined to let "bullets and tomahawks do the talking" than Costner's[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow).
Within Fuller's career the film is regarded as a key work. Tag Gallagher's survey in Senses of Cinema names [Pickup on South Street](https://www.edgepedia.org/pickup-on-south-street) (1953) and Run of the Arrow as two masterpieces from Fuller's decade of alternating projects for Fox and his own company, Globe Enterprises[9](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2009/feature-articles/samuel-fuller-tag-gallagher/). Fuller's blunt style, championed by the [French New Wave](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-new-wave) critics of the 1960s, later influenced directors such as Martin Scorsese and [Quentin Tarantino](https://www.edgepedia.org/quentin-tarantino)[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow).
## References
1. [Run of the Arrow (1957), NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/run-of-the-arrow-1957)
2. [Run of the Arrow, by Paul Tatara, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12464/run-of-the-arrow)
3. [Run of the Arrow, Movie Memories, WCHS Utah](https://wchsutah.org/videos/movie-memories-clark-nelson.pdf)
4. [Run of the Arrow, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/run-of-the-arrow/umc.cmc.5j2fvohr6gzwki9x3xpxgzemo)
5. [Watch Run of the Arrow, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/3172)
6. [Run of the Arrow, AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53489-RUN-OF-THE-ARROW)
7. [Don't Be Too Quick to Dismiss Them: Authorship and the Westerns of Delmer Daves, ReFocus: The Films of Delmer Daves, Edinburgh University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/refocus-the-films-of-delmer-daves/dont-be-too-quick-to-dismiss-them-authorship-and-the-westerns-of-delmer-daves/A138863D6777EACDB9EC000E2EB92F3C)
8. [Run of the Arrow (1957), review page reproducing Bosley Crowther's New York Times review of August 3, 1957](https://www.jacknilan.com/nativeamerican/runofarrow.html)
9. [Why Samuel Fuller?, by Tag Gallagher, Senses of Cinema](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2009/feature-articles/samuel-fuller-tag-gallagher/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Westerns before 1980 › Released 1930 to 1960*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license