Land der Gottlosen (1940)

Land der Gottlosen: Directed by Michael Curtiz. With Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan. In 1854, Jeb Stuart, George Custer and other graduates from West Point are posted to Kansas to help pacify the territory before railroad construction to Santa Fe can resume.

“Well, lots of Hollywood films from 1940 wrestle with the problem of the wars that were then raging in Asia and Europe, and with the likelihood that the US couldnu0026#39;t keep itself out of the madness for very much longer. And this is a pretty blatant example; set just before the Civil War that all the characters u0026quot;knowu0026quot; to be coming, with every other person making statements about how theyu0026#39;re not going to start making moral decisions because theyu0026#39;re soldiers who just do their duty. So the film has acquired an interesting historical patina. But the subject matter is just so toe-curlingly awful that there ought to be a health warning before itu0026#39;s shown. Perhaps its best audience would be students of history-with-ethics. And if thereu0026#39;s no such college course, perhaps itu0026#39;s best not viewed at all. Plenty of other films to watch, with Errol and Olivia and gunfights (or bowfights)!”