Interesting, unusual Western to emerge during the genre's heyday given writer/director Fuller's typically uncompromising viewpoint. Starting off on the last day of the American Civil War, it deals with Southerner-of-Irish-descent Rod Steiger's inability to cope with defeat which sends him the way of the Sioux (the renowned Method actor, making a surprising third genre appearance in as many years, brings his customary intensity to the traditional Western canvas). After meeting up with renegade Indian Jay C. Flippen(!) and surviving the titular challenge, he's accepted by the Redskins and even lands himself a squaw (Sarita Montiel aka Mrs. Anthony Mann) and a mute foster-son; the latter is then involved in a startling sequence as, about to drown in quicksand, he's saved by a passing American horse soldier
except that he's rewarded for his good deed by falling headfirst into the slime himself! Steiger's past also comes back to haunt him at this point, with the arrival of the Cavalry (led by sympathetic Brian Keith and nasty Ralph Meeker the latter was the last man to be shot during the war, by Steiger himself!) who want to build a fort in Sioux territory. Though the Indians (with Charles Bronson as Chief) desire peace, one of their number is a rebel and wages a one-man war against the whites
but Steiger has him do the 'Run Of The Arrow', which is then callously interrupted by Meeker. With Keith murdered by a Sioux arrow, the younger officer takes over command and, obstinately but unwisely, takes the unit further into Indian territory in search of a more strategic point for constructing. As Steiger's entreaty for surrender is rejected, the Cavalry are massacred (quite a violent scene for the time) but Meeker is kept alive, since awaiting him is the fate allotted to those who willfully obstruct the 'run'. It's here, though, that Steiger draws the line for, whatever his feelings for Meeker personally, he can't bear to see his fellow man tortured: ironically, he uses the bullet he had shot him with originally, kept all along as a token, to end his ordeal. Looking on, Bronson and, even more so, Montiel (voiced here by Angie Dickinson!) realize that his place is with the white man after all; a wonderful scene has her throw the U.S. flag at Steiger and bringing him to admit that his home state of Virginia is equally represented on it. The concluding scene, then, has the surviving unit starting off to rejoin its ranks with Steiger (accompanied by his 'family') at the head.
