I read The Way West 60 years ago and loved it. Then I saw the movie that is included in this packet. I did not remember it as it was shown. I then re-read the book. The movie hardly follows the book at all and in fact changes it to the point that it becomes absurd. Starting from the beginning, the scout did not have his Indian wife die, it was his sickened white wife and in the book she had JUST died. Second, the man who killed the Indian did not shoot him with a shotgun in the bushes but with a rifle while the Indian was sitting in a tree. Third, the Indians did come to ask for some sort of compensation for the shooting but they were refused anything and were sent away. Therefore, there was no hanging of the man or any killing of the leader in retaliation. Fourth, the leader was never about to be hanged as portrayed in the movie. Fifth, the leader was replaced alright but he did not continue all the way with the wagon train. He split off with a few others and went to California. Since that is true he could not have been with them when, according to the movie, he was killed by the avenging wife. Sixth, what scout who knows his way around the area would lead the wagon train to a sheer cliff? That is truly absurd. That did not happen and as a result the train was not lowered to the bottom of the cliff as shown in the movie. Even that was absurd. The wagons were lowered with their sides against the cliff face. There was no ramp to allow the wagons to ride over the edge to be lowered. They would have had to swing out and their momentum would bring them crashing to the side or swinging back and forward violently with poor result. Apparently, the movie makers thought they had to make the movie more exciting than the book. The book was already a best seller and did not need improvement and the movie's improvement was stupid at best. Otherwise, change the name of the movie and don't claim it is a retelling of the book by A.B.Guthrie, Jr.
Broken Arrow was actually quite well done and is based on a true story. Some changes were made but basically it follows the truth fairly well and is the first movie that gave a reasonable picture of the Indians. I did not watch The Bravados.
