This movie is a real mixed bag. In some ways, it's quite intelligent and moving but in other ways the film really misses the mark and could have used a re-write.

First, I admire that the film deals with the senseless slaughter of millions of buffalo in the 19th century. This was such a waste and was a topic worthy of making a film about--but the filmmakers also gave a very mixed message. While the impact on the Indians (mass starvation) and waste of life was portrayed, the prologue also said that the massacre was the result of Whites AND Indians!! This is ridiculous, as the Indians killed buffalo as needed and their impact on the buffalo population was limited--playing moral equivalence was ludicrous! I am certainly no politically correct zombie, but this assertion was stupid. Additionally, many of the buffalo that were killed in the film really were being killed! As a Department of the Interior management decision to thin the remaining herds, this thinning was filmed and the animals that died in the film really did die--something that may make PETA-types cringe or become sick--so be forewarned!! Second, I liked the counter-point of having a man who is sick of the slaughter (Stewart Granger) and the blood-lust of of his partner (Robert Taylor). However, while this juxtaposition is interesting and brought the point home well, it didn't make sense when you think about it. After all, if Granger had enough of the killing, then why did he spend so much time in the film killing?! Plus, Robert Taylor's character was so over-the-top and ludicrously unbelievable that the whole partnership seemed impossible and dumb.

Now there were also several things I did like about the movie. First, I was surprised how effective Stewart Granger was as a Buffalo Bill-type man. He had no trace of his native British accent and was amazingly good. Second, the very end of the film was handled deftly--how the final showdown went down was really great. Third, it was nice to once see that a typical Western cliché is absent. In this film, there is no "hooker with a heart of gold"! Instead, she's kind of ugly and mean and is purely in it for the money! Fourth, When Granger is involved in a bar fight, the song "Yellow Rose of Texas" plays during this battle and is very, very similar to the final climax in GIANT--and I think this was intentional, as both films came out in 1956.

So overall, this is a mixed bag--full of great ideas but poorly executed as well. As a result, it's interesting but quite skip-able.

The Last Hunt is one of the few westerns ever made to deal with Buffalo hunting, both as a sport and business and as a method of winning the plains Indian wars. Before the white man set foot on the other side of the Mississippi, the plains used to have herds of American Bison as large as some of our largest cities. By the time of the period The Last Hunt is set in, the buffalo had been all but wiped out. The 20th century, due to the efforts of conservationists, saw a revival in population of the species, but not hardly like it once was.

Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger are co-starring in a second film together and this one is far superior to All the Brothers Were Valiant. Here Stewart Granger is the good guy, a world weary buffalo hunter, who has to go back to a job he hates because of financial considerations.

The partner he's chosen to throw in with is Robert Taylor. Forgetting Taylor for the moment, I doubt if there's ever been a meaner, nastier soul than Charlie Gilsen who Taylor portrays. In Devil's Doorway he was an American Indian fighting against the prejudice stirred up by a racist played by Louis Calhern. In The Last Hunt, he's the racist here. He kills both buffalo and Indians for pure pleasure. He kills one Indian family when they steal his mules and takes the widow of one captive. Like some barbarian conqueror he expects the pleasure of Debra Paget's sexual favors. He's actually mad when Paget doesn't see it that way.

No matter how often they refer to Russ Tamblyn as a halfbreed, I was never really convinced he was any part Indian. It's the only weakness I found in The Last Hunt.

However Lloyd Nolan, the grizzled old buffalo skinner Taylor and Granger bring along is just great. Nolan steals every scene he's in with the cast.

For those who like their westerns real, who want to see a side of Robert Taylor never seen on screen, and who don't like cheap heroics, The Last Hunt is the ideal hunt.

The film largely focuses on a bullying Robert Taylor as a ruthless buffalo hunter and the people who have to put up with him. Set amidst a hunt for dwindling numbers of buffalo, it portrays the end of a tragic era of senseless slaughter and is full of drama and remorse for both the buffalo and the Native Americans. Taylor is blinded by his hatred of Indians and his naivete that the buffalo herds will never disappear. In one scene, he shoots animal after animal, while in another he murders Indians and then eats the food they had cooking on their fire. Under this ruthless exterior lies an insecure person who is reduced to begging his comrades (Stewart Granger, Lloyd Nolan, and Russ Tamblyn) not to leave him. It's not the most pleasant of films and is weighed down by the drama it creates, leading to a dismal and very fitting conclusion in a blizzard.