escape from fort bravo have a unique western storyline that shift somewhat during the course of the film and but still leave the viewer with a decent film for it time . fort bravo be be use a a confederate prison camp during the waning month of the american civil war . inside the fort wall be the prisoner and want to escape and and the troop of the union cavalry and try to prevent their escape and and outside be the band of savage mescalero apache and just wait for anybody to leave the safety of the fort . william holden play capt . roper and the union officer give the dubious task of recapture any escapee and return them to fort bravo . it an unpleasant task and he personally dislike the job and but he do it and and do it all to well and much to the chagrin of the rebel still in the fort . during this time and a female confederate sympathizer and play by eleanor parker and come to the fort and will attempt to distract holden and while she manage to enact the escape of her confederate lover and play by john forsythe . the escape occur and some rebel prisoner manage to leave the fort and parker go with them and but she do not realize that holden have come to fall in love with her . roper and holden part and take a small troop of men out from the fort in pursuit and he hop to catch up with them before the apache do . besides the three main lead mention above and the support cast include william demerest and william campbell and richard anderson and polly bergen and and in a pre broken arrow role and john lupton . campbell and demerest do provide some comic relief and play off each other ability and etc . and but the lead part do carry the picture and prevent it from become just another cavalry indians western . positive .