In Mike Grost's anthology presenting Ford's movies, the film was described as being one of his best, but also one of his most underrated. It also mentioned how the film mocked traditional femininity as being an "artificial construct". "TV Guide" said the film "is a fascinating, detailed look at racism" and mentioned how some characters are directly racist, while others suffer from "repressed racism". "Variety" said that the movie has an "intriguing screenplay which deals frankly, if not too deeply, with racial prejudice in the post-Civil War era." The Movie Scene was more mixed, saying it is an "interesting movie because it is slightly different to what you expect from a John Ford western", but mentioned that it "is not the intelligent courtroom drama of say "Anatomy of a Murder"", but that it instead relies on Ford's customary use of the flashback.