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Fort Apache (John Wayne) [1948]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

John Ford's 1948 classic stars John Wayne as a Cavalry officer used to doing things a certain way out West at Fort Apache. Along comes a rigid, new commanding officer (Henry Fonda) who insists that everything on his watch be done by the book, including dealings with local Indians. The results are mixed: greater discipline at the fort, but increased hostilities with the natives. Ford deliberately leaves judgments about the wisdom of these changes ambiguous, but he also allows plenty of room in this wonderful film for the fullness of life among the soldiers and their families--community rituals, new romances--to blossom. Fonda, in an unusual role for him, is stern and formal as the new man in charge; Wayne is heroic as the rebellious second; Victor McLaglen provides comic relief; and Ward Bond is a paragon of sturdy and sentimental masculinity. All of this is set against the magnificent, poetic topography of Monument Valley. This is easily one of the greatest of American films. --Tom Keogh

Editorial
Synopsis

The first film of John Ford's celebrated Cavalry Trilogy, Fort Apache mirrors the effects of the director's wartime experience on his attitude toward military command. Lt. Col. Owen Thursday (Henry Fonda), a West Point-trained Civil War veteran, is sent to command the remote Arizona outpost of Fort Apache. An arrogant, by-the-book officer, he's annoyed at having drawn such an ignominious assignment. Despite the warnings of veteran Indian-fighter Capt. Kirby York (John Wayne), he dismisses the notion that a group of savages could possibly be of concern to one possessing his military prowess. After Thursday's daughter, Philadelphia (Shirley Temple), and young Lt. Michael O'Rourke (Ward Bond) find the bodies of some mutilated soldiers, it's discovered that Indian agent Silas Meacham (Grant Withers) has been stirring the Apaches up by selling them liquor illegally. York persuades Thursday to withhold all action until he can arrange peace talks with Cochise (Miguel Inclan), but when the Indian chief shows up for the palaver he finds that the blindly willful army commander has called out the entire regiment for an attack on the Apache force. A tragic, absorbingly complex study of the problems of command, Fort Apache benefits enormously from Fonda's superb performance and the exhaustive research of screenwriter Frank S. Nugent into Apache culture and the army outposts of the era.

The beginning of a trilogy which will expand to six films...
Review date: 2007-10-12 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is the first film which uses the US Cavalry as the background/set (as much as Monumental Valley) for telling us a typical John Ford story, there are the values of decency and common sense and the very important sense of humor in one side and bigotry and stupidity in the other... and that on the same side (meaning life in the regiment which is a metaphor of a rigid society)... confronted against the Indians who as usual in early Ford films just plays the danger OUTSIDE...
Filmed in black&white in the exceptional way of the master it has passed with honors the terrible true test of time and has become a classic.
The script is what you can expect, but mainly is a confrontation between the martinet colonel (from the East) played convincingly by Henry Fonda and the professional (in the West) played by an excellent John Wayne, add the usual love affair, the funny Irish sergeant tricks (read Victor McLaglen) etc.
John Ford will go on and do "SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON" in Technicolor (probably the best one of the so called "trilogy", and then "RIO GRANDE" again in black&white (this one as a compromise to raise money for the shooting of "THE QUIET MAN") with the benefit of Maureen O'Hara but probably the most inane of the three... if you add "THE HORSE SOLDIERS" (ACW), "SERGEANT RUTLEDGE" (buffalo soldiers) and "CHEYENNE AUTUMN" (crepuscular movie in defense of the indian natives)... it would eventually make six excellent films (plus the scenes where the cavalry appears in "STAGECOACH", "THE SEARCHERS" and "TWO RODE TOGETHER"...
If ever the US Cavalry needed a recruiting manager John Ford WAS AND IS IT (quite contradictory for a navy honorary admiral!).

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Reviews


JOHN FORD'S fine tribute to the US Cavalry in this first of a loose trilogy
Review date: 2007-06-05 Rating: 10 out of 10

FORT APACHE (1948) was John Ford's and John Wayne's first western together since STAGECOACH (1939) they would go on to make six more culminating in THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962). This film was also the first of what became known as Ford's Cavalry Trilogy. The others were SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1949) and RIO GRANDE (1950) and were Ford's splendid tribute to the U.S. Cavalry and as such deserve to be judged as a body of work that as yet has no equal!

Wayne in this film shares top billing with Henry Fonda who a couple of years earlier had starred as the hero Wyatt Earp in John Ford's marvellous My Darling Clementine (1946) this time Ford has him cast as the unsympathetic martinet Lt Col Owen Thursday against the experienced Captain Kirby York (John Wayne). Incidentally when Wayne reprised this role for the last outing in the trilogy in Rio Grande he not only gained promotion but an extra letter to his name by becoming Lt Col Kirby Yorke. Also starring Shirley Temple and John Agar as the young lovers (who were actually married at the time of filming) and last but not least Victor McLagen for his Irish Sergeant part in the trilogy

As with the rest of the trilogy the story is taken from a novel by James Warner Bellah story is basically a study of frontier life against the backdrop of the Indian Wars and the end bears more than a passing resemblance to Custer's Last Stand with the Fonda character leading his men into an Apache massacre from which few return. The final theme when it's all over was "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend" which would be used to such good effect in another James Warner Bellah story the aforementioned THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE some fourteen years later.

This 2006 DVD release is a good transfer with beautiful black and white images on the skyline, swirling dust clouds and the wonderful detailed domestic settings in the fort, all in the director's best manner! Divided into 18 chapters for easy access, also available with subtitles but little else in the way of extras. But still excellent value from Amazon at a very attractive price





Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Henry Fonda
Pedro Armendariz Jr.
Guy Kibbee
Irene Rich
John Wayne

Creators:
Henry Fonda (Primary Contributor)
Guy Kibbee (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Universal Pictures Video
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures Video
EAN: 5050582417951
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, PAL,
Release date: 2006-06-05
Audience rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region code: 2
Running time: 122 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1948
Language: English (Original Language)

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