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Fort Apache
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Editorial Reviews:
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The soldiers at Fort Apache may disagree with the tactics of their glory-seeking new commander. But to a man, they're duty-bound to obey - even when it means almost certain disaster. John Wayne, Henry Fonda and many familiar supporting players from master director John Ford's "stock company" saddle up for the first film in the director's famed cavalry trilogy (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande are the others). Roughhouse camaraderie, sentimental vignettes of frontier life, massive action sequences staged in Monument Valley - all are part of Fort Apache. So is Ford's exploration of the West's darker side. Themes of justice, heroism and honor that Ford would revisit in later Westerns are given rein in this moving, thought-provoking film that, even as it salutes a legend, gives reasons to question it.
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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
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Fort Apache
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User Comments About Fort Apache
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It make you proud to be an American
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Watching this film uncut and with no interruptions was great. I makes you proud to know yhat you are a part of a great country with an even greater heritage.
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John Wayne's name drew us to this movie.
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Nice Family movie, no foul language, no obscenity. If he was not in it we would not have enjoyed it too well. It was not as great a story as so many of his others. John Wayne's name drew us to this movie. He pretty much saved the day just being in the movie.
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So, I watched the entire movie and I enjoyed it, I did not get bored, and I ended up buying a copy for myself. With being used to modern, action packed and special effect loaded movies of today, which I love and go to see often, I was entertained by the simplicity of the movie. The movie was filmed in the west and the outdoor scenes were very good. Pleasantly so though.
The story line was simple with clear cut "good vs bad" and strong characters who wanted to do the right thing.
First off the music caught my ear and the words to the songs became stuck in my head.
So, if you like the "old west" give this fifties movie a chance.
I figured it would hold my interest for a few minutes but I was wrong.
John Wayne surprised me as I found his acting to be good and of course Henry Fonda is a classic actor.
However, one day when I was feeling lazy and feeling like a "couch potato" I found this movie on television.
I have never been into Classic Westerns or John Wayne for that matter.
I thought the Native American portrayal was not that bad considering the time period the movie was made.
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The beginning of a trilogy which will expand to six films...
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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. 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. ADB
ALL RECOMMENDED. If ever the US Cavalry needed a recruiting manager John Ford WAS AND IS IT (quite contradictory for a navy honorary admiral). 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. it would eventually make six excellent films (plus the scenes where the cavalry appears in "STAGECOACH", "THE SEARCHERS" and "TWO RODE TOGETHER".
and that on the same side (meaning life in the regiment which is a metaphor of a rigid society). 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. if you add "THE HORSE SOLDIERS" (ACW), "SERGEANT RUTLEDGE" (buffalo soldiers) and "CHEYENNE AUTUMN" (crepuscular movie in defense of the indian natives).
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This is a great classic movie where the hero (John Wayne) struggles with what he knows is right and what he is ordered to do. Shirley Temple plays a spoiled daughter who falls in love for the first time against her parent's wishes, but love and duty both triumph in the end.
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