This John Wayne western with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes ushered in the best change in the genre

Fort Apache is a 1948 Western by John Ford with John Wayne And Henry Fonda. The film is the first of a trilogy (with 1949 She wore a yellow ribbon and 1950s Rio Grande) by Ford, who worked with the US Cavalry in the West after the Civil War. Ford produced Fort Apache with Merian C. Cooper (King Kong) under the banner Argosy Pictures for RKO Radio Pictures Studio. It is considered one of the first films to present a “pro-Indian” view of Native Americans.. Fort Apache set a trend, followed by Broken Arrow, Cheyenne Autumnand other films that continued the trend toward more accurate portrayal of Indigenous characters.

Frank S. Nugent wrote the Fort Apache Screenplay based on the magazine article “Massacre” by James Warner Bellah. TThe story borrows events from and closely traces the career of General George Armstrong Custer – graduate of West Point, served as a brigadier general in the Civil War, sent west as a lieutenant colonel to command the 7th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Riley, Kansas, during the Indian Wars and at Little Big Horn. Ford adds physical details to make Fonda, who, not surprisingly, almost steals the show from Wayne, more like Custer.

Fort Apache (1948)

At Fort Apache, an honorable and experienced war captain finds himself in conflict when his regime is placed under the command of a young, glory-hungry lieutenant colonel who has no respect for the native Indian tribe.

Release date

March 27, 1948

director

John Ford

Pour

John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, John Agar, Ward Bond, Irene Rich, Anna Lee, George O’Brien

Duration

125 minutes

Main genre

western

Authors

Frank S. Nugent

budget

2.1 million US dollars

Studio(s)

Argosy Pictures

Sales Partner

RKO Radio Pictures

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What is “Fort Apache” about?

The widowed former Civil War general, now Lieutenant Colonel, Owen Thursday (Fonda) arrives with his daughter Philly (Shirley Temple) to take command of an isolated Fort Apache during the Indian Wars. At the same time, 2nd Lieutenant Michael O’Rouke (Johannes AgarTemple’s then-husband) shows up. The recent West Point graduate immediately shows romantic interest in Philly (and vice versa). Meanwhile, Thursday can only stew with anger because she finds his new assignment in the wilderness and his demotion an insult.

At Fort Riley, Thursday takes command from Captain Kirby York (Wayne), the popular former commander, much to the chagrin of the men in the fort, including O’Rouke’s father, Sergeant Mayor (Municipal bond), who acts as a fatherly buffer between the strict new commander and the men who are not used to such arrogance. After a murderous attack by renegade Indians on a small cavalry unitYork tries to convince Thursday that they are responding to the abuses on the reservation by the corrupt government agent and suggests a meeting with Apache leader Cochise to make peace. Thursday sees York’s suggestion as a way to lure Cochise into an ambush and make a new name for himself.

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“Fort Apache” presents opposing visions of America

Fort Apache presents two opposing views of 1870s America, embodied by the protagonists Thursday and York. Thursday represents the Eastern view that Native Americans stand in the way of Manifest Destiny, the “predestined” westward expansion of the white settlers. We hear Thursday, who has just arrived in the West, talking about being glorified by the newspapers in the East, while secretly thinking about the extermination of Cochise. On the other hand, York spent more time in the West and came to understand that the Native Americans were there first. He represents a more enlightened view that seeks a way to achieve fair and peaceful coexistence with the First Nations..

In his analysis of Custer’s life, on which the film is loosely based, Kevin M. Levin concludes: “Custer’s racial views were in complete harmony with the overarching racial views of white Northerners and Southerners. and those he expressed publicly during Reconstruction. The United States was a white man’s nation. The very existence of the United States was based on the dispossession of the indigenous population. If Custer was wrong, it was ultimately because the nation was wrong.” In different contexts, the same two opposing views – cooperation versus dominance – persist today.

The film also presents another conflict: the conflict between thoughtless duty and decency, between the spirit and the letter of the law. York believes in mutual respect for the Indians and understands that Cochise broke the treaty and left the reservation out of frustration at the government agent’s mistreatment. He gives Cochise his word that peace will prevail when he returns. His superior, Thursday, who remains true to his refusal to allow his daughter to marry below his social station, believes that Indians do not deserve respect. and sees York’s promise as a trick to lure Cochise into a deadly ambush. York naturally feels betrayed and used. Thursday’s measures are further proof of the government’s lies, corruption and ill will.

Then, at the last minute before the decisive battle, Thursday, despite York’s protests, finds an excuse to order him and the young O’Rourke out of the danger zone, because she suspects that York will still be alive to succeed him as regimental commander, and that O’Rourke and his daughter are in love and will marry. With his final actions, he is apparently trying to atone for mistakes that he ultimately recognizes as true. When newspaper reporters finally ask him years later to remember Thursday’s legacy, York speaks only of his bravery, not his stupidity. York has a duty to tell the truth, but he tempers it with a broader and more benevolent knowledge, inadvertently supporting the false legend of the Colonel’s glory. This tension between duty to the law and his spirit still exists today. It is one of the reasons the film remains relevant.

Did “Fort Apache” really start a trend towards a fair portrayal of Native Americans?

So-called “Indians” have been in film since the beginning of the business. Cecil DeMille’s The Squaw Man (1913), long considered the very first feature film made when East Coast studios moved into what is now Hollywood, dealt with the issue of intermarriage between whites and Indians. In keeping with the ethnocentricity of the country’s colonial and expansionist past, The prevailing image of Native Americans in the first decades of film history was that of bloodthirsty savages who lived only to hunt white people. This was the material for hundreds of series and B-movies for decades.

Before Fort Apachesome filmmakers tried to portray Native Americans more realistically and respectfully. Films like The missing American (1926) and Cimarron (1931) tried to be compassionate and understanding, even as it thoughtlessly used white people to play natives. In fact, it was John Ford’s 1948 epic that set the tone for a new view of the characters of indigenous peoples, portraying them as honorable but cautious, dignified, inherently peaceful, reasonable, and strategically superior warriors. According to his biographer Scott EymanFord developed this view during his work with the Monument Valley tribes. Stagecoach in 1939 and cultivated this experience with every new project and every vacation in this area until the end of his life.

In his definitive guide to the Western The six-shot mythwestern scholar John G. Cawelti Documents that There was indeed a change in the portrayal of Native Americans after Fort Apache in 1948, marked by Broken Arrow (1950), Apache (1954) and Path of the arrow (1957). Although they were still not entirely realistic, they dealt with the indigenous peoples in a more complex way. Ford used indigenous peoples as actors in Cheyenne Autumn (1964). The films of the late 20th century went even further towards fair and faithful representations with A man called Horse (1969), Little big man (1970), Dances with Wolves (1990) and The Last of the Mohicans (1992). The 21st century has seen the emergence of films by local filmmakers How Smoke signals (1998), Atanarjuat: The fast runner (2001) and Reservation dogs (2021), which represent their own cultures in the modern world.

Fort Apache enjoyed immediate popularity upon its release, received critical acclaim and was financially successful. It has become a classic, which may explain its 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its flaws (the comedic attempts range from lame physical jokes to meaningful moments of verbal humor), it is still a well-made, exciting, and historically important work.

Fort Apache is available in the US on Amazon Prime Video.

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