Konterr Brilliant and touching

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Leofwine_draca FORT APACHE is quite possibly my favourite of the John Ford westerns I've watched thus far, featuring a winning combination of male stars Henry Fonda and John Wayne. The story is a thinly-guised version of the famous Custer tale in which a lieutenant colonel's hubris and hatred of the Apaches leads to an ill-advised venture against them, ultimately spelling disaster. Although the running time is lengthy, this is a well-mounted production that has a bit of everything, from humour to drama, romance to tragedy. Wayne's upstanding protagonist is a good guy to vouch for, Fonda's acting is commendable, and the supporting cast is chock-full of familiar faces including a grown-up Shirley Temple alongside Victor McLaglen, Ward Bond, Grant Withers, et al.

disinterested_spectator Colonel Thursday is an insufferable snob. He is contemptuous of the fact that he is being sent to Fort Apache to be its commanding officer by a war department that not only is ungrateful for all that he had done during the Civil War, but also fails to appreciate that he was clearly meant for better things. He even prefers Europe to this new assignment.He is irked to discover that Second Lieutenant Michael O'Rourke is the son of Sergeant Major O'Rourke at Fort Apache, and rudely interrogates the sergeant, trying to understand how such a thing could happen. He believes in a sharp class distinction between officers and enlisted men, and this combination of both in a single family is repulsive to him. And when he discovers that his daughter Philadelphia has been socializing with this lieutenant and his family, he is aghast.He refuses to shake hands with Captain Collingwood, with whom he is already acquainted, because Thursday believes that Collingwood disgraced his uniform in some way during the war, though we gather that whatever happened was really not Collingwood's fault, but just the result of some unfortunate circumstance over which he had no control.He is utterly mirthless, barely concealing his displeasure at having to perform certain social functions at the noncommissioned officers' dance.He likes to flaunt his knowledge of military history, dropping names like Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, and Napoleon Bonaparte, while refusing to appreciate the tactical cunning of Cochise, because he is an illiterate savage. He repeatedly rejects the advice of Captain York, a seasoned veteran with extensive knowledge of the Apaches, because Thursday is a colonel and York is just a captain.It is at this point that his snobbery makes him not just an extremely unpleasant human being, but an incompetent commanding officer as well. The result is that he ends up getting half the regiment slaughtered.In the final scene, Captain York talks to reporters, who gush about what a great man Thursday was, a hero to every schoolboy, and York encourages them in their delusion. The movie seems to imply that this is for the best, that schoolboys need their heroes, that people need to believe that Thursday was a great man. And yet, as many critics have noted, the movie itself subverts the legend, undermining the whole notion of heroes and great men. And since Thursday is loosely based on the legend of General George Armstrong Custer, the movie is essentially besmirching the legend surround this real life figure.In other words, the movie is flattering us. Other people, the movie is saying, need their illusions, but we know better. Let the masses have their heroes, because they would just fall apart if they did not have something to believe in, but we are too sophisticated to fall for such nonsense.Of course, these same masses, who supposedly need their heroes, are the ones who are sitting in the audience, so this may seem like a contradiction. But it is a contradiction with a purpose. The point is to flatter each of us into thinking we are superior to the others, who in turn have been flattered into thinking they are superior to us. So we all get to feel superior, and that makes us like the movie.

v_haritha_in One more of John Ford's epic westerns. The young and ambitious, Lt. Col. Owen Thursday (Henry Fonda) is appointed to a small army outpost close to one of the Indian reserves. Though crestfallen at first on being posted far from action, he decides to make his mark nonetheless. In his zest to prove himself, he disregards the advice of veterans like Capt. York (John Wayne) and sets off on a suicidal mission to attack the Apache.Thursday is a man who has visions of glory but does not have the patience to get there. He is too proud to mingle with his subordinates, maintains a stately kind of relations with other veterans and in keeping with his manner, forbids his daughter's (Shirley Temple) romance with a young, eligible officer. He might follow the rules by the book and place great importance on formalities but he lacks leadership qualities.The other soldiers are a stark contrast to Lt. Col. Thursday. They may appear and behave rough but they know to obey their superior. They respect him in spite of his flaws and do not question when he literally orders them to their deaths.It is one of the few old Westerns that do not show the Indians as savages. They are all for peace and talks; it is Thursday's misguided aggression that forces them to defend themselves.An all round good movie. It takes its time in developing the characters; it is almost like knowing more and more about a person as you spend more time with them. Wayne is in familiar territory as a man who knows the West like the back of his palm. Fonda is not a bad guy but a head-strong fool who manages to do more harm than a traditional villain; a role he simply nails. Shirley Temple is no longer the little girl from the 30's but boy has she bloomed. She is pretty, vivacious and steals every moment of her screen-time.No more words, just watch it.

smatysia An enjoyable Western. Henry Fonda is spot on as the martinet new commander of the remote post. John Wayne is, well, John Wayne. Shirley Temple was quite fetching, although her acting may have left a bit to be desired. As always John Ford's use of Monument Valley was awesome. It would have really been something in color, but he did return and do so in, I think, Red River. The large number of women on the post was a bit surprising to me, but war was carried out differently in those days. If the fort were overrun by Apaches, all of those women would slaughtered, and some likely tortured first. And our "Native American" friends knew a lot (a LOT) about torture. Real torture, not namby-pamby waterboarding. Apparently even then (1948) the "noble savage" myth carried a lot of currency. Whatever. Didn't care much for the ending speech by Wayne, although Ford did indulge in that on several occasions.Nonetheless, everyone should see this, and the other Ford/Wayne cavalry films.