Plot
A stagecoach races across the Southwestern desert, carrying widower Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday and his daughter, Philadelphia, to his new posting at Fort Apache, an isolated U.S. cavalry post on the Arizona frontier. Thursday is impatient and full of complaints, revealing little understanding of the country. A West Point graduate who was brevetted a general during the Civil War, he has been serving in Europe for several years and is full of resentment at being recalled and “shunted aside” to what he considers a career-ending assignment.
At a waystation, they meet newly minted graduate Second Lieutenant Michael O'Rourke, on his way to Fort Apache. Four sergeants arrive with a vehicle to meet Michael, which irks Thursday. The sergeants notice that Michael and Philadelphia are attracted to each other. They arrive at Fort Apache during the Washington's Birthday dance. Philadelphia dances with acting commander Captain Kirby York. York commanded his own regiment during the Civil War and has learned the ways of the Apache. Michael has a touching reunion with his parents.
The next morning at officers call, Thursday assumes command and criticizes them all—except for Michael—for being improperly dressed, revealing a by-the-book approach that soon establishes him as a martinet. When York tries to brief him on the realities of life at Fort Apache, Thursday dismisses Native Americans as “digger Indians”.
Michael is the son of highly regarded Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke, the post's ranking non-commissioned officer. The elder O'Rourke was a major in the Irish Brigade during the Civil War and earned the Medal of Honor, entitling his son to enter West Point and be commissioned an officer. Thursday is taken aback by this revelation.
York advises Thursday to treat the tribes with honor and to remedy problems on the reservation of malnutrition, alcoholism and decay caused by corrupt Indian agent Silas Meacham. An inspection of Meacham's store reveals alcohol, rifles and shoddy goods. Thursday steps on the scale used to weigh beef rations and observes he has gained a lot of weight. Thursday tells Meacham he would hang him if it were within his power, but duty requires him to protect the man as a representative of the United States government.
Michael takes Philadelphia riding and they encounter the burned corpses of two men sent to repair the telegraph wires. They race back to Fort Apache. Thursday forbids Michael Philadelphia's company. He sends Michael and a small detail—the sergeants “volunteer”— to retrieve the bodies and repair the wire. York objects until Thursday follows this up with an order to muster a large force to follow on Michael's heels, The trap works and the attacking Native Americans are killed or beaten off.
Cochise has led into Mexico, fleeing starvation and abuse. Thursday wants to be the man who brought them back. York successfully negotiates for peace with Cochise, who returns to American soil, but Thursday, eager for a military victory, musters the entire regiment to ride against the Apache.
Outnumbered two to one, Thursday agrees to meet with Cochise, whose allies include Geronimo. Deaf to Cochise's eloquent statement Thursday promises to attack the next morning. York tells Thursday attacking in columns of fours would be suicidal. Thursday orders York to take Michael and stay back with the supply train. Thursday charges directly into Cochise's trap. Wounded and separated from his men, he refuses a rescue from York and instead returns to die with the remnants of his command. Cochise spares York and the soldiers who did not participate in the battle.
Several years later, Thursday is a hero. Entertaining some correspondents Regimental Commander Colonel York says nothing to tarnish the legend. He adds that those who died that day will never be forgotten as long as the regiment lives. He leads the regiment off after the Geronimo.
Reception
The film recorded a profit of $445,000 [9] (equivalent to $4,510,000in 2023 [10] ). The film is recognized by American Film Institute in its 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10: Nominated Western film. [11]
Bosley Crowther raved about the film in his June 25, 1948 review in The New York Times, observing among heaps of praise: “Folks who are looking for action in the oldest tradition of the screen, observed through a genuine artist's camera, will find plenty of it here. But also apparent in this picture, for those who care to look, is a new and maturing viewpoint upon one aspect of the American Indian wars. For here it is not the "heathen Indian" who is the "heavy" of the piece but a hard-bitten Army colonel, blind through ignorance and a passion for revenge.” [12]
The film has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 21 contemporary and modern reviews. [13]
Other rankings
Fort Apache is commonly ranked among the most significant films of the "cowboy/western" genre, including: [14]
- "Top-Grossing Westerns from 1930–1972 and Plot Classification" per Wright, W. (1975) in Six guns and society: A structural study of the Western (pp. 30–32). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
- #43 in the "Top 100 Westerns": Western Writers of America
- #28 of 92 in "Chronological Listing of Major and Representative Western Films" (Cawelti, 1999)
- #28 in "Chronological Listing of 100 Major and Representative Western Films" (Hausladen, 2003)
- #19 in "Top 100 Western Films (1914–2001)" (Hoffmann, 2003)
- #11 in "AFI's 50 Western Nominees" (American Film Institute)
- #25 in "100 Greatest Western Movies of All-time" (American Cowboy Magazine, 2008)
Additionally, the principal actors were ranked (for this and their other films):
