Fort Apache (film)

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Fort Apache
Fortapache1948.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Ford
Written by Frank S. Nugent
Based on"Massacre"
1947 story The Saturday Evening Post
by James Warner Bellah
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Archie Stout, ASC
Edited by Jack Murray
Music by Richard Hageman
Production
company
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • March 27, 1948 (1948-03-27) [1]
Running time
125 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.1 million [2]
Box office$3 million (US rentals) [3]

Fort Apache is a 1948 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. [4] [5] The film was the first of the director's "Cavalry Trilogy" and was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950), both also starring Wayne. The screenplay was inspired by James Warner Bellah's short story "Massacre" (1947). The historical sources for "Massacre" have been attributed both to George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn and to the Fetterman Fight. [6]

Contents

The film was one of the first to present an authentic and sympathetic view of Native Americans. In his review of the DVD release of Fort Apache in 2012, The New York Times movie critic Dave Kehr called it "one of the great achievements of classical American cinema, a film of immense complexity that never fails to reveal new shadings with each viewing" and "among the first 'pro-Indian' Westerns" in its portrayal of indigenous Americans with "sympathy and respect". [7]

The film was awarded the Best Director and Best Cinematography awards by the Locarno International Film Festival of Locarno, Switzerland. Screenwriter Frank S. Nugent was nominated for best screenplay by the Writers Guild of America.

Plot

After the American Civil War, highly respected veteran Captain Kirby York is the acting commander at Fort Apache, an isolated U.S. cavalry post on the Arizona frontier. York commanded his own regiment during the Civil War and had learned the ways of the Apache. To universal surprise and disappointment, the regiment is given instead to Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday, a highly arrogant, acidic and abrasive martinet who had been brevetted a general during the Civil War for a valiant charge. A West Point graduate with unconcealed ambition, he regards the assignment as distasteful, unwarranted, and a serious derailment of his career.

His arrogance and overbearing egocentrism not only pervades his command but extends to his attitude towards the native Indians, whom he treats with condescension and complete disregard.

Accompanying widower Thursday is his daughter, Philadelphia. She becomes attracted to newly minted Second Lieutenant Michael O'Rourke, the son of highly regarded Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke, the post's ranking non-commissioned officer. The elder O'Rourke had been 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. However, the class-conscious Thursday forbids his daughter to see someone whom he does not consider an equal and a gentleman worthy of her.

When Thursday is forced to deal with unrest among the Apaches, led by Cochise, he ignores York's advice to treat the tribes with honor and to remedy problems on the reservation of malnutrition, alcoholism and decay caused by corrupt Apache agent Silas Meacham. Thursday protects Meacham as an agent of the United States government despite his personal contempt for the man and his ways. York successfully negotiates for peace with Cochise and the Apaches, but Thursday belligerently rejects their deal and prepares to attack the Apache forces.

York warns that Cochise has prepared an ambush and that the attack would be suicidal. In response, Thursday relieves York and orders him to stay back with O'Rourke and protect the supply train.

Thursday's charge backfires as he and his troops charge directly into Cochise's trap. Wounded and separated from his men, Thursday refuses a rescue from York and instead returns to the remnants of the cavalry before being wiped out by Cochise. Cochise spares York and the soldiers who did not participate in the battle.

Several years later, regimental commander Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York entertains a room full of Eastern correspondents. He gives a speech on how those who died that day will never be forgotten as long as the regiment lives, and that he has an arduous campaign ahead to bring in Geronimo.

After briefly introducing his adjutant, Lt. O'Rourke, now married to Philadelphia, and their young son Michael Thursday York O'Rourke, he mounts his horse and leads the regiment off after the Apaches.

Cast

Production

Filming

Some exteriors for the film's location shooting were shot in Monument Valley, Utah. [8] The exteriors involving the fort itself and the renegade Apache agent's trading post were filmed at the Corriganville Movie Ranch, a former Simi Hills movie ranch that is now a regional park in the Simi Valley of Southern California.

Cast

At the time of filming, Shirley Temple and John Agar were married in real life. Dick Foran sang the 1869 song "Sweet Genevieve" written by Henry Tucker. Pedro Armendariz was a member of Mexico's Golden Age of Movies.

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]

Other rankings

Fort Apache is commonly ranked among the most significant films of the "cowboy/western" genre, including: [12]

Additionally, the principal actors were ranked (for this and their other films):

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Fort Apache: Detail View". American Film Institute. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
  2. ↑ Brady, Thomas F. (September 19, 1947). "U-I BUYS 2 STORIES TO BE MADE FILMS". New York Times. p. 27.
  3. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1948". Variety. January 5, 1949. p. 46.
  4. ↑ "Fort Apache". Miniature Reviews. Variety . March 10, 1948. p. 10.
  5. ↑ Harrison's Reports film review; xxx.
  6. ↑ Howze, William (2011). "Sources for Ford's "Cavalry trilogy": The Saturday Evening Post and James Warner Bellah". Section of Howze's doctoral dissertation.
  7. ↑ Kehr, Dave (March 23, 2012). "How the West Was Filled With Loss". New York Times. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
  8. ↑ SILBERNAGEL, BOB (November 4, 2019). "John Ford, Monument Valley helped define Western mythology". The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  9. ↑ Jewell, Richard; Harbin, Vernon (1982). The RKO Story. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House. p. 228.
  10. ↑ Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  11. ↑ "AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  12. ↑ Smith, Travis W. (2016). "Abstract". Place Images of the American West in Western Films (PDF) (doctoral dissertation). Kansas State University . Retrieved November 1, 2020.

Further reading

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