Fort Apache (film)

''Fort Apache'' is a 1948 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. 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.

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".

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

* John Wayne as Captain Kirby York
* Henry Fonda as Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday
* Shirley Temple as Miss Philadelphia Thursday
* John Agar as Second Lieutenant Michael Shannon "Mickey" O'Rourke
* Ward Bond as Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke
* Irene Rich as Mary O'Rourke
* Anna Lee as Emily Collingwood
* George O'Brien as Captain Sam Collingwood
* Guy Kibbee as First Lieutenant Wilkens, regimental surgeon
* Ray Hyke as Lieutenant Gates, regimental adjutant
* Mae Marsh as Mrs. Gates
* Victor McLaglen as Sergeant Festus Mulcahy
* Dick Foran as Sergeant Quincannon
* Pedro Armendáriz as Sergeant Beaufort
* Jack Pennick as Sergeant Daniel Schattuck
* Frank McGrath as Corporal Derice (uncredited)
* Philip Kieffer as a Trooper (credited as Keiffer)
* Fred Graham as a Trooper (uncredited)
* Danny Borzage as recruit/accordionist (uncredited)
* Hank Worden as Southern recruit
* Miguel Inclán as Cochise
* Grant Withers as Silas Meacham
* Movita as Guadalupe, Colonel Thursday's household cook
* Mary Gordon as Ma (Barmaid)
* Cliff Clark as Stage Driver (uncredited)
* Francis Ford as Fen (Stage Guard) (uncredited)
* Frank Ferguson as Newspaperman (uncredited)
* William Forrest as Reporter (uncredited)
* Archie R. Twitchell as Reporter (uncredited)
* Harry Tenbrook as Tom O'Feeney (uncredited)
* Mickey Simpson as NCO at dance (uncredited)
* Jane Crowley as Officer's Wife (uncredited)

Production

Filming

Some exteriors for the film's location shooting were shot in Monument Valley, Utah. 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 (). The film is recognized by American Film Institute in its 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10: Nominated Western film.

Other rankings

''Fort Apache'' is commonly ranked among the most significant films of the "cowboy/western" genre, including:
* "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):
* #6 (Henry Fonda) and #13 (John Wayne) in the "AFI's 50 Greatest American Screen Legends", American Film Institute

See also

* List of American films of 1948
* John Wayne filmography
* Fort Apache (disambiguation)
* '' Fort Apache, the Bronx'' (a 1981 crime film, starring Paul Newman)
* Henry Fonda filmography
* Shirley Temple filmography

References

Further reading

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* Recent, highly favorable review of "John Ford's superb black-and white elegiac Western".
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External links

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{{John Ford

1948 Western (genre) films
1948 films
American Western (genre) films
Western (genre) cavalry films
Apache Wars films
Films based on American short stories
Films directed by John Ford
Films set in Arizona
Films set in the 19th century
Films shot in Utah
RKO Pictures films
American black-and-white films
1940s English-language films
1940s American films
Films shot in Monument Valley
Films scored by Richard Hageman
English-language Western (genre) films