Fort Apache

Fort Apache is a 1948 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 starring Wayne. The story, which screenwriter James Warner Bellah based loosely on George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn, as well as the Fetterman Massacre of 1866, was one of the first to present an authentic and sympathetic view of the Native Americans involved in the battle (Apache in the film, Sioux in the real battles).

The film was awarded the Best Director and Best Cinematography awards by the Locarno International Film Festival of Locarno, Switzerland.

After the end of the American Civil War, the veteran, well-respected Captain Kirby York (John Wayne) is expected by the regimental personnel of Fort Apache, an isolated U.S. cavalry post, to replace the outgoing commander. York had commanded his own regiment during the Civil War and was well-qualified to assume permanent command. To their surprise and disappointment, the command of the regiment was given to Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday (Henry Fonda). Thursday, a West Pointer, was a General during the Civil War. Despite his Civil War combat record, Lieutenant Colonel Thursday lacks experience to deal with the Indians he is expected to watch, and is a very arrogant officer and martinet.

Accompanying widower Thursday is his daughter, Philadelphia (Shirley Temple). She becomes attracted to Second Lieutenant Michael Shannon O'Rourke (John Agar), the son of Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke (Ward Bond). The elder O'Rourke had won the Medal of Honor, entitling his son to enter West Point and become an officer. However, the class-conscious Thursday forbids his daughter to see someone he does not consider a gentleman, despite the fact that Sergeant Major O'Rourke had served during the Civil War as a Major with the Irish Brigade and went on to earn the Medal of Honor for his bravery under fire.

When there is unrest among the Indians, led by Cochise (Miguel Inclan), Thursday ignores York's advice to treat the natives with honor and that the problems are caused by corrupt Indian agents. His arrogant behavior drives the Indians to rise up. Eager for glory and recognition, Thursday orders his regiment into battle on Cochise's terms, despite York's urgent warnings.

By deliberately misinterpreting his orders York spares the younger O'Rourke from battle. However, Thursday's entire command is wiped out. Thursday himself survives but then returns to die with the last of his men. Cochise spares York's detachment because he knows York to be an honorable man.

Subsequently, now-Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York commands the regiment. Meeting with correspondents introduces Lt. O'Rourke, now married to Thursday's daughter. A reporter asks if he has seen the famous painting depicting "Thursday's Charge." York, about to command a new and arduous campaign to bring in the Apaches, says it is completely accurate and then reminds the reporters that the soldiers will never be forgotten as long as the regiment lives.Some exteriors for the film were shot in Monument Valley, Utah. The exteriors involving the fort itself and the renegade Indian agent's trading post were filmed at Corriganville, which is now a park in Simi Valley, California.

Watching this film uncut and with no interruptions was great. I makes you proud to know yhat you are a part of a great country with an even greater heritage.

John Wayne's name drew us to this movie. If he was not in it we would not have enjoyed it too well. He pretty much saved the day just being in the movie. It was not as great a story as so many of his others. Nice Family movie, no foul language, no obscenity.

I have never been into Classic Westerns or John Wayne for that matter.
However, one day when I was feeling lazy and feeling like a "couch potato" I found this movie on television.
I figured it would hold my interest for a few minutes but I was wrong! First off the music caught my ear and the words to the songs became stuck in my head! Pleasantly so though.
With being used to modern, action packed and special effect loaded movies of today, which I love and go to see often, I was entertained by the simplicity of the movie. The story line was simple with clear cut "good vs bad" and strong characters who wanted to do the right thing.
The movie was filmed in the west and the outdoor scenes were very good. I thought the Native American portrayal was not that bad considering the time period the movie was made.
John Wayne surprised me as I found his acting to be good and of course Henry Fonda is a classic actor. So, I watched the entire movie and I enjoyed it, I did not get bored, and I ended up buying a copy for myself!
So, if you like the "old west" give this fifties movie a chance.

This is the first film which uses the US Cavalry as the background/set (as much as Monumental Valley) for telling us a typical John Ford story, there are the values of decency and common sense and the very important sense of humor in one side and bigotry and stupidity in the other... and that on the same side (meaning life in the regiment which is a metaphor of a rigid society)... confronted against the Indians who as usual in early Ford films just plays the danger OUTSIDE...
Filmed in black&white in the exceptional way of the master it has passed with honors the terrible true test of time and has become a classic.
The script is what you can expect, but mainly is a confrontation between the martinet colonel (from the East) played convincingly by Henry Fonda and the professional (in the West) played by an excellent John Wayne, add the usual love affair, the funny Irish sergeant tricks (read Victor McLaglen) etc.
John Ford will go on and do "SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON" in Technicolor (probably the best one of the so called "trilogy", and then "RIO GRANDE" again in black&white (this one as a compromise to raise money for the shooting of "THE QUIET MAN") with the benefit of Maureen O'Hara but probably the most inane of the three... if you add "THE HORSE SOLDIERS" (ACW), "SERGEANT RUTLEDGE" (buffalo soldiers) and "CHEYENNE AUTUMN" (crepuscular movie in defense of the indian natives)... it would eventually make six excellent films (plus the scenes where the cavalry appears in "STAGECOACH", "THE SEARCHERS" and "TWO RODE TOGETHER"...
If ever the US Cavalry needed a recruiting manager John Ford WAS AND IS IT (quite contradictory for a navy honorary admiral!).

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