|
The first of John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", Fort Apache stars John Wayne as captain Kirby York and Henry Fonda as Custer clone Lt. Col. Owen Thursday. Resentful of his loss in rank and transfer to the West after serving gallantly in the Civil War, the vainglorious Thursday insists upon imposing rigid authority on rough-and-tumble Fort Apache. He is particularly anxious to do battle with the local Indians, despite York's admonitions that the trouble around the fort is being fomented not by the so-called savages but by corrupt white Indian agents. Thursday nonetheless ends up in a climactic set-to with Indian chief Cochise. He and his men are needlessly slaughtered, but the Eastern press builds "Thursday's Charge" into an incident of conspicuous valor--and York, ever loyal to the cavalry, is not about to tell the whole truth. The bare bones of Fort Apache's plotline are fleshed out with several subplots, including the romance between Thursday's daughter Philadelphia (Shirley Temple) and Lt. Mickey O'Rourke (John Agar), the son of Fort Apache veteran Sgt. Michael O'Rourke (Ward Bond). There's also plenty of time for the expected drunken-brawl humor of Victor McLaglen. Not in the least politically correct, Fort Apache is a classic of its kind, and together with Rio Grande (1950) the best of the John Ford/John Wayne Cavalry films.
Code:
STARS...........: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple
DIRECTOR........: John Ford
WRITERS.........: Frank S. Nugent
GENRE...........: Western, Action, Adventure
IMDB............: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040369
RUNTIME.........: 2h 07mn
SIZE............: 6.56 GB
VIDEO CODEC.....: HEVC (Main10L4)
BITRATE.........: 7000 Kbps (2-pass)
RESOLUTION......: 1476x1080
ASPECT RATIO....: 1.37:1
FRAMERATE.......: 23.976 fps
AUDIO1..........: English AAC 1.0 200kbps
AUDIO2..........: Commentary with F.X. Feeney
AUDIO3..........: Spanish HE-AAC 1.0
SUBTITLES.......: ENG, FRE, SPA
SOURCE..........: Warner Blu-ray
ENCODE DATE.....: 2021-04-01
Extras
• Commentary by F.X. Feeney is quite informative, if also a bit on the monotonous side, at least from a delivery angle. Feeney reveals he may be a long lost cousin of John Ford's, though he readily admits that gives him no special insight into the film. Feeney's commentary gives a wealth of background on the project, but perhaps more importantly, places this film in the overall context of the Western in general and Ford's contributions to the genre in particular.
• Monument Valley: John Ford Country - A nice look at one of John Ford's favorite places for location shooting, Monument Valley, which straddles the border between Arizona and Utah. Ford first utilized the incredible scenery of Monument Valley in Stagecoach, and continued to film there throughout the rest of his career.
• Theatrical Trailer
|
| In John Ford's sombre exploration the mythology of American heroes, he slowly reveals the character of Owen Thursday, who sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, Thursday attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.
|
