![]() ![]() Speaking of Stewart, the film includes a much-debated and admittedly odd comic interlude that takes viewers to Dodge City where Wyatt Earp (Stewart), Doc Holiday (Arthur Kennedy) and Maj. Wessels (Malden), when he realizes he has a massacre on his hands. Or the breakout at Fort Robinson, and the reaction of Capt. Or Wright cradling a wounded Indian child and wondering if it matters one iota who fired the first shot when war breaks out. Like Archer scribbling “will you marry me?” on Wright’s chalkboard, only to have her rush to erase it as soon as she sees the message. Robinson - none of whom were playing Indian roles.Īs a result, the film is most memorable for wonderful individual scenes. ![]() It’s a long, slow-moving film, and the focus frequently shifts from the Indians to Ford’s top-billed stars - Widmark, Baker, James Stewart and Karl Maldn, James Stewart and Edward G. ![]() It’s more entertaining than most Westerns, but it’s also not completely successful in achieving that goal. Having “killed more Indians than Custer, Beecher and Chivington put together” on film, he set out to make a movie sympathetic to the Indians. This would mark John Ford’s last Western and his next to last feature film. Meanwhile, rumors about the “blood-thirsty” Cheyenne war party are spreading, causing fear throughout the Western plains.Ĭarroll Baker as Quaker school teacher Deborah Wright, trying to get the Indian children to return and unaware of Archer’s chalkboard message in Cheyenne Autumn (1964) Dull Knifte’s son Red Shirt (Sal Mineo) wants Little Wolf’s youngest wife for his own.Īnd Dull Knife, watching his people fight hunger and winter weather, is beginning to think surrender might be preferable than continuing a hopeless journey. They’ve always seen eye-to-eye, until now. When the elder Cheyenne chief dies, the task of leading the 1,200-mile journey back to Wyoming falls to Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalbon) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland). The woman he loves, Quaker school teacher Deborah Wright (Carroll Baker) has decided to leave with the Cheyenne to look after the orphaned Indian children who have been attending her school. He has a more personal reason to set out in pursuit. The task of chasing after them falls to reluctant Capt Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark), who’s bound to do his duty, but sympathetic to the Indians’ plight. When the delegation turns back because of bumpy roads and dust storms - and the inconvenience since there’s an officers’ ball planned for that evening - the Cheyenne decide enough is enough, leave the reservation and head back home to Wyoming. The Cheyenne Nation, living with starvation and poverty on their assigned reservation in Oklahoma in 1877, awaits a delegation from Washington to hear their grievances. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |