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Fort Apache

Fort Apache (1948)

June. 24,1948
|
7.4
|
NR
| Western

Owen Thursday 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, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.

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JinRoz
1948/06/24

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

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Stevecorp
1948/06/25

Don't listen to the negative reviews

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TrueHello
1948/06/26

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

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Nicole
1948/06/27

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

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sandcrab277
1948/06/28

Perhaps the only film henry fonda had to actually act in because he wasn't playing henry fonda... i didn't care for his role either ... i'm sure john ford made his gnash his teeth over and over to get this performance ... shirley temple was the best in this film ... its probably the only film she was in that i liked ... john wayne played john wayne very well...

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disinterested_spectator
1948/06/29

Colonel Thursday is an insufferable snob. He is contemptuous of the fact that he is being sent to Fort Apache to be its commanding officer by a war department that not only is ungrateful for all that he had done during the Civil War, but also fails to appreciate that he was clearly meant for better things. He even prefers Europe to this new assignment.He is irked to discover that Second Lieutenant Michael O'Rourke is the son of Sergeant Major O'Rourke at Fort Apache, and rudely interrogates the sergeant, trying to understand how such a thing could happen. He believes in a sharp class distinction between officers and enlisted men, and this combination of both in a single family is repulsive to him. And when he discovers that his daughter Philadelphia has been socializing with this lieutenant and his family, he is aghast.He refuses to shake hands with Captain Collingwood, with whom he is already acquainted, because Thursday believes that Collingwood disgraced his uniform in some way during the war, though we gather that whatever happened was really not Collingwood's fault, but just the result of some unfortunate circumstance over which he had no control.He is utterly mirthless, barely concealing his displeasure at having to perform certain social functions at the noncommissioned officers' dance.He likes to flaunt his knowledge of military history, dropping names like Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, and Napoleon Bonaparte, while refusing to appreciate the tactical cunning of Cochise, because he is an illiterate savage. He repeatedly rejects the advice of Captain York, a seasoned veteran with extensive knowledge of the Apaches, because Thursday is a colonel and York is just a captain.It is at this point that his snobbery makes him not just an extremely unpleasant human being, but an incompetent commanding officer as well. The result is that he ends up getting half the regiment slaughtered.In the final scene, Captain York talks to reporters, who gush about what a great man Thursday was, a hero to every schoolboy, and York encourages them in their delusion. The movie seems to imply that this is for the best, that schoolboys need their heroes, that people need to believe that Thursday was a great man. And yet, as many critics have noted, the movie itself subverts the legend, undermining the whole notion of heroes and great men. And since Thursday is loosely based on the legend of General George Armstrong Custer, the movie is essentially besmirching the legend surround this real life figure.In other words, the movie is flattering us. Other people, the movie is saying, need their illusions, but we know better. Let the masses have their heroes, because they would just fall apart if they did not have something to believe in, but we are too sophisticated to fall for such nonsense.Of course, these same masses, who supposedly need their heroes, are the ones who are sitting in the audience, so this may seem like a contradiction. But it is a contradiction with a purpose. The point is to flatter each of us into thinking we are superior to the others, who in turn have been flattered into thinking they are superior to us. So we all get to feel superior, and that makes us like the movie.

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Magenta_Bob
1948/06/30

Having loved the Ford/Wayne collaboration The Searchers and in general become more positive towards "classic movies" since I last saw Fort Apache, I was hoping it would have something of a renaissance now, but no, it's still pretty lame. It's not downright bad, just very…not interesting in any way. The barren Arizonan landscapes are cool when they don't look too much like a set, although the colorization I watched looked slightly cheap. Henry Fonda is pretty good as the overzealous colonel, determined to gain glory despite having been sidelined by the US army, and when his conflict with good guy John Wayne intensifies, it is elevated to a decently interesting question of honor and the rights of the Native Americans.

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AaronCapenBanner
1948/07/01

John Wayne plays Capt. Kirby York, who is stationed at Fort Apache, which has had problems with renegade Chief Cochise leading his men off their reservation, and raiding outposts. Sent in as the new commander is Col.Owen Thursday(Henry Fonda, well cast against type) who is an ambitious and obstinate man with no respect for the Native Americans, which leads to disaster. Along with him is his daughter Philadelphia(Shirley Temple) who develops a romance with one of the soldiers(played by John Agar) which her father opposes. A climatic battle with Cochise led by Thursday will have long lasting consequences, as myth versus reality is once again tested...Well directed by John Ford, with a fine cast and intelligent script that treats the West with the complexity it deserves. A bit long, but an engrossing film.

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