At Fort Bowie, Captain Thompson favors peace talks but Major Wharton advocates war with the renegade Apaches led by Chief Victorio.At Fort Bowie, Captain Thompson favors peace talks but Major Wharton advocates war with the renegade Apaches led by Chief Victorio.At Fort Bowie, Captain Thompson favors peace talks but Major Wharton advocates war with the renegade Apaches led by Chief Victorio.
Photos
- Chanzana
- (as Jana Davi)
- Sergeant
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAt the 32-minute mark, three clipboards are shown hanging on a wall. Clipboards were invented in 1908.
- Quotes
[Major Wharton's men massacre a band of Indians who approached his company under a flag of truce]
Maj. Wharton: Look at 'em, Captain - not the slightest attempt at rescue or revenge; slinking away like scared desert rats!
Capt. Thomas Thompson: More like foxes than rats. You can hardly blame them if they want to fight on their terms. After all, sir, didn't you?
- ConnectionsFeatured in Fort Courageous (1965)
The colonel loves wife Allison, but she loves the captain, I think. And, the captain loves her, at least some of the time. However, the rest of the time, he loves Chanzana, but Chanzana is half Apache, and I think she loves Apache leader Victorio. Oh well, I may be wrong about all this, but then the script can't seem to make up its mind either. So maybe you can sort it out.
Good thing there's lots of action to interrupt this frontier soap opera. In fact I don't know when I've heard more shooting. Seems like somebody's always wiping out somebody else. Boy, was I surprised when the major shoots all the Indians carrying that white flag of truce. Pretty rotten thing for our guys to do, which sets off all the shooting because now the Apaches want revenge.
But then it seems like the Indians like roasting our guys over an upside-down spit. That's pretty rotten too and not in any multi-cultural handbook I know of. Then too, that part reminds me of another good Apache movie, Ulzana's Raid (1971), where the Apaches also practice some strange culinary arts. Even stranger, however, is when the Indians defend the fort against attacking cavalry (I love that wagon-ramp trick). Now where has any Western fan seen that upside-down world before.
Anyway, it's an okay Western with some interesting sidelights and the great Ben Johnson. I'm just wondering why they went all the way to scenic Kanab, Utah to film, and then didn't didn't do it in Technicolor. Then again, maybe they spent their budget on all the big shoot- outs. But-- bottom line-- if you can untangle the big who-loves-whom puzzle in this movie, I'm sure there's a place for you at People magazine. Otherwise, you might want to catch up with this cowboys-and-Indians on an especially slow night.
- dougdoepke
- Jan 26, 2011
Details
- Runtime1 hour 20 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1