"Hondo" is one of a number of Westerns from the late forties and early fifties to deal with the Apache Wars of the late nineteenth century. Other examples include John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy" (all of which also starred John Wayne), "Broken Arrow", "Only the Valiant" and "Apache". It is not a "Cavalry Western" like Ford's trilogy; the main character Hondo Lane, who is himself part Apache, is not a uniformed soldier but a scout and dispatch rider for the Army. This was the first film to be produced by Wayne, who also takes the leading role. On his insistence it was made in 3D, one of a number of such films to be made during the brief 3D craze of 1952-54, although this is not always obvious when one sees it in 2D; there are only a few scenes of knives, arrows, etc, coming direct towards the viewer.
There are two main strands to the plot. The first concerns the war between the Apaches and the US Army, culminating in that grand old Western cliché, the shootout as the Indians attack a wagon train. (This scene was apparently directed by Ford after shooting overran and the film's credited director John Farrow had to leave the set because he was contracted to start work on another picture). The way in which the Indians are portrayed here is less positive than in something like "Apache", but considerably more so than in "Only the Valiant". They are shown as being capable of great cruelty, but also of great nobility, and it is made clear that they have genuine grievances in that it is the whites who have broken the treaty. The Apache chief Vittorio is a particularly impressive figure. The film ends with Hondo predicting the defeat of the Indians by the numerically superior American soldiers and regretting the end of the Apache "way of life".
The second main plot strand concerns a growing romance between Hondo and a woman named Angie Lowe, the wife of a homesteader. From a modern viewpoint at least, this aspect of the film is not the happiest one. In the fifties the idea of a romantic friendship, even a non-sexual one, between a married woman and a man who is not her husband would have been controversial, and here the film-makers try to dampen any possible controversy by generating as much sympathy for Angie and Hondo as possible. Angie's husband Ed is made a thoroughgoing villain- abusive, violent, unfaithful, a drinker, womaniser and gambler. Eventually Ed draws a gun on Hondo, even though Hondo has just saved his life from an Indian attack, and Hondo is forced to kill him in self-defence, without knowing who he is. The subsequent revelation that Hondo was responsible for her husband's death proves no obstacle to Angie's growing love for him, something I found psychologically implausible.
The choice of Geraldine Page as the female lead was perhaps a strange one. Page was a well-known stage actress who had never previously had a leading role in a movie, and she was an exponent of the "Method" style of acting, at this period often regarded as excessively introspective for a rugged genre like the Western. (Later, a number of noted Method actors such as Marlon Brando and Paul Newman were to give fine performances in Westerns). Someone must have liked her performance here, as she was nominated for a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar, but despite this achievement it was to be another eight years before she made her next film. Other good contributions come from Wayne's real-life friend Ward Bond as Hondo's friend Buffalo Baker and from Michael Pate as the courageous and dignified Chief Vittorio. (The Australian-born Pate was not himself a Native American, but in the fifties Hollywood was less sensitive about this sort of ethnic cross-casting than it is today; the Jewish New Yorker Jeff Chandler played Indians several times in his career).
Wayne here combines the roles of tough action hero and romantic lover, although as in other films where he was provided with a love interest (such as "The Quiet Man") his scenes with Page are characterised more by a sort of gruff tenderness than by ardent passion. The film has some similarities with a later Wayne film, the Civil War drama "The Horse Soldiers", which also combined a decent action-based plot with a less successful romantic subplot.
I would not rate "Hondo" quite as highly as "The Horse Soldiers", where the romance proves less of a distraction from the main story, and certainly not as highly as some of the great Westerns, like "Fort Apache" or "The Searchers" from what I regard as his "middle period", the forties and fifties. (As with a number of other actors and directors with lengthy careers, I tend to divide Wayne's career into three periods, early, middle and late). It is, however, a highly watchable film which retains many points of interest even today. 6/10
There are two main strands to the plot. The first concerns the war between the Apaches and the US Army, culminating in that grand old Western cliché, the shootout as the Indians attack a wagon train. (This scene was apparently directed by Ford after shooting overran and the film's credited director John Farrow had to leave the set because he was contracted to start work on another picture). The way in which the Indians are portrayed here is less positive than in something like "Apache", but considerably more so than in "Only the Valiant". They are shown as being capable of great cruelty, but also of great nobility, and it is made clear that they have genuine grievances in that it is the whites who have broken the treaty. The Apache chief Vittorio is a particularly impressive figure. The film ends with Hondo predicting the defeat of the Indians by the numerically superior American soldiers and regretting the end of the Apache "way of life".
The second main plot strand concerns a growing romance between Hondo and a woman named Angie Lowe, the wife of a homesteader. From a modern viewpoint at least, this aspect of the film is not the happiest one. In the fifties the idea of a romantic friendship, even a non-sexual one, between a married woman and a man who is not her husband would have been controversial, and here the film-makers try to dampen any possible controversy by generating as much sympathy for Angie and Hondo as possible. Angie's husband Ed is made a thoroughgoing villain- abusive, violent, unfaithful, a drinker, womaniser and gambler. Eventually Ed draws a gun on Hondo, even though Hondo has just saved his life from an Indian attack, and Hondo is forced to kill him in self-defence, without knowing who he is. The subsequent revelation that Hondo was responsible for her husband's death proves no obstacle to Angie's growing love for him, something I found psychologically implausible.
The choice of Geraldine Page as the female lead was perhaps a strange one. Page was a well-known stage actress who had never previously had a leading role in a movie, and she was an exponent of the "Method" style of acting, at this period often regarded as excessively introspective for a rugged genre like the Western. (Later, a number of noted Method actors such as Marlon Brando and Paul Newman were to give fine performances in Westerns). Someone must have liked her performance here, as she was nominated for a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar, but despite this achievement it was to be another eight years before she made her next film. Other good contributions come from Wayne's real-life friend Ward Bond as Hondo's friend Buffalo Baker and from Michael Pate as the courageous and dignified Chief Vittorio. (The Australian-born Pate was not himself a Native American, but in the fifties Hollywood was less sensitive about this sort of ethnic cross-casting than it is today; the Jewish New Yorker Jeff Chandler played Indians several times in his career).
Wayne here combines the roles of tough action hero and romantic lover, although as in other films where he was provided with a love interest (such as "The Quiet Man") his scenes with Page are characterised more by a sort of gruff tenderness than by ardent passion. The film has some similarities with a later Wayne film, the Civil War drama "The Horse Soldiers", which also combined a decent action-based plot with a less successful romantic subplot.
I would not rate "Hondo" quite as highly as "The Horse Soldiers", where the romance proves less of a distraction from the main story, and certainly not as highly as some of the great Westerns, like "Fort Apache" or "The Searchers" from what I regard as his "middle period", the forties and fifties. (As with a number of other actors and directors with lengthy careers, I tend to divide Wayne's career into three periods, early, middle and late). It is, however, a highly watchable film which retains many points of interest even today. 6/10