Can I offer the following opinions on the three films John Ford directed in the late 1940's/early 1950's?
Personally I find Rio Grande a bit of a disappointment, but the other two films, Fort Apache and She wore a Yellow Ribbon I think are quite magnificent.
My impression is that She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is widely regarded as the centrepiece of the three, but my opinion is that Fort Apache is of equal merit if not better.
Any comments?
I enjoyed the John Ford cavalry trilogy. My favorite of the three is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, but Fort Apache is in a close second. Fort Apache, in a way, is a precursor to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ("When the legend becomes fact, print the legend").
Among the best performances of John Wayne and Henry Fonda comes from the cavalry trilogy, Duke for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Fonda for Fort Apache.
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Some consider Ford to have done 2 cavalry trilogies. The second set being The Horse Soldiers, Sergeant Rutledge, and Cheyenne Autumn. The second set is considered inferior overall to the first set, but that's not to say they are bad films. Even a lesser Van Gogh is still a Van Gogh.
shareRio Grande is clearly the least of the trilogy. That's not really a criticism--it's a solid film with a fine cast (and I'd take Maureen O'Hara as the romantic lead any day over Dru and Temple), but it's overshadowed by two all time classics. Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon seemed to play almost continuously on TV when I was a kid, and at the time I preferred the more overtly action oriented Fort Apache. With age, I tend to lean towards the elegiac mood of Ribbon.
shareI prefer to bend the facts a little and just ignore Rio Grande and put The Horse SOldiers in its place. Fort Apache is one of my favorite movies, great characters, reverance for military traditions, up there with Tunes of Glory.
I take FOrt APache as my number one pick of the trilogy.
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One should not mix the movies....take them in their places...their 'times' if you will. Fort Apache, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande are all post-Civil War stories. The Horse Soldiers is strictly amidst the "War of Northern Aggression" as we south'ners call it, or more politely, "The Recent Unpleasantness". Let us just be kind and say that all in all, the movies mentioned (Ft. Apache, She Wore..., Rio Grande, Sgt. Rutledge, and Cheyenne Autumn (which I don't think I've ever seen) and even The Horse Soldiers) are good movies for their own benefit. Each show an aspect of mid to late nineteenth century life. The hardness of war, the hardness of frontier life, the reality of a thankless job well-done, and the ultimate end of said life...a grave that has disappeared just as the story of the life that filled it.
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Just watched it again for the first time in years, I was disappointed. I found it lackluster and full of cliches. Especially as it was a doubleheader with "3 Godfathers" , which I really enjoyed. Tomorrow I'll watch "She wore a yellow ribbon", hope it's better.
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The reason John Wayne had less screentime in this film as opposed to others he made around this time was that Henry Fonda was also in the film, and John Ford had to cater for him too.
Hence both Wayne and Fonda spent less time on screen than they would have done had they been the main star.
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For me the best of three is Fort Apache. A really good casting with an all time great Henry Fonda. It has more and the less the same message as in Fords great The Man who shot Liberty Vallance.
Then She wore a Yellow Ribbon. It is more beautiful with very melodramtic and sad pictures. John Wayne had one of his best performances and shows that he can really act. The colours are really beautiful but it hasn't the same power as Fort Apache.
Rio Grande is an solid Entertainemt Movie. Yes there were also great pictures, also a great John Wayne and a fantastic Maureen O'Hara. I like it also but it isn't as dramatic as Fort Apache and it isn't as beautiful as She wore a Yellow Ribbon.
All three are great and are really entertaining Movies.
i love the cavalry trilogy; they are pages in the book of the american myth. for me, fort apache is the superior film, even though she wore a yellow ribbon is duly praised. there are many reasons why rio grande is the runt of this litter, most of all because the portrayal of the indians lacks sympathy. BUT. i love rio grande because of ben johnson's prominence. and it was on the set of this film that a real cowboy, the embodiment of the man john ford wanted to be and that marion morrison and ward bond pretended to be, deigned to insult the great director and lost his citizenship in the fordian village. ben johnson, so easy and natural, will rogers on horseback. and so i love rio grande, the least film in the trilogy, but the most ben johnson.
Ah but it also had the Most Maureen O'Hara...and she also pretty much made the film irresistible for me.
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They were not written, directed, or produced as a 'trilogy.' They aren't three parts or chapters in a single story and none has any relation to the other except that they were directed by John Ford and starred John Wayne.
They should be seen and viewed independently and judged each on its own merits, not as part of a package.
Also, the viewer should keep in mind that Rio Grande was thrown together quickly and on the cheap. It was part of an agreement with RKO/Republic to produce a western/cavalry movie starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, directed by John Ford. This meant a sure money maker to make up for what the studio thought it would lose making 'The Quiet Man,' with the same stars and director.
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I like all three a lot, but I'd probably choose Fort Apache - it's a nice attempt by Ford to start countering a lot of old American frontier/Western myths (which, of course, he had a hand in creating in the first place in his earlier movies!)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is one of his few color films that I like, and Wayne himself is very good in it.
Rio Grande is perhaps the most fun of the three - that horse-riding sequence is terrific - and O'Hara is very good, as usual. Not sure if I'd rate it higher than She Wore a Yellow Ribbon or not.
Of Ford's Westerns, it's these three films that I'd rate highest. Stagecoach is good, but some of the unlikeable characters are a little overdone (the banker, the ex-Confederate soldier and the moralizing women). Nevertheless, the action sequences are great, as are Trevor and Mitchell. Wayne is good too, in a role a little different from his usual.
Liberty Valance deals with some of the same ideas as Fort Apache, but the film is pitched a little high - too much unnecessary yelling and posturing, but I suppose it's just Ford's silent-movie roots showing (you see that a lot in his films).
I may catch hell for saying this, but I'd probably rate The Searchers at or near the bottom of all the Ford movies I've seen; most of the characters are way too over-the-top, as is the camerawork (too many menacing close-ups of Wayne). The color photography doesn't always help either, as it makes the set shots very obvious.
Agree with "SWAYRibbon" as the crown of the three.
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