MovieChat Forums > Fort Apache (1948) Discussion > Geography

Geography

posted 5 years ago by MAGolding (1096)
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The Fort Apache in the movie could be hundreds of miles from the real Fort Apache.

At the beginning of Fort Apache (1948) Colonel Thursday complains about his stagecoach ride through the Southwest.

Driver, how much further
to this Hasenpfeffer...
...or whatever you call
the confounded place?
Hassayampa?

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=fort-apache

What a country.
Forty miles from mudhole to mudhole.
Mule Creek, Deadman's Squaw,
Schmidt's Wells.
Hangman's Flats, Hassayampa.
At end of the rainbow, Fort Apache.
Fort Apache.

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=fort-apache

And when they get to the stage station at Hassayampa:

How far is it to Fort Apache?
Oh, the fort's 35 miles south of here

And:

Thirty-five miles south.
Madam, is there a livery stable here?
No.
There must be some way
to rent a vehicle.
- A what?
- A rig. Any kind of rig.
Nothing fit for the lassie to ride in.

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=fort-apache

So that implies that the stage line goes in an approximately east-west direction and Fort Apache is 35 miles south of the stage station at Hassayampa.

And it happens there is a real Hassayampa, Arizona, but it isn't 35 miles north of Fort Apache, but about 222.2 miles west and a bit south of Fort Apache by US-60 E.

The usual route to Fort Apache was from the south, anyway.

[–] MAGolding (1096) 3 years ago

I may add that Fort Apache gets a telegram from Fort Grant saying that Diablo's band has left the reservation and is headed for Mexico. This implies that Fort Grant was North of Fort Apache. Actually Fort Apache was north of Fort Grant and north of the San Carlos Reservaton, though it was in the middle of the Fort Apache Reservaton.

Obviously the geography was changed so that Fort Apache could get a telegraphy warning of Apaches passing close by enroute to Mexico.

But I don't see any obvious reason why the movie depicts a huge canyon of the Rio Bravo river on the border between Arizona and Mexico. The border between Arizona and Mexico consists of straight lines through arid flat areas and regions of mostly north-south low mountains and valleys. There are no big rivers or canyons anywhere along the Arizona-Mexico border.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

The canyon was probably there purely for visuals; what would look good in the movie.

It's like how in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Robin and Azeem arrive at the cliffs of Dover and then that afternoon they're at Hadrian's Wall. It wouldn't make any sense if those were taken to actually be the real-life locations.