MovieChat Forums > Cheyenne Autumn (1964) Discussion > Great motive, horrible result

Great motive, horrible result

posted 14 years ago by SCmovieprof
4 replies | jump to latest

Some of the worst acting and casting, and WAY below Ford's best work. I mean really---Jimmy Stewart as Wyatt Earp?? Are you kidding? Stewart stammers and stutters like an old beat-up jalopy, and Arthur Kennedy as Doc Holiday....Wow, really horrible. Also some of the worst examples of non-continuity imaginable: one example is all I can stomach: after supposedly traveling for weeks, the Indians are in the same location in which they traveled!! Ford is just at the end of a long career here--apparently not enough energy to make sure the shots lined up, or the budget was right. In one scene, Widmark calls out "Where's the Major?" and then we realize that he walked right past him dead on the ground, in an obvious location!! It looks like the movie was shot in about a week, with little or no regard for accuracy--just get the footage in. I've seen it a dozen times, and I appreciate that Ford wanted to put out a "mea culpa" before he checked out, but this is a dreadful product, not even worthy of a grad student effort.....

[–] IEatWords 8 years ago

Yeah. Terrible execution. Dreadful movie. It sadly plays like a parody, despite the serious subject matter. No finesse. Ham directing.

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[–] FightingConch1970 8 years ago

I loved many, many of the individual scenes. Really well done.

No doubt though the story telling was disjointed and in retrospect misguided.

[–] Skye_Reynolds 8 years ago

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was John Ford's swan song as a director of epic westerns. This is like a musician coming out of retirement to play a live TV appearance. This shouldn't constitute John Ford's farewell. He already had that. This is just a bonus.

There was something that Ford felt he had to set right and that was the way that he had depicted the American Indians. The intent was good, the results were hit and miss. It's not a bad film by any means, but it is a mixed bag and I don't think Ford ever aimed to make this one stand out among westerns like Stagecoach or The Searchers.

This was merely him setting the record straight and making peace with himself.

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

I think that you are right in Mr. Ford being past his prime. I also agree that "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" was a better last movie for him to retire on. I disagree with you that he had anything to "set right." Maybe he thought he did, but I would disagree with him too, if we met some time and he expressed that point of view.

Throughout his career, going back to the silent movie era Mr. Ford presented various American Indians from various perspectives and overall depicted them as complex, just like everybody else. There was good, bad, and ugly among them, just like there is among all of us.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.