Wuchak It's at least one of the worst. John Ford's "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964) was supposedly based on the book of the same name; the book's excellent, but this movie's a total fail. For one, the story focuses on what is known as the Northern Cheyenne Exodus wherein Chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland) lead over three hundred starved and weary Cheyenne from their reservation in the Oklahoma territory to eastern Montana. Google it and you can see the exact trail route. What's the problem? Well, Ford shot the picture entirely in his beloved Monument Valley and surrounding areas in Arizona. Evidently Ford thought that we're all doofuses and no one would notice that the desert Southwest looks absolutely nothing like the Great Plains where the exodus actually took place. Imagine a movie taking place in the northern Appalachians, but shooting it in the swamps of Louisiana; it's the same gross contrast.I'm not suggesting, by the way, that films based on factual events always have to be shot at the actual locations, but shouldn't the locations at least remotely resemble the actual locations? For instance, although the story of "Cold Mountain" takes place in North Carolina and Virginia parts of it were shot in Romania, but it was okay because the geography and climate is the same. Or take 1953's "War Arrow," which took place in West Texas, but was shot in California; it worked out because the CA locations were an acceptable substitute for West Texas (not great, but at least acceptable).If this weren't bad enough, the story as played out in "Cheyenne Autumn" is so dreadfully dull and the acting so melodramatic that you'll be seriously tempted to tune out by the half hour mark. And then there's this utterly incongruent sequence with Jimmy Stewart as Wyatt Earp in Dodge City, Kansas (which, again, looks absolutely nothing like Monument Valley).Needless to say, this film's so godawful you have to actually see it to believe it. In fact, that would be the only reason for viewing it; that and maybe having a good laugh. It's a cinematic abomination.What's crazy is that the current IMDb rating is 6.9. Can you believe it? I can only stock this up to Ford fanatics who can't face the awful truth that this great auteur barfed out such utter trash. And to think that this -- his last film -- was supposed to be some kind of apology to Native Americans for his one-dimensional portrayal in past films. What irony.To add insult to injury the film is painfully overlong at 2.5 hours (which feels like 4 hours).GRADE: F

Robert J. Maxwell John Ford directs another Western in Monument Valley. Ford was one of the finest directors to come out of the Hollywood factories. At his best, he was able to combine a sense of humor, a social conscience, tragedy, a magnificent grasp of the depths of character, and a poetic visual skill into a commercially viable package. Although he produced the occasional clunker and although he could be a sadist, nobody ever did it quite like Ford.Yet "Cheyenne Autumn" is a failure, at least when considered as part of Ford's collective work. If it had been made by a newcomer, it might have been a display of some promise, but it was made in Ford's waning years, when he was almost seventy, and he should have hung up his spurs after this. His last movie, which followed this, was the irredeemable "Seven Women." The story is roughly accurate from a historical point of view. The Cheyenne were herded into the sterile lands of Oklahoma, far from their native Montana. Sentiment split the tribe into two groups. One left and traveled north, pursued by the cavalry, here led by Richard Widmark. It was a tough journey by foot and horse over hundreds of miles to their homeland. Disputes within the group led to another split. One of the groups came to grief. The other reached Montana. They're still there. Dull Knife was a real person and he's still remembered. I lived as an anthropologist at Lame Deer for a while and when the occasional Cheyenne word is spoken by a non-Indian, it resembles the real thing.But look at those non-Indians acting as Cheyenne: Ricardo Montalban, Gilbert Roland, Delores Del Rio, Victor Jory, and a gay Italian heart throb of the moment! This was 1964 and the time for blue-eyed Indians was passé. Ford hired the usual Navaho extras to provide atmosphere. He'd been using the same people for more than twenty years and some are noticeably older than in "Stagecoach." Richard Widmark was a decent actor but he doesn't exude the authority of someone like John Wayne. And Ben Johnson is back in the saddle -- after almost fifteen years of exile from the Ford stock company for replying to an unwarranted Ford insult in kind. Karl Malden is the Commanding Officer of Fort Robinson, where a slaughter takes place. He's a marvelous actor in the right role, but Captain Wessels, a German, isn't it. It's an embarrassment, watching him struggling with a vaudeville accent. Mike Mazurki has the Victor McLaughlin role.Still, there are moments of action that are almost as good as Ford has managed to film, though without any precise focus. And there is comedy as well. The entire episode involving James Stewart as Wyatt Earp in Dodge City is as amusing as it is without subtlety. It doesn't jibe at all with the tone of the rest of the movie, but it's funny and comes as a big relief.The photography and location shooting in Monument Valley is superb. You'd have to almost TRY to foul up a wide-screen color movie shot in such surroundings. Monument Valley is still there too. So is Goulding's Lodge, where the cast and crew stayed. Visitors can stay there too, and for a surprisingly reasonable price.But, as a movie, this was Ford's last tattoo.

elskootero-1 I got this film on the recommend of several people, but approached it with the attitude that "Oh, here we go; another of those "the-white-people-suck-and-the-Indians-are-saints" films like DANCES WITH WOLVES, which is also a great film, but let's be honest, was deliberately scripted to make whites look like devils incarnate and the Indians to be a cross between Mother Theresa and Gandhi. But just a few minutes into it, I relaxed and kicked back in my recliner, and 2 and a half hours later, when it ended, was a bit disappointed that it had ended. I also found myself wondering that although the Hispanic actors did a credible job, why there weren't any actual Native American actors. A BIG reason I liked DANCES WITH WOLVES was because of the Native American roles being taken by Native Americans. If any remembers the WWII TV show COMBAT, it was great because American actors were American and spoke English; the French actors were French and spoke French, and the German actors were Germans and spoke German. This only amplifies everyone's enjoyment of any show or movie and I am glad that most studios do just that. CHEYENNE AUTUMN may be an older film, but for it's few faults, it's worth watching often, so purchase a copy: you won't be disappointed!

Chris Before I start I have to state that I like and enjoy the work and art of John Ford. But for some reasons I disliked his last western. In the following I'll explain what my reasons to like it are and what didn't fit to me. I have to excuse the spoilers in the following lines so if you haven't seen the movie so far please don't read any further.The main positive aspect was of course the photography and the pictures of the beautiful landscapes. That's what we all want to see in a John Ford Movie. The Monument Valley, the frontier, the prairie looks as colorful as in all of his movies. It's obvious that Mr. John Ford wanted to do one last great Western. Donovan's Reef was more a Holiday, The Man who shot Liberty Valance and Two rode together are looking like B-Pictures. He chooses the story of the tragic Cheyenne trail in 1878. He wanted to do an epic a monumental movie and showing the Indians the other way around. IMO this idea was really good and it would have been a strong sign at the end of a great career. Broken Arrow was one the first movies in Hollywood in which Indians are not shown as faceless enemies but humans anymore. The Actors did all a good job. Richard Widmark, Karl Malden, Ricardo Montalban, Sal Mineo, Carroll Baker, Dolores del Rio, Gilbert Roland and Edward G. Robinson. These people are a great cast and they all are doing nice performances of their roles. You cannot make them responsible for the lines they have to say in this movie. It's sad but it was common in these days that in main roles the cast weren't from native tribes. In those days Europeans made also western with people from France, Yugoslavia or other countries playing Indians. The Indians in Cheyenne Autumn looks more realistic than in other western. You cannot really complain about that but in a way John Ford missed a chance to break this rule. Unfortunately it weren't Cheyenne to play Cheyenne. I think an average Cinema Goer wouldn't recognize it. I found an interesting aspect in this movie. The role of Karl Malden was to play an Officer who came from Prussia (Germany!). I don't know if John Ford wanted to point out a connection between the terrible Concentration Camps during World War 2 and the camp where the Cheyenne were imprisoned. If this John Ford wanted to say then it would have been a strong Point of View against mass murderer. One of the Cavalry Soldier is from Poland and he pointed he feels like a Cossack who is massacring the polish. Poland was one of the countries which suffered most of the German occupation in World War 2. Also I enjoyed that he was criticizing the press with all the horror stories about the Cheyenne.Unfortunately there are some aspects I just disliked. The main reason is the part in the middle. This idea reminds me on a later Monthy Python Comedy where somebody said "Welcome to the middle of the film". Suddenly Jimmy Stewart and Arthur Kennedy are appearing as goofy Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. They are funny and I had to laugh through their scene but it doesn't fit in any way to the rest of the tragic story. If John Ford wanted to make a parody on western why he didn't direct (or produced) any? No wonder that in some releases the Wyatt Earp Scenery is edited. Later there is a background footage scene with Edward G. Robinson, Richard Widmark and one the Cheyenne Chiefs. This footage scene is so terrible it's unbelievable that somebody like John Ford would put something like this in his movie. I had the feeling to see a drama on a stage and not a movie anymore. See the soldiers in the fur caps? Interestingly you don't see any of these people before or later. It would be OK for a B-Picture but not for an Epic like that. John Ford had also troubles with the language of the Cheyenne. It would have been so easy. With the so called Palefaces they speak this strange broken English with the Cheyenne their speak Cheyenne. I just don't understand why he didn't choose that way (or the way in Broken Arrow). Sometimes the Cheyenne speak together in English and then suddenly in the camp nobody (only the mysterious Spanish Lady) can speak English. In a way some scenes with Montalban, Mineo and Roland were unintentional laughable. This just didn't work. I also disliked the ending. First the fight between Montalban and Mineo isn't any dramatic or caught the attention of the audience. Then like a fairy tale "And they lived happily until the end of their days". These words aren't said but more or the less the pictures of the village at the end states this. Everybody who knows a bit about native history in the U.S. knows that this is such a lie. It's so surreal like a dream of a Cheyenne but I don't have the feeling that John Ford wanted to include such a fantasy sequence in his movie.If somebody would ask me is Cheyenne Autumn a good example for the work of John Ford I would say No. Watch My Darling Clementine, The Searchers, Stagecoach, Grapes of Wrath or any other movie instead. It is worth to watch? Yes because of some aspects of the story, the main idea, and the actors. Other reasons to watch it are of course the beautiful photography and pictures John Ford made of the West. The goofy (but funny) scene in the middle destroys the tragic aspect of the movie.Then you see some examples for bad directing and it looked like if a bad pupil of John Ford made some scenes. Cheyenne Autumn is better than the average but not as good looking and courageous as it should be.