ASU Film Society continues its third film series, The Image of the Native-American in Film, with John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn (l964), his very last Western.
This film portrays sympathetically the Native American's heroic fight to return to their home after being forced by the white men to a new reservation.
Cheyenne Autumn is often described as Ford's apology to the types of Indians he had presented so one-dimensionally in his previous films. The great nobility of the Cheyenne, the absurdly evil German camp commandant, and the film's outcome, when the U.S. government reverses its decision concerning the Cheyenne, support this idea.
AS the scholar Place has noted, in the book, from which the story and film's title derive, the Indians' point of view is taken throughout, and the few white characters do not stand out as individuals. However, the Native Americans in Cheyenne Autumn are much like those of his earlier film, they stand for "something," rather than being flesh-and-blood individuals. Indeed, the Indians are not even presented as hostile individuals, just as a massive collective.
No character, not even Spanish Woman and her son Red Shirt, are explored on screen to the extent that we know what makes them different from the other tribe members.
The lack of a distinct Indian perspective may be the reason why this work cannot be taken either as the final statement on what Ford thinks of Indians or as an apology for his former movies. Even so, for a movie made in l964, the attitude toward Native Americans is more liberal than other Hollywood movies of the time.
What has changed, however, is Ford's view of progress and the effect it has had on the West, an idea that is more clearly explored in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart as opposing forces of the West.
Oscar Alert
Oscar Nominations: 1
Cinematography (Color): William Clothier
The winner, however, was Harry Stradling for George Cukor's musical, "My Fair Lady."
Production and cast
The film was shot in Monument Valley and Moab, Utah.
The cast includes:
Richard Widmark as Captain Thomas Archer Carroll Baker as Deborah Wright Jimmy Stewart as Wyatt Earp Edward G. Robinson as the Secretary of the Interior Karl Malden as Captain Wessels Dolores Del Rio as the Spanish Woman
Running Time: 145 minutes
