Arguably the best of John Ford's Calvary Trilogy, Fort Apache is actually darker and in some ways deeper than She Wore a Yellow Ribbon or Rio Grande. The film covers not only the sense of honor and service within the military but also covers class distinctions and the barriers built between classes...so the world of Fort Apache becomes a microcosm of society in general. Also included in this film is John Ford's sometimes out and loud sympathy for the plight of Native Americans deprived of their ancestral lands and literally starved to death by greedy government contractors for support of the reservations.
This is not John Wayne's film necessarily, but feels more like Henry Fonda's, as the driven Colonel who unwillingly accepts a demotion and the assignment to Fort Apache out on the American frontier. He is proud and ego driven....a tragic figure on the order of a Shakespearean MacBeth or Richard III...driven to destroy himself in a need to prove himself to the powers that be in Washington. Along with Fonda....there are of course Victor McLaglen and Ward Bond who turn in their best redoubtable Irish personas to accentuate the class differences between themselves and Fonda's Colonel Thursday. John Agar and a surprisingly deep Shirley Temple provide romantic interludes to the heady mix.
And of course, whether black and white or in color, Ford's artistic sense of scene building, the balance of human figures within the shot tell a visual story that almost needs no sound or music to communicate intimately with the audience. Ford is at his best in this which hearkens back to his silent film days where he first developed his art and his craft...a heartfelt A+!
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