Fort Apache
I have so many questions regarding the indigenous people in this film, because I want to believe that this was done with the respect and decency with which it appears it was done. I just can't be sure. It will require research that hasn't been done yet.
Overall, this is rather what you'd like to see in culturally pluralistic cinema from a white man's perspective. If you're white, showing things from a white perspective makes most sense unless you are seriously collaborating with the indigenous and making a film that puts them at the center. At the center here is an American military installation in the Arizonan frontier headed by a man in Lt. Col. Owen Thursday (a bummer way to use Henry Fonda, but he's fine) that sees savagery in every native, while Captain Kirby York (still not a very interesting use of John Wayne, who I think is at his best when he gets to be a little more funny, though he's also fine) seeks to form a lasting peace between them. The treatment of Silas Meachum is particularly interesting, as he's a man whose trading post is blamed for introducing the indigenous to alcohol and turning them into drunken fools, as these characters seem to be often omitted from historical perspectives on the frontier, though if you have spent much time with indigenous people, you'll know this is a legacy that continues to be relevant today. Ultimately, Thursday pays the price for realizing the error in his ways, and York picks up the pieces. A lot of westerns are about the goodness of civilizing forces in the western frontier, usually law and order over lawlessness, as in The Tin Star I saw just the night before, but this is about something different. To me, depending on what further research I do, this is about civilizing the west through ridding itself of white military leaders who see war and see threats when they see the indigenous, and replacing them with men who are capable of putting aside differences to achieve a level of peace. It's a far, far cry from the redface and glib representation of The Searchers, that is for sure. (Unless there is redface of a less obvious manner, in which case, damn me.)
There are other interesting subplots to take up, and one that I did not expect was the overwhelming humor of the film. Fonda's Thursday also seeks to standardize certain military practices to the ragtag group of soldiers he finds on the frontier. Slapstick comedy comes aplenty as the sergeants whip these hilarious, ridiculous, kind of amazing men into shape. There were times Dad and I looked at each other like, this is going on a very long time, this is hilarious, but you know, wtf. This is a film that is thematically about white-indigenous relationships, the folly of white domination, and the disgusting nature of growing up indoctrinated into such gross prejudices of the other, but it's also quite the comedy and the melodrama. That last aspect, eh, not as interesting. I don't think I've ever seen images of Shirley Temple over the age of eight, but the truth is, she is not good at acting, or at least definitely not good here. She's got the whole [look up exactly one second, look away exactly two seconds, look back and lock gaze] thing going on, and it's so phony. The building of the forbidden love between her and Michael O'Rourke is the most disposable aspect of the film, though I'm guessing it's there just to make the rest more accessible to a certain population, as sexist as that feels to type out.
Overall, I think it's an OK-to-good film. It's bizarre the way that it shifts from serious western/military drama to slapstick comedy, but it works in certain passages. The ending just about plays like a revisionist western, where, sure, Thursday gets his due, but only after we see how savage and disorganized the indigenous are not. They only respond when their backs are to the walls, but when they do, they make it count, as one should expect. I do think it wastes Fonda's charm on a one-note, serious character. I've seen him play good guy and bad guy, and he's got the chops for both, but he also deserves, and could definitely handle, quite a bit more nuance. I think I have to know more about this film before I can make any sort of evaluation that will stick, but it was an interesting watch.