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Rating:  -
This is a very slow paced melodramatic movie which I thought was too "chippy" and "self-congratulatory" for the subject of the film, the plight of the Cheyenne who were driven from their homelands. There's the good Quaker woman, "friend Ness," who ran a school for the Indian children to learn the language of the white men and upon greeting the children would make them recite the alphabet on the spot... Then there's the bad officer in command who doesn't enjoy "babysitting" the Indians and doesn't think twice in showing force against them; Friend Ness' uncle who doesn't have much of a role, the good wise older captain who dresses not in military clothing like the rest of his troop, but rather in cowboy apparel, kind of like Marlboro Man; and the young hot-headed sargent holding a personal grudge against the Indians.
On the Indian side, you have pretty much the same cast of characters, except they are Indian, of course. There's the grumpy mad elder cheif who dies passing cheifhood to the bad Indian. The good older Indian who is the counterpart of the good captain. The young, impatient Indian who fires the first shot and attracts the eye of female admirers with his bare chest. And then there's "Spanish Woman," Ness' counterpart on the Indian side of characters and as she is called by Ness. Here I am confused. Why is she called Spanish woamn? I don't get it, and doesn't she have a name other than Spanish Woman.
Both sides have the same conflicts acted out between good and bad guys and gals, which I do not find very realistic.
Just as the movie finally gets moving, the story gets interrupted out of nowhere with a depiction of Wyatt Earp in Dodge City, Kansas which adds nothing of importance to the main story, other than to throw in something that has nothing to do with anything and perhaps cast James Stewart in the role as Wyatt Earp.
By the time the movie steers back to the main story, my eyes became very heavy and I fell asleep.
If you need a movie to put you to sleep, this will do the job. I give the movie two stars for the beautiful cinematography and for the subject matter. I think John Ford could have done much better if he had edited out irrelevant parts to the story, spent more time developing the story rather than establishing useless good and bad guys, and toned down the melodrama.
Rating:  -
I bought this vcr tape a few months ago. Sure the movie is NOT all correct for Cheyenne dress and habits but John Ford did bring the Cheyenne's plight and disgraceful treatment to the big screen. I view the movie at least once a month and never get tired of it. Excellent movie and beautiful scenes in the movie. Wish John Ford was alive to direct another such movie!
This Northern Cheyenne give this movie 5 stars and a thumbs up.
Rating:  -
That this film was shot on the Navajo reservation and the Indians in the film were Navajos? That the dialogue that was supposedly in Cheyenne was actually in Navajo and had little to do with what was supposedly being said?
All in all, it was a good attempt for its time, and a story that needed to be told. Perhaps someday an Indian director will remake it with Indian actors. As effective as it is, it could be so much more so.
Rating:  -
Granted, it might not be a glorious John Ford movie as his earlier works, but in this one attempt one might recognize the soul of the director, a troubled soul.
He had always depicted the native Americans as being merely a detail in American history, and now, having reached the sunset and the winter of his own life - and probably some wisdom as well, he comes out in the open and seems to ask for forgiveness.
It is a touching attempt at redemption and as such it should be considered. Ford was deeply religious, even though he never openly admitted it and here it shows.
Of course it is at times naive, at times superficial and at times kitsch, but this is also the the true and touching opening of an old man who has realized that his own world has changed and the views of the people have changed.
He is desperately trying to get in touch and in synchrony with this new world and admits the faults and mistakes that some of his forefathers have committed against defenseless and hopeless people.
This movie is probably more his own introspection before his death and at the same time is the heritage he wanted to leave us before his demise.
This is why I wouldn't be so harsh as to trash it so swiftly.
Even though somewhat naive in its views, the story of the Lakota/Dakota tribes being deported and so shamelessly persecuted by the American Government in those far away days is absolutely true.
It is a piece of American history that so many Americans would like to see being forgotten but occasionally pops up to hunt us as a reminder that any civilization can produce unspeakable horrors, especially when it feels socially superior.
What I would mostly criticize is the fact that all American native parts were cast with other minorities, especially of hispanic origin (Gilbert Roland and Ricardo Montalban, two of the best and finest actors of Latin origin who, unfortunately for those years, were so many times misused and typecast).
But all this does not come as a surprise if one consider that certain racial practices were still in effect in those days. We are four years away from 1968 and Martin Luther King and the road to parity for American natives will be even longer than that...
The film is slow paced on purpose, in order for the audience to absorb the atrocity of the situation in which the American natives, in this case the Cheyennes, are forced to live.
The U.S. Government is not depicted as one homogeneous force as it may have been later on in history, but rather as a bunch of newly arrived groups of Europeans who intend to take a foothold on the American Continent in order to pursue an all out colonization of the Land.
A very similar situation to that of the British confronted with the Zulus in South Africa.
Right or wrong is not contemplated in this movie. History here is what it was, crude and cruel. It's the affirmation of one Society over another. People don't count...
But this is exactly where this movie is highly revealing: the people involved. History is just a poor excuse to handle people as cattle.
It's the interior conflicts of the people that appear in this work that make it so worthwhile. Whites, as well as American natives, seem uncomfortable with the situation at hand and struggle uneasily against the winds of Power.
A Power always felt but never seen. An Evil force that drives people to do what they do because they are meant to do it. But this evil force is never clearly seen and never takes a firm foothold in one or more people.
This is why everything in this movie seems to be at once so confused and at the same time so desperate. The movie asks who these people really are and what they really want from life, but also shows us that they all are pawns in this immense chess game and no one can really do what he would like to do.
Here, John Ford's image of his interior struggle taking place is very clearly recognizable. It's as if he's trying to tell us that he has always tried to do what was right but never really what he truly wanted to do... and that he was probably sorry never to be able to unchain himself from the system.
The true message to us and the legacy he is trying to convey is not to allow others to take us as hostages but rather to fight such people with all our strength because otherwise we might land up as slaves.
In as much, the movie is revolutionary for its times. In other words this is a multilayered work of art that is well worth watching in its subtle net of subplots that hide messages reserved to those who can read them.
It's much less a Western than a History lesson, but so much more a last "J'accuse" from the author of the most memorable Westerns ever made and the most controversial director of his times.
If you know how to read John Ford, then this movie will reveal him to you like none other before.
If you're out for another conventional John Ford movie than this is certainly not it.
It's up to you, but remember, great directors reveal themselves in movies that are usually atypical from their regular genres or themes.
Rating: -
Cheyenne Autumn is the tale of a group of Cheyenne, who are so badly treated on the rez they decide to escape and return to their tribal lands. On their journey, they must brave the elements, the army, and the depredations of evil Anglo cowboy scalp hunters.
The director attempts to draw parallels between the young and impulsive Cheyenne warrior and the equally young, and impulsive Cavalry officer (Smith)? But this sublot falls flat, after being prolonged for over two hours
Several meaningless subplots occasionally intrude... One. Involving the romance between a Quaker school marm and an Anglo cavalry officer. And Two... A minor plot involving Wyatt Earp.
While this movie lacks a certain depth, and characterization, there are a few good points. Mainly the interaction between the tribal elders, and the beautiful cinematography.
Overall, this movie was worth watching once, but would've been much better if it focused more on character development.
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