Apache (1954)

[JackFavell]

I'm adaptin'.

And doing a great job of it, too.

That scene....it just shatters me. Gush all you want to.

[MissGoddess]

I'm adaptin'.

OK, it's driving me crazy because I can't remember---what movie was this exhange from:

Actor #1: "Remember what the milstone said to the barley?"

Actor #2: "Adapt yourself."

I hate when that happens!

[MissGoddess]

Hmmm....something tells me it's from GILDA...well, anyway, back to the topic.

[CineMaven]

Back to the topic...say, here we can stray a little without a hall monitor telling us to "get in line!!!

[MissGoddess]

So T-Mave, did you get a chance to see Burt in his buckskins yet?

[CineMaven]

Hi there Ms. G.,

No I haven't looked at the movie yet. But I hope to check it out after I look at "The Missing Juror." I missed the first fifteen minutes of "...Juror" but I'm checking it out now.

As for "Burt in his buckskins," oh yeah...now THAT is what I call an 'incentive'!

[klondike]

...say, here we can stray a little without a hall monitor telling us to "get in line!!!

Ms. Maven, aren't you supposed to be in study hall right now?

[CineMaven]

Ssssssh!!!! Can't a girl go out for a peace pipe without you dropping a dime on her, Klondike? Sheesh! As soon as I finish recording "Demetrius and the Gladiator" (on FMC from 6:00am - 8:00am), I'll pop "APACHE" on the barbie and see if I can't talk intelligently about this Western.

Now, mum's the word!!

[CineMaven]

I have wandered off my urban reservation here in the Big City of Apples. (?)

I have left concrete and asphalt and skyscrapers behind. No more neon lights and theatre marquees and honking taxicabs. For the time it takes you to read this post I am opting for mountains and valleys and wide open spaces. Having watched a lynch mob in “The Ox-Bow Incident” I’m now visiting the West once again. And this time I’m in the world of ”APACHE.”

This interesting and earnest western stars Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters. And yessiree, Burt fills out his buckskins quite nicely, thank you.

I'll have to add more later...a real cute Buffalo soldier has just invited me to the saloon to have some sasparilla with him. He looks a lot like a younger (way younger) version of Woody Strode. He's big and strong and handsome. Let me chill with him for a minute.

I'll be Bach!

[JackFavell]

If he looks like Woody, he is giving Burt a run for his money. (sigh)

A Woody Strode lover

[MissGoddess]

If he looks like (that) Woody, stretch the "minute" to a few hours!

[CineMaven]

Woody (he certainly was) Jr. and I had a wonderfully lazy time...sipping sasparilla. <SIGH!> Now I’m relaxed enuf to give you my thoughts on the movie. (I’d ask for a cigarette, but smokin’ ain’t lady-like for us nineteenth century gals).

"APACHE” covers all the bases of movie Western mythology and its harsh realities. There’s the Evil White Man: John Dehner. (Couldn’t you tell by the mustache?) John McIntire’s none too nice either, but he’s a little better than Dehner.

"...You’re not a warrior anymore. You’re just a whipped Indian.”

We have the somewhat sympathetic cavalry captain in our old friend from our “Kings Go Forth” ramble: Walter Sande. Charles Bronson plays Hondo; he is an Indian Scout for the Army. He is somewhat of a sell-out to his people (a shopkeeper talks bad about Indians right to his face as if he wasn’t there...just part of the furniture, ya know); and if that wasn’t bad enough...he is in love with a woman who does not love him. That hurts in any race. And that woman...is JEAN PETERS.

Peters plays Nalinie. Under all that brown-skin make-up, she’s a woman like every other woman in the 1950’s even if the story takes place in 1886. She loves her man and wants to be a good wife; she stands by him...sticks up for him...and crawls after him even though he nobly says he doesn’t want her. White men covet her as well, though not in a gracious way.

MASSAI: Why did you follow me?

NALINIE: I’m only a woman, made for bearing children, cooking, sewing. If I lost you I was nothing.

MASSAI: But you could have found another man.

NALINIE: There is no other Massai.

She is a strong Native-American woman. In the midst of a gun battle (when the movie starts) she helps Massai out on the rocks giving him ammo. She’s a forward thinking woman as well. She knows that growing corn can be her people’s salvation. When Massai gives up the idea of planting, she encourages him to do so. But at first...

NALINIE: But will they not say that growing corn is woman’s work?

MASSAI: I am a warrior. What I do can NEVER be woman’s work. And what Cherokees do, Apaches can do better.

And just WHO is this man that she’s so gone for? It’s BURT LANCASTER, all six-foot whatever, rugged, masculine, buckskin-wearing Lancaster playing Massai, the last of the Apaches.

This story is told through the perspective of the Native-American when not many westerns took that position. We could observe, via Massai’s story...his journey and encounters along the road of history. I’m not sure how historically accurate this movie is of this man’s life, but they didn’t trash him. "APACHE" touches on varied aspects of our western history. I was very surprised and happy to see the Buffalo soldier. When Massai escapes into a town he passes by a Chinese man and woman working in a laundry. For me, seeing both the Asian people and Buffalo soldier, shows the filmmakers’ acknowledgement of their existence and contribution in the West of olde. In Nalinie’s pleading for Massai she brings up the fact that her father has been made an alcoholic by the Army. It’s subtle, but she does lay some blame at their feet. When Massai winds up in town, he must run from the intolerance of the town (and from the little dog that was nipping at his heel).

Massai has to return to Oklahoma...return to his people. He’s not going to be on a reservation, he’s not going to lose his land and his freedom. He’s got to go back. And he’s going to fight. John McIntire’s character says:

”When an Apache hates, he hates high, wide and handsome.”

While watching Massai’s journey home, it brought to mind Ulysses’ journey as well. And this’ll sound wild I know, but when Massai was waging his one-man battle against the Army, running and jumping, setting fires and fighting and shooting guns and arrows...he actually reminded me of James Bond. I know, I know...wild, right? But I totally saw it. He was a gosh-durned 19th-century Rambo.

Betrayal not only comes from the forked tongues outsiders, but from within and that is especially hurtful b’ecuz I think a good many oppressed peoples were sold down the river by “their own kind.” Massai has made it back home. He fights townspeople, bad weather, a little dog and a scarecrow. But he finally makes it back to the tent of the tribe’s chief, Santos (played by Paul Guilfoyle). Massai is shortly captured by the calvary thanks to Santos. But when Santos realizes Massai has escaped again he says:

”Massai is back. I’m a dead man.”

I loved his line reading of that. Dead...resigned.

Massai kidnaps Nalinie and runs away, heads to the hills. And here they become, like any married couple starting out. Finding a place to stay, food to eat. It’s a struggle, but they have each other; oh, and baby makes three.

The ending was interesting. Massai hides inside his cornfield, surrounded by cavalry. (See, those seedlings did root. Nice birds-eye view of that. It was very tense to watch McIntire go in there after Massai while Nalinie is in labor. McIntire has a very telling line at the end of the film: ”This is the only war we had. And we ain't likely to find another.” Do men look for wars to have something to do??

I enjoyed “APACHE.” Jean Peters, as always, was lovely to look at and has strength. And every character played their part very well. Burt Lancaster put his all into this and was committed to playing the role.

But I do wonder, what if Jay Silverheels had played the part...

[JackFavell]

Wow. Great read, Maven! You make me want to see this one.

Let's see, Burt on one side of the scales, and Jay on the other side...... whoa. I don't know. The scales are tipping ......in Jay's favor. Can I pick between Woody and Jay instead? A win win situation, that one is.

[MissGoddess]

Great ramble, CinemAva. I agree with all you said. So much of whether this movie would work
for me hinged on whether I believed in Massai and Nalinie, because if their characters were too
wooden or phony the whole thing falls apart. I think they gave it their level best and play it on the level,
no cheating the audience of any of the emotions. I was rooting for them all the way even though we
pretty much know, historically, there were not many happy endings for these oppressed people.

Burt is good at seething resentment and together with his enormous physicality and grace he does
the role credit. Jean is lovely and strong, as you say. I can only echo your wonderful assessment!
Not a great western, but characters that had my sympathies and a story that deserved to be told.