Fort Apache

Fort Apache (in Venezuela, Fuerte Apache; in Argentina and Chile, Blood of Heroes) is a 1948 film directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda as lead actors.

This is the first film in the Cavalry Trilogy, which is completed by The Invincible Legion (1949) and Río Grande (1950). It was one of the first movies to reflect sympathy and respect for Native Americans.

Plot

After the Civil War, Owen Thursday, humiliated by being demoted to lieutenant colonel after being a general, is posted to Fort Apache in the southwestern United States. He is an ambitious man who wants to achieve high military honors through actions that will be his own merit. Arrogant and detail-oriented military, obsessed with ordinances, he has the plan to kill the Apache chief Cochise after having chased him to the border with Mexico.

His junior Captain Kirby York, on the other hand, is very knowledgeable about the Apaches and does not underestimate them. He is also humble, he knows that it was not the fault of the Apaches that there is a war and he gives good advice to his superior, which he ignores. That obsession with glory and his arrogance ultimately lead to him and his troops being lured into a trap and killed by Cochise in a confrontation that could have been avoided if he had listened to York.

Captain York, knowing what was to come, stays behind with some of his men. After the annihilation of Thursday and his troops, Cochise approaches York and makes peace with him, knowing that he wants peace. Thus the war ends and York becomes the next chief of the Apache fort. He then decides to cover up Thursday's incompetence from the press for the sake of his family, whom he holds dear.

Cast

• John Wayne - Captain Kirby York
• Henry Fonda - Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday
• Shirley Temple - Philadelphia
• John Agar - Second Lieutenant Michael Shannon "Mickey" O'Rourke
• Pedro Armendáriz - Sergeant Beaufort
• Ward Bond - Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke
• George O'Brien - Captain Sam Collingwood
• Victor McLaglen - Sergeant Festus Mulcahy
• Anna Lee - Mrs. Emily Collingwood
• Irene Rich - Mrs. Mary O'Rourke
• Miguel Inclán - Cochise

Production

The Fort Apache fort was built specifically to make this film.

Shooting for the film was then done, with delays caused by winds and storms, in various parts of Monument Valley, especially in the main area of My Darling Clementine, in July and August 1947. Navajos for them to impersonate the Apaches of film production.