paul hardage

The screenplay is impressive for its empathy with Native Americans. Hondo has lived with the Apache and their leader Vittorio is portrayed as brave and honourable. He recognises bravery in Angie’s son Johnny and makes him a “blood brother”. A lot of John Wayne’s dialogue shows understanding of and respect for Apache language and culture. The war with the Apache is specifically blamed on the white men breaking a treaty. For some reason, perhaps a weakness in the script or perhaps just history, this empathy suddenly disappears in the last 30 minutes of the film, which depicts the battle between the US cavalry and settlers and the Apache. One needs to read the book to understand what is behind this.