Hondo, l'homme du désert

This exciting and colorful 3D film was released 50 years ago this week and remains an enjoyable action adventure today. With its distinctive peppermint-striped titles, the movie is one of John Wayne's best westerns and he happens upon a young woman at her isolated ranch and warns her of the threat of Indian uprisings. There is tension between the dispatch rider and the woman at first but she also knows that her son enjoys the man's presence on their ranch. Ward Bond and James Arness are the best-known cast members, and Geraldine Page, in her first movie, received an Academy Award nomination for her work in this film. The battle scenes are exciting, a series of hit-and-run cavalry-Indian fighting under bright blue skies and thick, fluffy clouds. The sound effects during the battles, of bullets and arrows hitting home are realistic and superb. The movie was filmed in Camargo, Mexico, an arid desert country studded with isolated, cone-shaped mesas. The music score by Hugo Friedhofer is among his best work.

Someone in an earlier comment said that John Wayne is, "always bad." I take great umbrage in that statement. He was always good and often marvelous and sometimes Magnificent.

His Hondo is a very different character from Ethan Edwards or Thomas Dunson. Here, he is a younger Wil Anderson or a more somber Quirt Evans.

I like Hondo. It's not a great film like Red River or The Searchers, but it does explore the lonely existence of a woman living in the back of beyond. It also explores the way in which a semi-tamed man becomes a father substitute and good husband, something Ethan Edwards would never become.

Geraldine Page shines like a new penny in this, her first film. She won an Academy Award nomination for her role in Hondo, and she deserved it.

Hondo is a man who is hardened by experience but still capable of understanding, compassion and love. He also works HARD. It's fun to see John Wayne with nails in his mouth, shoeing a horse!

Quintessential John Wayne western, the Duke plays tough but principled cavalry scout Hondo Lane who ends up sparking the widow (Geraldine Page) of a blackguard whom he was forced to shoot. In the meantime, the Apache are on the warpath, the horse soldiers are being led by a callow Westpointer (Tom Irish), and Vittoro (Michael Pate), the renegade Indian war-chief, has taken a shine to the widow's young son. Fortunately, all of these problems can be solved by honesty, common sense, good horsemanship, and/or a Winchester. Wayne is as good as always playing his usual larger-than-life hero and Page, refreshingly lacking the 'starlet' good looks usually found in supporting female characters, is excellent as the abandoned pioneer mother. The rest of the cast are fine, Australian actor Michael Pate plays Vittoro (presumably a proxy for the actual Apache chief Victorio (1825-1880)) and Wayne's buddies Ward Bond and James Arness are along for the ride as a couple of colourful cavalry scouts. The film is a bit more nuanced than the usual oater and the Apache, while still implacable foes who take scalps and torture prisoners, are presented as a rightfully aggrieved party, having been lied to and betrayed by the 'whiteman'. The desert cinematography is excellent and although originally presented in 3D, there are few of the gimmicky 'coming at you' shots that were common in early 3D films (I recently watched a 'flat' version but still have my 3D 'Hondo glasses' from a previous viewing). The climactic battle, allegedly directed by John Ford, is excellent but the film ends on a sombre 'end of an era' note, a theme that was becoming more common in the genre. All in all, Hondo is an impressive oater starring one of the genre's greats at the top of his game - well worth watching.

Most Westerns from the 1940s and earlier were what could be described as "B" Westerns, or Saturday afternoon matinée type films whose audience was mostly kids. Characters and stories were based largely on clichés and cultural stereotypes. Beginning in the late 1940s, a new kind of "adult" Western film emerged, one that we could label as "A" Western. In these films, the characters and stories were more complex; they had more thematic depth; and they tended to be a bit more realistic in their portrayal of the 19th century American frontier. "Hondo" is notable because it is an early cinematic "A" Western.

The film's title derives from the main character, Hondo Lane (John Wayne), a tough gunfighter and scout with a sense of ethics, a loner who does not like liars. One day, he happens onto the homestead of a lonely White woman, Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page). She and her young son Johnny (Lee Aaker) live peacefully on Apache lands.

A central plot point in the story is a broken treaty, which causes conflict between the Apaches, headed by Vittorio (Michael Pate), and the U.S. Cavalry. Vittorio has no real quarrel with Mrs. Lowe, however. Indeed, he keeps returning to her homestead, concerned that she and especially Johnny, who appears to be without a father, will not be able to survive in such a harsh land.

Based on a real-life Apache warrior, the Vittorio character conveys a more humanistic portrayal of Indians than what a viewer would see in "B" Westerns. And the multi-faceted Hondo, part White and part Apache, intervenes to help Mrs. Lowe, as she is caught between her desire to remain on Apache land, and the insistence of the Cavalry that she and her son flee the "hostile" Apaches.

The story has a very realistic look and feel, a result of attention to detail in costumes, production design, and outdoor locations. Originally shot in 3-D, mostly to convey a sense of spatial depth, there are very few 3-D gimmicks. Color cinematography is credible, and uses a good mix of close-ups and wide-angle long shots. Colors might be a tad overdone, with too many bright hues, but that's the way many outdoor films were shot in the 1950s. For many scenes in "Hondo", the camera is tilted slightly upward toward the sky, to give a sweeping, majestic look to the landscape.

Casting is fine, except for the odd choice of Geraldine Page who was at that time known mostly as a New York stage actress. Her performance here is fine, but is nowhere near the stellar level in later films. John Wayne is suitably cast, and does a nice job. Ward Bond, Michael Pate, and Lee Aaker all give credible performances in support roles.

Although there are more grandiose "A" grade cinematic Westerns, "Hondo" is a fine example of a story that is slightly more low-key, with an emphasis on complex characters. And the film's visuals are picturesque. I recommend this film for anyone interested in high quality Westerns.

This film was the most faithful, to the book, of any I have ever seen. It is based on one of Louis L'amour's early western novels, and the first to be made into a film. Aside from Vittorio wearing war paint all the time, the only part which was not really faithful to the book was the final battle where the stereotypical Hollywood Indian battle was substituted for the manner in which Apaches actually fought.

Louis L'amour was the most successful western novelist in history, having sold more than a quarter of a billion books before his death in 1988. Reading the book, Hondo, I often suspected it had been written with John Wayne in mind as Hondo Lane. I cannot picture Glenn Ford as Hondo, as was originally planed.

Much of the dialog was taken directly from the book although much was omitted, and every significant character made it from the book to the film. The only significant negatives were: 1) the fact that the story was condensed into 83 minutes instead of the 100 to 120 minutes, which would have permitted development of some of the minor characters; and 2) the apparent absence of a competent director. Think how much better it might have been if John Ford had directed it. Actually, both my complaints probably boil down to the same thing.