Hondo

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.

John Farrow directs this western story that stars John Wayne as Hondo Lane, a dispatch rider for the cavalry who encounters a woman named Angie Lowe(played by Geraldine Page) and her son, whom he feels compelled to protect, since they are surrounded by Apache forces. Angie claims that, while her husband is away, they have a truce with the Apache chief, so don't feel threatened. Later on, Hondo is forced to kill a man in self defense who turns out to be Angie's husband! Before he can tell her, he is captured by the Apaches, but rescued by Angie, who informs the chief that Hondo is her missing husband. This of course puts Hondo in a quandary...

Exciting and beautifully photographed film has a good cast and story, which is not as much of a soap opera as my summary may indicate! (Though those elements are present.)

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.

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!

Leonard Maltin proudly does the intro for the DVD special edition of Hondo, his regard for the film is obvious. Maltin, who also provides a commentary track for the film, muses on the importance of Hondo in light of the 50s tonal shift in the Western genre. A time when the Western cast off its one dimensional approach of cowboy/cavalry heroes slaughtering the enemy (Indians) purely as an entertainment medium. But is Hondo any good? And is it also worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Delmer Daves'-Broken Arrow (Maltin again) which ushered in the 50s with a bold and poignant crack of the whip? The answer to both questions possibly depends on how much you enjoy John Wayne movies in the first place. Here The Duke, playing a half bred Indian it should be noted, is wonderfully framed amongst the Camargo, Chihuahua (Mexico) location. The plot (starting off like Shane, released the same year) follows an interesting course, requiring Hondo to ultimately protect those he has fell in for, while simultaneously understanding his enemy since his blood contains the very same. Also of interest is that Hondo has very much become a solitary man of the wilderness, so when his emotions lean towards love and fatherly instincts, it makes for a nice bit of in character confliction. Something that Wayne delivers with much conviction.

Geraldine Page was Oscar nominated for her role as Angie, and rightly so as well. Strong-willed and waiting out of loyalty for her thuggish husband Ed (Leo Gordon) to return to the family home. Angie herself is conflicted by her regard for the Apache and the stirrings brought about by Hondo's considerable masculine presence. Especially when a revelation later in the piece calls for her to decide her life course. All of which gives Page the license to feed off Wayne's presence, to which it provides great interplay that makes the film a potent and intriguing character piece. Stock players such as Ward Bond and James Arness aren't given much to do, and due to the film having originally being shot in 3D, the thrusts at the screen by various weapons are more quirky than impacting. But still, backed up by a fine score from Hugo Friedhofer and containing a rousing battle laden finale (apparently filmed by John Ford as director John Farrow had been called elsewhere), Hondo is a cinematic treat for like minded individuals. It's not as important as Maltin and many others would have us believe, but that doesn't stop it being an essential watch for fans of Wayne, Page and particularly those into Westerns in general. 7/10