Geronimo!

Possibly because The Rifleman series that Levy-Gardner-Laven produced on television was shot in black and white was the reason that no one apparently noticed that Chuck Connors had blue eyes. In any event when they produced this B film about the last great Indian warrior chief Geronimo since they had Chuck Connors under contract for The Rifleman they figured to get him dirt cheap for this film. I'm sure Connors was also looking towards a big screen career as well.

If you can get over how ridiculous Connors looks as a blue eyed Indian, the film Geronimo is not a bad one given the fact it is a B film. It takes the Indian point of view dispassionately, just letting facts speak for themselves.

Geronimo in fact had surrendered and was sent to live on the San Carlos Reservation, but ill treatment by corrupt politicians and self righteous do-gooders as exemplified by John Anderson in this film, sent Geronimo packing along with some of his best warriors. They bedeviled the Arizona territory and the Mexican authorities for several years.

Geronimo took one thing he liked from San Carlos along with him, beautiful Indian maid Kamala Devi. Ironically enough Kamala Devi is an actual Indian Indian, but she's drop dead gorgeous in any culture. Chuck Connors thought so too because he left his first wife for her during the making of Geronimo.

With certain reservations, no pun intended, Geronimo is not a bad telling of the tale of the last campaign against the American Indians. But I can't believe that the team of Levy-Gardner-Laven couldn't afford some contact lenses for Chuck Connors in the budget.

Although this movie has stale writing, uninspiring acting, and a cheesy plot, an understanding of the Historical context of the film adds much to one's viewing enjoyment. The movie, by no means, claims to be historically accurate (Geronimo is played by a white guy with make-up!), but it is a socially commentary on a century of unmoral and assimilationist Indian Policy in the United States. During the early 1960s President John F. Kennedy proposed a revision of this policy, calling for the recognition of Native Americans as distinct Nations. Kennedy's proposition was a dramatic diversion from the Indain Policy of administrations before him. This movie highlights, the poor conditions of the reservations, the forced conversion of Aboriginals to Christianity, and the policy's attack on the Aboriginal culture and way of life. This historical context, coupled with Adam West (who rocks my socks!) adds to the enjoyment of this film.

On the Arizona-Mexico border in 1883, Apache warrior Geronimo surrenders himself and his tribe to the US Calvary in exchange for food and shelter on government land; naturally, the villainous, despicable whites sell the ground out from underneath the Indians after a greedy land baron sees they have turned the hard dirt into fertile soil for farming, leading to an unwinnable war between the fading Apaches and the Americans. Mixing "fact and legend", screenwriter Pat Fielder shamefully reduces history to textbook eye-for-an-eye business. Western-adventure from United Artists is further hurt by a TV cast and budget. Chuck Connors' Geronimo wages war on the Cavalrymen, though from what we can see it's really just Pat Conway's smirking Captain who's against him. Conway, decked out with an ostentatious neckerchief, unmercifully struts his way through this thing like a smug peacock...but, at least he wasn't forced to wear a ratty black wig like most of his co-stars. Some good scenes, such as an impromptu chicken dinner at the house of a strict widow, almost makes up for the general lack of story and character development. ** from ****

The film begins with Geronimo (Chuck Connors) "surrendering" by agreeing on a treaty that gives his Apaches land on a reservation in Arizona. However, things quickly go wrong while on the reservation. Geronimo leaves with a band of warriors and declares war on the United States. The majority of the film is the story of this war, told from Geronimo's perspective.

While the script and direction are fairly pedestrian here (with the exception of a few fantastic shots of sunsets and landscapes), Geronimo works because of a number of excellent performances, including Connors, Ross Martin (as Mangus), Kamala Devi (as Teela), Pat Conway (as Captain William Maynard), and Adam West (as Delahay).

The film is also surprisingly complex in terms of sociological subtexts. With one clear exception (having to do with a subversive sale of land), there are no clear "bad guys" and "good guys" here. Rather, the conflicts of the film are portrayed as resulting from cultural dispositions, duty and necessity. Each character or group of characters is responsible for some behavior that is a fairly serious crime (legal or moral) in the eyes of other characters, and each is seeking an improvement of their lot, mostly with a desire that the other parties understand their position better.

However, there's no need to expect heavy-handed intellectualism from the film. On the surface, this is a quality western with a great deal of suspense, although perhaps too lacking in big battle scenes for some western fans. There are a number of smaller battles, but the focus is always on the strategy behind them rather than the battle itself, and in my eyes, that makes them interesting and suspenseful in a way that more clichéd action scenes wouldn't achieve. Geronimo is much more about a clash of cultures, and successfully spends a lot of time on Geronimo's relationships with Mangus and Teela. An 8 out of 10 for me.

There's really nothing to distinguish GERONIMO from any standard Hollywood western about outlaws, except that this time it's a lone outlaw against the U.S. cavalry at a time when Indian treaties were being broken and the Indians wanted to fight over territorial rights. Nothing complex here, just a fictionalized account of Geronimo's love for an Indian woman who bears him a son before the fadeout and after the final battle.

Blond and blue-eyed CHUCK CONNORS isn't anyone's idea of an Indian so it's hard to tell what the casting director was thinking, but he does a commendable job of looking like one, thanks to make-up and costumes, except for the blue eyes. He makes no attempt at any sort of native accent but his stoic manner and steely-eyed gaze does help the characterization. KAMALA DEVI is good as the Indian woman who bears his child and ADAM WEST has a pivotal role as a sympathetic officer.

Nicely photographed but short on battle skirmishes, it makes passable entertainment but is hardly an outstanding western by any yardstick, dull in some stretches with a less than inspired script.