Conquista de Apache

The Gadsden Purchase of Southern Arizona is the setting for this underrated western that has fine action, good photography and a nice music score. The plot involves the U.S. Government's attempt to forge a peace treaty between ancient enemies, the Apaches and Mexicans, the latter of whom the American troops are duty-bound to protect from Cochise's raiders. Indian-hating Mexicans and trouble-making Americans stand in the way of peace and inflame hostilities on both sides of the border. The Comanches, at war with both the Americans and the Mexicans, hope to enlist Cochise and his Apaches as allies in their war of extinction against their enemies. Robert Stack is the best-known name among a good cast of players who were veterans of many western films. John Hodiak is Cochise, and his mannered, formal bearing as the Apache chief is better than might be expected.

Four disparate factions - Apaches, Comanches, the U. S. Cavalry, and established Mexicans - trying to figure each other out in and around Tucson on the eve of the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. Maj. Tom Burke (Robert Stack) leads the charge for the army, while Cochise (John Hodiak) must try to negotiate both the white man and his fellow natives in an effort to avert all-out war.

Fairly colourful and thoughtful western with a good performance by John Hodiak as Cochise and other cast members. It's got interesting take on the Mexican-Apache conflict. Throw a little Comanche in there too and you got a well-plotted western with some good action. The ending has a good shootout finale.

This is an interesting film of the Indians with John Hodiak as the legendary chief of the apaches Cochise, who finds himself in a quandary, whether to make war with the white Americans or with his brothers the comanches. He chooses what he thinks is the lesser evil and gets trouble with the comanches. The diplomatic efforts to make peace between Robert Stack as the white major and Cochise encounter difficulties and lead inevitably to a violent serttlement with the comanches. John Hodiak was always interesting as a character on film, always playing personalities with great integrity, and here he is perfect as Cochise, an apache chief of superior self control. He never shows his feelings, but the audience must understand them all too well. The film is directed by William Castle, who made all the Crime Doctor films, and this is made with equal efficiency with no waste on nonsense. The film is mainly worth watching because of the insight into the apache way of life that it offers, and of course there is a lady involved (Joy Page) who also knows her own mind: she actually kills an Indian here in a raid. The colours are brilliant, they always are in films of Arizona, and that is an extra credit to the film to make it more than worth while. It is one of the first major westerns that take sides with the Indians or at least shows a deeper understanding and interest in them, which makes it important in the line of westerns. Robert Stack as the major is more standard military officer routine soldier, while it is the actions of Cochise that keep you engaged.

I remain staggered when contemplating the inconsistency of William Castle's direction. My being boggled is seemingly rooted in Castle's implementation of two stylistic systems - malformed 'Twins' as it were. The Arnie isn't present in this outing. The "Devito" system is in full force with passive direction that features a tableau frontality dominant in the staging/blocking and camera positioning that succumbs to the idea that action should pass through it or track it in the most linear fashion. Like some of the Boston Blackie films, groups of characters are staged symmetrically creating an evenness like a Moe Howard bowl cut. Hackneyed quips and stilted performances abound. I believe the AFI archival notes on the film remark that the uniforms didn't fit historically. The stereotyping throughout Conquest of Cochise would fit adequately if you upped the action sequences in quantity and quality. The stereotyping could thus be rendered parodical cartoon or comic-strip homage, and vice-versa. The authorial voice of Castle is mute in this film and sequences are connected with sterile methodical execution. As such, the 4th Wall stands strong and the story is required to tell itself. The story itself is poor and the characterization does nothing to create spectator investment. Too much melodrama and not enough action renders a comic strip story into a tepid soap opera. Romantic subplots are developed as filler and not as focused torrid affairs. The talkiness is so overt that I have to wonder whether this churned out "B" historical Western was not produced solely to serve necking teens who needed a dark anonymous escape for a couple of hours. The ethnography of this film is bunk for a contemporary audience and perhaps outdated even at the time of its release. Were these Katzman-Castle history-drama productions simply gimmicks in service of a romantic subculture among audiences? I will admit that it would be easy to pay full attention to my lover's lips and blouse buttons with Conquest of Cochise playing - there would be no chance of a distraction.

The 1950s saw a change in the average western. In many of the era's films, the American Indians are seen in a very sympathetic light and often Indian unrest is due to evil white folks. In this one, it's about the Chiracahua Apache war chief, Cochise, and how he was agreeable to becoming peaceful...but this is undermined by greedy jerks intent on provoking war.

While the story is laudable, it's also sad to see what ALSO was common in the 1950s...having big-name white actors portraying the chiefs. In most of these cases, they sure don't sound like Native Americans...and John Hodiak paints up and wears a wig and looks like a convincing Indian...and sounds exactly like John Hodiak! It really takes you out of the story...especially because his diction makes it sound as if Cochise went to charm school!

The story begins with the Gadsden Purchase at the end of 1953. With this land treaty with Mexico comes a new problem...what to do with marauding Chiracahua Apaches who go back and forth across the border of the USA and Mexico to attack folks. Major Burke (Robert Stack) is assigned the task to make peace with Cochise, the leader of these natives as well as making peace with the Mexicans who just became Mexican-Americans. But when negotiations go sour, the Chiracahua and Comanche get together and decide to make war on the white men. Can the Major convince them to do otherwise?

While it was nice to see the Indian portrayed more sympathetically and the film in vivid color, it's still a poor western. The dialog is often ridiculous, Hodiak is terrible and the story is in need of editing and improvement. Worth skipping.

By the way, EVERYONE in this film uses repeating rifles and handguns. Such things were pretty rare in 1853 and even during the Civil War, most of the troops used single-shot rifles. So much for attention to historical accuracy.