Caminhos Ásperos

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.

This exciting Western was released in three dimensional (3-D with some gimmickry) in the 50's, a highly topical exhibition mean , nowadays being successfully going back and including polarized glasses. It was the time when introduced Cinemascope and 3-D to compete with TV and attract people to movie theaters . It deals with Hondo Lane (John Wayne) , a scout for the US cavalry, he meets Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page)and falls in love with her , in this typical and entertaining western of the the 50's . The drumbeats of the Apaches sound a grim warning to a woman living in an isolated farm with her son . Hondo Lane becomes stubborn guard Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page in her first movie character) alarmed about the pending Indian uprising and then he turns into a figure father to her son named Johnny. The homesteader Angie, decided to await the return of his gruff husband, refuses to leave his property in spite of the imminent danger from a nearby Indian tribes. The woman living in the wilderness presumes she is safe because the Apaches (led by Michael Pate and Rodolfo Acosta) , under their leader Vittorio, have always left them alone. Later Lane has a run-in with Angie's reprobate husband (Leo Gordon) and is forced to murder in self-defense, not knowing who he is. Vittorio (Michael Pate) captures Lane and to save his life, Angie tells the Apache chief that Lane is her husband, unaware that Lane has murdered her real husband. In order to protect her from a forced marriage with one of the Apache, Lane reluctantly goes along with the lie and both of them fend off the violent Indians .

This classic western contains thrills , action , fights , brawls , impressive battles and spectacular scenarios . Wayne interpretation is the major plus , he's frankly sensational and awesome. This picture, being filmed in 3-D scenery and that it more attractive and impressive look for the legendary John Wayne whom was a novelty the shooting in this system. Interesting screenplay by James Edward Grant , Western's usual writer , though results to be a variation on ¨Shane¨. The film is a well-made Western with a fine result, a colorful photograph and an enjoyable love story . Furthermore , it shows a human view of the Indians and their relations to the American west settlers. This apparently unknown western was nominated for two Academy Awards, a nomination prize for the magnificent acting by Geraldine Page (her first nomination in her long career), and another for Louis L'Amour, well-known writer of novels set on the wild west. Glamorous and glimmer cinematography in superb Technicolor by Robert Burks (Hitchcock's ordinary) and Archie Stout . Lively and sensible musical score by Hugo Friedhofer . The motion picture is compellingly directed by John Farrow (Big clock , Wake Island , Copper cannon ,Captain Jones , among others) . The film was restored by the John Wayne Society for re-release in 1995 and todays is considered as the Duke at his best . Followed by a short-lived TV series . Rating : Above average .Worthwhile watching and a John Wayne's favourite .

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.