O Ultimo Bravo

I grew up watching westerns so in turn love them dearly....they tie me in with a great childhood when things were simple and life was good in an unadulterated sense.

Burt Lancaster has always been a prominent actor and his talent is so very showing in this movie. Charles Bronson is also in the movie and comes across very well as a young actor who is later destined to be one of the greatest actors of our time. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie on a lazy Saturday afternoon and I highly recommend it for its soothing effects of a simple yesteryear long gone except in cinema.

It is a typical plot of indians being pushed out and destroyed by the Union Army with one stand out rebel.....hell bent with an anger created thru intense hate, yet capable of showing love towards the woman in his life.

Very good classic western that has a Holywood formula but with more than the usual edge.Showcasing the Native American side here during the late 19th century.Great chemistry between the lead actors.The production was nothing spectacular but was very good enough over all due mainly to the script and performance of Lancaster and Peters.Good action mixed with a cute and convincing love story.Only for liberal minded people who love Westerns and big fans of the lead actors......

Apache was the third feature Robert Aldrich directed. Before he worked as an assistant director to Jean Renoir, William Wellman, Lewis Milestone and even Charlie Chaplin and also made several episodes for TV films. He was invited to direct Apache by its co-producer and main star Burt Lancaster.

The Apache's particularity is that it doesn't enter the classic Western scheme of almost obligatory showing of the Indians as bad guys, thou the most illustrious example of this probably belong to John Ford's 1964 Cheyenne Autumn with which the legendary director bid a farewell to the genre. Also Apache's distinctiveness resides in the treatment that is given to the central theme of the Western genre, which is revenge.

Here the Indian rebellious warrior Massai, wonderfully played by Burt Lancaster is obsessively seeking revenge facing the enemy not only in a form of one person or a small group of people in accordance with traditional Western vengeance system, but in a form an entire society either Indian or White, a society that he considers his enemy and against which he courageously fights alone not looking for help from anyone till he meets an equally strong character Nalinle (Jean Peters), a woman who simply accepts him as he is ready to share all the difficulties of Massai's life and even to sacrifice her own life for the man she loves. From this point on as his affection for Nalinle increases, his desire to fight everything and everyone proportionally decreases resulting in his settling down looking for more peaceful existence, which is hardly possible due to the burden of his past deeds which weighs over him personified in a collective figure of the American authorities who unceasingly continue to hunt him down.

A weak, but also in many ways remarkable Western featuring convincing performances from Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters in a tale of self-sacrificing love and courageous but ultimately pointless fight for imaginary cause. 7/10

Apart from Burt Lancaster's macho warrior performance, this movie is also saved by Robert Aldrich's direction. It's not brilliant in any sense, but pure enough to tell a story with some unique moments that give it his trade mark. Also the subject matter of an Indian being a hero was not common in the 1950s. It was a brave attempt to create empathy for the Indian Warrior, but it was not difficult because Burt Lancaster played it perfectly in a heroic campy style. I know, white folks playing Indigenous roles can sometimes put you off, but because of the time period it was made in, I decided to let it go and enjoy this Western romp because Lancaster is my all time favorite actors, and I was always interested in Aldrich as an accomplish director who had his own style that suited this film to perfection.

If you can suspend disbelief that Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters are Apaches, then this isn't a bad western. If you can't, well then there's gonna be a lot of low ratings posted here.

In 1886, Geronimo and his braves surrender to the U.S. Calvary in New Mexico and are shipped off to Ft. Marion, Florida. All except one, an Apache named Massai (Burt Lancaster) who begins a one man war against the whites.

Massai escapes from the train that is shipping the Apaches back east and makes his way back to New Mexico. From there, he attacks wagons, soldiers, bridges etc., making life hard for the authorities. He kidnaps Nalinle (Jean Peters) and takes her up to the hills with him while Indian scouts John McIntire and Charles Bronson hunt them down.

Massai finds an isolated spot in the high country and starts to plant a small corn field from seed he got from a Cherokee farmer (Morris Ankrum). He also gets Peters pregnant with child.

The ending scene in Massai's little cornfield is pure Hollywood. The action scenes are tight as we see Lancaster jumping from rock to rock as he picks off at least 10 of the Indian scouts that have him surrounded. But then as Massai is wounded and runs into McIntire in the cornfield, disbelief occurs and the conclusion seems tacked on in order to make a happy ending out of it. You'll have to see it for yourself.

Still, it's entertaining enough as it is. It's based on a true incident and Lancaster at least brings some dignity to his role as the noble warrior turned farmer who wants to be left in peace. It could've turned out a lot worse.

I give it a 6 out of 10 for his performance alone.