I found this historical flick about the relationship between the Apache chief Geronimo (1829 - 1907) pretty interesting. I was mainly impressed by two things: the picturesque landscape that falls just short of "epic", and what I took to be reasonable or at least a convincing facsimile of historical accuracy.
It isn't really a traditional Western in the sense of good guys and bad guys. Nor is it patronizing towards the Indians, as "Fort Apache" was. Like life, the universe is more complex than that, and more confusing. For the most part, General Crook (Gene Hackman) tries to compromise. His successor,General Miles (Kevin Tighe, good actor, perennial bad man), is a lying bastard.
It's no wonder Geronimo (Wes Studi) is torn between trying to raise corn within the strictures of reservation life and taking off for the hills with a band of resentful warriors and their families. The Apache were pretty rough on captives too. They were artists of torture and the film doesn't shy away from it, although it doesn't get into the arrangements in any detail.
Geronimo and his group wind up as prisoners of war in various place, beginning in Florida and ending at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was a POW for the rest of his life, but also a celebrity. He appeared at fairs, rode in Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade and so forth. The movie gives the impression that he spent the rest of his life behind bars.
That's misleading but not entirely false. Other incidents, I would guess, are fabricated -- an encounter between a few soldiers and some bounty hunters in which the famous scout Al Sieber (Robert Duvall) is killed. He actually died when a boulder fell on him at a construction site. The honorable Lieutenant Gatewood (Jason Patric) was a real figure who admired the Apache and spoke their language but was betrayed by the Army.
For what it's worth, if the US Army treated the Apache poorly, the Mexican Army did even worse.
It isn't really a traditional Western in the sense of good guys and bad guys. Nor is it patronizing towards the Indians, as "Fort Apache" was. Like life, the universe is more complex than that, and more confusing. For the most part, General Crook (Gene Hackman) tries to compromise. His successor,General Miles (Kevin Tighe, good actor, perennial bad man), is a lying bastard.
It's no wonder Geronimo (Wes Studi) is torn between trying to raise corn within the strictures of reservation life and taking off for the hills with a band of resentful warriors and their families. The Apache were pretty rough on captives too. They were artists of torture and the film doesn't shy away from it, although it doesn't get into the arrangements in any detail.
Geronimo and his group wind up as prisoners of war in various place, beginning in Florida and ending at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was a POW for the rest of his life, but also a celebrity. He appeared at fairs, rode in Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade and so forth. The movie gives the impression that he spent the rest of his life behind bars.
That's misleading but not entirely false. Other incidents, I would guess, are fabricated -- an encounter between a few soldiers and some bounty hunters in which the famous scout Al Sieber (Robert Duvall) is killed. He actually died when a boulder fell on him at a construction site. The honorable Lieutenant Gatewood (Jason Patric) was a real figure who admired the Apache and spoke their language but was betrayed by the Army.
For what it's worth, if the US Army treated the Apache poorly, the Mexican Army did even worse.