Apache
With Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, John McIntire.
US, 1954, 35mm, color, 87 min.
Print source: Park Circus
Aldrich’s first Western as well as the inauguration of a fruitful collaboration with anxious macho man Burt Lancaster, Apache adapts the legend of Massai, the last remaining warrior of the eponymous Native American tribe that surrendered to colonizing whites in late 19th century New Mexico. Producing the film alongside Harold Hecht as only the second entry in their Hecht-Lancaster enterprise, the newly famous star cherry-picked Aldrich to direct, and the instinct proved discerning. Even at this early stage in his career, Aldrich displays a natural command of volatile emotional terrain and a jolting editorial cadence that suits Apache’s tale of rebel desperation and perpetual getaway. The plot springs into motion when Massai leaps off a train escorting him to servitude in Florida, after which he migrates on foot back to his homeland, spurning all in his path, to resume a one-man war and rekindle an unstable relationship with a chief’s daughter (Jean Peters), who memorably summarizes her battle-mad companion as a “dying wolf biting at its own wounds.” Such is the harrowing climate of this revisionist genre effort.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Four Star Playhouse: The Squeeze, The Witness and The Hard Way
The Southerner
