Ford’s stylized, expressionistic visuals illustrate this tale of a black Army sergeant, played with unshakable integrity by former football player and Ford regular Woody Strode, falsely accused of the rape and murder of a white girl. Utilizing a flashback structure that reveals the details of the story in increments, Ford alternates between the occasionally farcical courtroom where the trial takes place and the wild, desolate desert – shot in Monument Valley – where Rutledge is a heroic figure, fearlessly leading his men against the Apache. Ford’s reexamination of representations of race in Westerns is still somewhat conflicted, with the Native Americans depicted as uncomplicated savages, a portrayal Ford would rectify in 1964’s Cheyenne Autumn.