Customer Reviews

Apache

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When Hecht-Lancaster chose this project, they were venturing out from the Hollywood norm, which was just their style. Believe it or not, the story is about a true renegade, Masai (or Ma-si) of the Chiricahua Apache. His initial capture, escape from the train, and 1500 mile journey back to his homeland are all historically correct. Some accounts even say he had blue eyes-certainly a stretch, but with Cochise a generation before raiding Arizona and often taking white captives, some genetic possibilities occur. Like the movie, he eventually leaves his own people, fearing they might turn him back over to the whites, and lives a primitive, violent lifestyle. Even his death in a cornfield is one of the stories of his enigmatic demise. Lancaster intended the film to end with Massai being killed, but MGM had money in this and demanded the "cornier" (forgive me) ending. The movie was released into theaters shortly after the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling and was viewed as being highly topical in exploring the mistreatment of minorities.

Has there ever been a truly representative Native American movie? I don't know. But this movie has a good heart, so forgive its small sins.

"Both Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters give outstanding performances" - wrote Variety in 1954 - and after watching this movie for the umpteenth time I believe they do deliver great performances in APACHE. It was the first one made by Holywood that dared to portray a movie from the Indian's point of view; and that alone deserves some credit.
A bit of TRIVIA
Jean Peters's performance in Apache, according to director Robert Aldrich, is even more outstanding because she had a personal dislike of Lancaster as a person and had to show complete devotion towards him throughout the entire film. Despite this fact, the two actors had some sort of chemestry in their scenes together that comes accross on the screen.
On top of that, both these actors were made up to look their worst in rags and to somehow look Indian - to no avail. Peters is still a gorgeous all-American girl and Lancaster the handsome all-American hero. However, if you forget about their looks (hard as it may be) this movie is very well done. It is masterfully directed, well acted, superbly edited and has a great storyline - even though the ending was changed by United Artists before it was released and Massai (Lancaster) was allowed to live and see his new born child (contrary to the novel's ending where Massai is killed by the US cavalry). But then it was 1954!
Anyone who likes westerns, should see this film.

Apache is a good western that tries to show Native Americans in a positive way, something most westerns did not even attempt to do. The movie tells the story of Massai, an Apache warrior who refuses to surrender alongside Geronimo and his other warriors. He escapes the grasp of the U.S. Army several times and begins to wage a one-man war on them. Massai begins to cut telegraph lines, burn bridges, and even attacks a fort single-handedly in the night. All through his war, the army sends a scout and several Indians who now work for the army after him to bring him in so he does not start a another war. It is good to see Native Americans portrayed as human beings but something is missing in the movie.

Burt Lancaster is pretty good as Massai, the Apache warrior who refuses to surrender. The movie makes no attempt to make him seem like an Apache other than what he looks like. There are plenty of acrobatic stunts performed that do look very good. Jean Peters plays his wife even though for much of the movie, he either ignores her or mistreats her. John McIntire is very good as the scout sent to track Massai down. He plays the role well and is good at showing that he actually respects the man he is hunting. Charles Bronson plays Hondo, an Apache now working for the army and potential suitor of Massai's wife. The DVD is okay. It offers a trailer and full screen format which looks okay. This is a good western, but I recommend renting it before you go out and buy it.

APACHE tells the story of Massai (based on a real person and played by Burt Lancaster), a warrior who fought under Geronimo and the only Apache who, when Geronimo and his followers were transferred to Florida, refused to surrender.
The movie opens promisingly enough. Geronimo's ceremonious surrender is disrupted by Massai, who is quickly captured by Indian scout Al Sieber (another real person, played by John McIntyre). Sieber denies him a warrior's death and, instead, has him join the herd on the Florida bound train.
What follows is a blend of historical fictionalization and Hollywood hooey. Massai escapes the deportation train and arduously makes his way back to his home, now a reservation, which he detests. As Massai, alienated from his subjected people and loathing those who subject them, says at one point "Every white man, every Indian is my enemy.... I can't stop fighting. I'm the last real Apache left in the world."
All fodder for a terrific western, but APACHE is far from that. In fact, save for the energetic Lancaster, this movie lacks the dramatic punch you'd expect from the source material. Granted, the real story of depredations and atrocities, on both sides, is a little too messy for Hollywood. Even though there's not much known about Massai, you'd think they could have concocted something a little more stirring than this whitewash.
Love interest Jean Peters, the beautiful Jean Peters, although cast in a rugged enough role, proves the maxim that women are death to action movies. Whatever momentum APACHE had grinds to a halt the moment our blue-eyed stars begin frolicking `neath the hot Arizona sun. Hunted Lovers stories are tough enough to pull off, nearly impossible when the lovers plant roots.
APACHE gets an `okay' three stars. Not bad but not nearly as good as it could have been. If you're not a big fan of Lancaster or westerns, it's probably best to pass on this one.

Great movie that shows how the Native Americans were treated and is based somewhat on history itself. There was an Indian named Massai, and a Mr. Wettle, along with Seiber. It is not a history movie, but more of a movie based on the degredation of the Native Americans and one Indians war with them and himself. The ending is one of compromise, but in reality, this was never to be for most of the Apaches.
Burt Lancaster is at his ever popular, ripped body, and makes you believe that he could do all that the true Native American Massai did do.
For some reason this movie has just struck me as one I like to watch when I get tired of everyone else complaining that they have it so hard in life today. Especially some minority groups who did not have it so, or still are, as the Native American.

Apache finds Burt Lancaster not only in his element, as he was a fantastic Western (and a great all-around) movie actor, but finding space to create great sympathy and pathos in this film, one of the earlier films to show Native Americans in a more humane light.

Lancaster plays Massai, who refuses to surrender with Geronimo, and escapes to plan a one-man revolution against the Army and settlers. Along the way, he finds love with Jean Peters and gains the respect of chief Army scout Al Sieber, played by John McIntire.

Lancaster infuses Massai with great dignity and honor, and even though we already know that his cause is bound to fail, we celebrate his triumphs and bemoan his defeats. His character has the kind of nobility that may seem Hollywood inspired, but at the end of the day, he's a man who wants to live as he chooses.

Apache is an excellent film, and a wonderful showcase for Burt Lancaster.

It was only in his third film, "Apache," that Aldrich's assured grasp of genre and liberal sensibilities came to the fore in a sympathetic but never maudlin portrait of an Indian alienated from both white America and his own kind...

Based upon the Novel "Bronco Apache" by Paul I. Wellman, the film relates the story of the last Apache warrior Massai following Geronimo's surrender...

Declined to live on Government reservations, a real-brave Massai became a legend for waging a one-man war against the encroaching U.S. Army in the 1880s...

Lancaster stars as the menacing, stormy, inflamed warrior whose spirit is as high as the white snowy peak of his mountain... Massai came back from far away weary from a journey that no warrior had ever made before... He seems like a dying wolf biting at its own wounds... For him there is no place in his life for love... Love is for men who can walk without looking behind... For men who can live summer and winter in the same place... Every man, every Indian is his enemy...

Jean Peters looked radiant as the blue-eyes Nalinle who really knows there had never been a chief like Massai...

John McIntire combed the whole country searching for Massai... For him it takes two to call off a war... Massai must be in those mountains somewhere...

For Bronson, "Apache" marked the first of his numerous excursions into Indian territory...

Aldrich tried to offer an inspiring message, and his film was exciting filled with colorful action scenes, and a surprising ending...

I am a biomedical engineer and work with medical informatics. I was born and raised on the Apache Reservation in Arizona. Apache had been my 1st language; however, Catholic Nuns taught me English but also encouraged me to retain my original language. I have seen the movie. In my family, I have relatives who were scouts for the US Calvary (Chief Alchesay) and others who were renegades. This movie does have have some level of of historical realism. It shows the excessive use of Apache Scouts and the fact that not all Chiricuahua Apaches surrendered. There was actually a small group that never did, and their story parallels those of the Seminoles who hid out in the Everglades. I am related to Massai, who escaped from St. Louis. I am also related to Chief Alchesay, the head scout whose warriors captured Geronimo. He was constantly on the run from Apache scouts closely on his trail in the most remote and inaccessible canyons of the southwest. It had been the strategy of General Crook and readopted by General Miles in the closing end of his campaign.

Al Sieber admitted that he failed in finding the Apache Kid and Massai, the renegades who were still at large at the end of the 19th century. Sieber was also very racist and referred to Apaches as "Red N-----s." So much for his being politically correct. I am related to Massai on my mother's side and the Apache Kid on my father's side. Massai was dying of tuberculosis and reportedly killed in the early 1900s, and his widow and children returned to Mescalero. The Apache Kid was last seen by his relatives in San Carlos around 1935. As for the scouts, Alchesay's relatives were WWII veterans. One of them died during the allied invasion of Germany while attacking Nazi gunner pits. Another was an Apache US Marine at Iwo Jima in 1945 (Semper Fidelis - USMC).

In regards to negative feedback from others, there are parts of the movie that are historically or culturally incorrect. In the first place, the entire movie is made with white actors who only speak English. Secondly, the scene with Massai tying up his wife is incorrect. In addition, there was a slave trade imposed upon Apaches by Mexico. The Mexican government also offered money for Apache scalps.

The rugged terrain and mountain running are most accurate. Apaches used to run 70 miles per day for days at a time. That is why the Mexican government used Tarahumarah scouts (who in more recent times have won the Leadville 100 mile run in 1993 and 1994 in Colorado). My favorite scene is when Massai comes up and sees the familiar Apache mountain of his homeland after running and walking hundreds of miles.

I certainly appreciate that Apache was trying to tell a Native American story from the point of view of the Native Americans. The Apache had happy lives before the government came along and tried to squish them onto reservations. Masai, a member of the Apache tribe, is rightfully indignant when they unceremoniously toss him into a boxcar and ship him off to Florida with Geronimo.

True to the famed Apache long distance running talent, Masai escapes and manages the long, arduous trek back to his homeland. He even has a right to be cynical about his native american friends, when he is sometimes helped and sometime hindered by them. It gets to the point that he wages a one man feud against everyone around him.

That all being said, it was hard for me to setle into a mindset where I could really relate to Masai *being* a Native American. He's played by Burt Lancaster. He always looked like Burt Lancaster with red paint on him. His sweetheart in the film is Jean Peters, who looks like a white woman with red paint on her. Masai is really foul to her throughout the movie. You would think, if he really wanted to perpetuate the Apache way, that he'd want to have a female around to do this with. Instead, he actively torments the only ally he has in his fight.

When he finally does weaken enough to allow her to stay with him, the movie becomes unbelievable. The ending sequence does not make a lot of sense.

Most of the movie focusses on the towns of the old west. You get to see very little of the culture that Masai was trying to preserve. You get much more of what the natives had been assimilated into. If we are going to see hours of Masai fighting for what he believes in, I would have loved to have seen that ground laying time, to really appreciate what the Apache culture was all about. Still, I suppose for the 50s this was a step in the right direction.

Although I'm a huge fan of Burt Lancaster, with an affinity for Westerns, even I have to admit that "Apache" is not one of Burt's best films. Very loosely based on the true story of the last member of the title tribe to resist the sociological and cultural changes brought about by the advancement of the white man, the film is well-acted, ably directed, and impressively photographed. However, the script by James R. Webb too often sacrifices characterization and context for action, and thus the audience is never really given the opportunity to learn much about the background of Lancaster's character, Massai, and what has made him into the man we meet in the film's opening sequence. "Apache" runs roughly an hour and a half; had an extra fifteen to twenty minutes been added showing Massai's early years and establishing his tribe's cultural heritage, the movie would have taken on additional dimensions and layers and might have been a great motion picture rather than just a good one.

Speaking of the film's length, its actual running time has been in dispute since its original theatrical release back in 1954. Even then, various resources listed it as running as short as 86 minutes, and as long as 91 minutes. The MGM "Western Legends" DVD release (copyrighted in 2001) runs 87 minutes, and there is no solid evidence to indicate that any footage is missing from this version. Similarly, although some modern sources claim that "Apache" was originally exhibited in a 1.85:1 widescreen format, that ratio would have made the film an anomaly back in 1954 when CinemaScope was still in its infancy and most features were still being produced in the standard 1.37:1 format. The "Western Legends" release notes that the DVD is presented in a standard, "modified to fit your screen" ratio, but my research has lead me to conclude that the film was modified from 1.37:1 down to 1.33:1, not from 1.85:1 down to 1.33:1.

What is certain is that the "Western Legends" DVD release does not offer the best print of the film now available in terms of visual clarity. While some scenes are remarkably sharp and clear, others are too soft, with improper color balance. A more consistent, seemingly restored print has been screened on various premium cable TV channels during the past few years. Hopefully, this improved edition will be made available on DVD and/or Blu-Ray in the future, now that the "Western Legends" DVD has gone out-of-print.