Customer Reviews

Broken Arrow [VHS]

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've seen "Broken Arrow" (1950) when I was just a kid. The power of the images of this film remained in the back of my mind. In the near past a collection of the best Far West movies was edited in Argentina. This was the first title I run to buy. I wasn't disappointed with what I found.

It is one of the first films, if not the first, to show common human traits in both Native Americans and Pioneer Americans. Both are shown alternatively as brave, cruel, ruthless, honorable, truthful, and wicked. It shows a true kaleidoscopic round of basic human attitudes.

James Stewart impersonates Tom Jeffords (1832-1914) a historical character, known for opening the postal trail thru Apache's territory. This story is shown in the movie, with the logical and expected changes that a commercial product implies.
Nevertheless it depicts the relationship of trust developed between Cochise (1805-1874) the great Apache leader, fleshed outstandingly by Jeff Chandler, and Jeffords. They represent the best of two different worlds and work together to give peace a chance (as Lennon said). Peace is not an easy goal to reach; both of them had to pay a high price in order to obtain it.

A very young and beautiful Debra Paget, playing the role of Morningstar, contributes to give the romantic accent to the film.
There is enough action for the epic lovers, a very good photography in Technicolor and a solid script to backup the story.
One more thing, the Apache characters are, mostly, performed by Native American actors, contributing to make the story more credible.

I think this movie deserves, in justice, to be called a classic. Enjoy it!!!.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

This is really intended for Amazon--please convey to whomever that a market exists--we're all waiting for the remastered DVD!!!

If you agree, please cast your vote here!!!

This really is a terrific Western! The story you probably know by now, what you may not know is the great DVD tranfer, great color, and great Sedona Ariz. filming locations!
Jimmy Stewart starting doing westerns in 1950 with Winchester 73', a black and white film and a classic. Broken Arrow was his second entry and 5 more followed in the 1950's. But none were to top Broken Arrow. Or Winchester 73'!

Not only is the story very solid, fiction based on real events and people, but all the actors casting is flawless! Will Geer, an emotionally hurt settler, Debra Paget at 17 looking like a Indian instead of a young startlet, and Jeff Chandler as Cochise in a very believable good performance. Mabye his best!

And make sure to check out Jay Silverheels in the role of Geronimo, a top notch performance and I think biggest speaking part of anything he'd ever been in, including the Lone Ranger series. When he defies Cochise to follow the peace trail, his emotion is so powerful that it jumps off the screen. A truly great moment in the film. I had to replay that scene many times because I liked it so much!

I'm proud to place this among my Western Collection of DVDs!

Though far from historically accurate, _Broken Arrow_ is an agreeable, upbeat action film that has some thought behind it. This is not an entirely predictable moral tale, but acknowledges the savagery of the clash between Indians and Whites in the west.

The story, though told by the Indian agent Tom Jeffords (Stewart) is really that of the great Apache leader, Cochise (Chandler). It is in the study of Cochise that much of the film's fascination lies. Though Stewart's narrative frames the story, it is Cochise's decisions and actions that move the peace process forward.

Though admittedly some of the Indians are portrayed by white actors, just consider these cast members: Iron Eyes Cody as one of Cochise's lieutenants, Teese; John War Eagle as the spurned suitor, Nahilzay; and Jay Silverheels as the deadly and intransigent Geronimo-- in an excellent performance that is a far cry from his affable 'Tonto' of _Lone Ranger_ films and series!

Also watch for a young Will Geer cast against type as the embittered and treacherous Ben Slade, and the great character actor, Arthur Hunnicutt, as reluctant Stewart sidekick Milt Duffield.

This is a great western, and despite the somewhat schmaltzy romantic plot, it plays well today just as it did almost 50 years ago.

From time to time on the net I come across these ever-present lists where someone is sounding off about what they say are the "best" of such and so . Frequently I see "best westerns" or "best war movie" lists and find myself laughing out loud when one of these things omits something universally acknowledged to be a Classic. When that happens you know you're dealing with a relative "newbie" in the world whose exposure to genre cinema isn't nearly as expansive as they think it is. War Movie lists that leave off "Sergeant York" (out of sight for along time) come to mind. So do "Best Westerns" lists that ignore "Broken Arrow" (another hard to find one for quite a while). This film is a treasure.

To all who think "Broken Arrow" is a John Travolta/Christian Slater military action thriller, I've got news for you: Travolta/Slater is just an "ehhh" popcorn programmer that happens to LIFT the title of one of the
most admired, acclaimed, respected, and loved westerns of all time; one that belongs up there with "The Searchers" , "Fort Apache", and others in the category of "the greatest".

Released in 1950, this Delmer Daves film tells the true (with very little ...and, even then, only minor...fictionalization) story of ex-Army officer Tom Jeffords and his early-1870s interactions with the great Apache warrior Cochise; a relationship that led to a major degree of peace in Arizona in the long run. It is a tale well written, well told, and beautifully photographed. Nominated for several Oscars and Golden Globe Awards, it won the Golden Globe for best screenplay.

Shot in magnificent locations in Sedona and Flagstaff, Arizona, and Lone Pine, California, the scenics are just gorgeous and the color cinematography absolutely superb.

The cast is fabulous as well. Jimmy Stewart turns in a great performance as Jeffords (gee, what a surprise! Stewart ALWAYS delivers!) but the performance to watch is Jeff Chandler as Cochise. It is awesome and well worthy of the Oscar nomination he received for it. To those unfamiliar with Jeff Chandler , he was a VERY popular he-man (like Duke Wayne or Robert Mitchum) actor of the fifties who possessed a facial bone structure like carved granite and a head of thick, prematurely grey hair. This was a guy born to play in westerns and private detective thrillers.
Chandler was on his way towards icon status when he died unexpectedly much before his time. He lives on here as Cochise, though, and this is not a bad legacy to leave behind.

Also here is one of the greatest acting beauties of the 50s, the breathtakingly beautiful Debra Paget. Paget could hold a male audience spellbound and get them all agitated when directors would kill her off ,as in "Broken Arrow", and, when they had her jump into a volcano as a self-sacrifice in the 2nd version of "Bird of Paradise" ( I remember yelling "Noooooooooo!" when I first saw that on tv years ago).

Many familiar character actors turn up here, among them Iron Eyes Cody and Arthur Hunnicutt. Hunnicutt, bearded and carrying a bugle, would, some eighteen years later, appear as "Bull" with Duke Wayne and Bob Mitchum in Howard Hawks' "El Dorado". Here he is "Milt Duffield" a friend of Tom Jeffords.

Also making a splash in "Broken Arrow" is Mohawk character actor Harold J. Smith, playing Cochise's nemesis, Geronimo. Don't know him? SURE you do. You just know him as Jay Silverheels, and, at the same time he was playing hard-edged bad boy Geronimo for 20th Century Fox, he was off
also playing good guy Tonto with Clayton Moore's Lone Ranger for George Trendle.

All these elements combine here to make for a wonderful movie, western or otherwise.

It would also be interesting to note that this film has an affiliation with John Ford's "Fort Apache" in that, in "FA", Henry Fonda's unscrupulous "Col.Thursday" uses John Wayne's "Capt. York" character to deceive Cochise into a parley where he insults him (to Wayne's horror and disgust) and tries to capture his band. Fonda "gets his" because of this, deservedly so. One could almost watch "Fort Apache" and then "Broken Arrow" one right after the other and get a sense of this chief and his people...and understand that, in order to have any common ground with him, you did not try to trick him, con him, or lie to him. You did so at your peril.

One might also note that the popularity of this film carried over into a t.v. show in the fifties. The t.v. "Broken Arrow" starred John Lupton as Jeffords and Michael Ansara as Cochise. It featured mainly "keeping the peace" and "countering Geronimo" type stories.

Again, this one is real keeper. Rent it, buy it, watch it. You won't be sorry in the least. I am very glad its available again.

Broken Arrow was truly one of the first western flicks to portray the conflict between native Americans and white men with sympathy to the plight of the Indians. The story revolves around the conflict with the Apache tribe in Arizona in the 1870's.

Brooklyn born Jeff Chandler, aided by gobs of make up does a very respectable job playing Cochise. James Stewart in his genre playing Capt. Jeffords is sympathetic to the rights of the Apache to inhabit their territory. He learns the ways of the tribe to broker a piece treaty between Cochise and the untrustworthy U.S. military. While living among the tribe he falls madly in love with the ravishing Indian maiden Debra Paget (who was 17 in real life at the time of filming) and eventually marries her.

Cochise agrees to peace despite the objections of a splinter group of renegade Apache lead by Geronimo (played by a pre-Tonto, Jay Silverheels). The peace is a shaky one but eventually holds even through an attempted ambush of Cochise which results in the killing of Paget.

This is a outstanding film. It is based (loosely) on the historical figures of Cochise and Tom Jeffords (who actually may have been trading guns to the Indians). Much of the background history is accurate, specifically white misconceptions of what started this Indian war and who really did. Actual Apache music and dances are used. The film shows Indians with honor (Apache "men have a sense of fair play"), humor, and humanity ("I never thought of an Apache mother crying for her son...."). The story grabs you and moves well. The only real negative is white actors plaing the parts of Indians (Jeff Chandler as Cochise and Debra Paget as Sonsirey), but given when it was released (1951), what else can we expect? It was a radical film for its time, and set the stage for many later movies about Indians. Too bad Hollywood didn't make ALL later Indian films with the same care and concern for the people.

Stewart plays a scout who seeks to heal the divisions between the Apaches and white men... But while "Broken Arrow" is a perfectly acceptable depiction of frontier struggles, it does not display Stewart to the best advantages... Delmer Daves was competent enough, but he lacked the ultimate virility and intensity of Anthony Mann...

"Broken Arrow" examines, rather intensely and directly, the mistreatment and flagrant exploitation of the Indians by whites in the early West...

The strength of this often lyrically photographed picture which will a1ways have an honorable place among Westerns lies particularly in the touching dignity of Stewart's love and marriage to an Indian girl (Debra Paget). Indian haters, of course, stir up the usual sort of trouble and Stewart's bride becomes a victim with all the consequent poignancy for which the film is best remembered...

The over-wise Chandler counsels him that he must learn to live with his whiteness just as his new friends must contend with their own place in the cosmic scheme of things... Cochise has words of stark consolation for Stewart: "As I bear the murder of my people, so you will bear the murder of your wife."

The most interesting aspect of " Broken Arrow" is not the interracial romance between Stewart and Paget, but Stewart's relationship with Chandler's Cochise... There is intra-character complexity here, as Chandler struggles to overcome his disturb of all whites, and Stewart attempts to comprehend the different philosophy and cultural of the Indians...

Jeff Chandler was quite apt and professional... He was so believable in the role of the Apache chief Cochise that he was to essay it again in George Sherman's "The Battle at Apache Pass" in 1952... Chandler's facial bone structure lent itself to noble, incisive Indian profiles, and unlike other Caucasian actors he did not look out of place... He was even nominated for Best Supporting Actor at that year's Oscars...

In my work as an educator, I have developed lesson plans to go with timeless film classics to teach character. Our students apply lessons learned from this great film in understanding and respecting those who are different from ourselves. Broken Arrow was the first Western to portray Indians as whole persons. Principles of tolerance in the context of virtue and respect are depicted here. The concept that we should judge good and bad behavior by each person's "character content" and not what group they belong to is portrayed here without preaching or political correctness. I love the way that the essentials of what it means to be a leader, a good friend, and recongition of human dignity - are portrayed clearly for all ages in this wonderful film. When will it be in DVD?

This film gives the best multilateral view of the American Indians versus the American white settlers than any Western genre of film I have seen. The story behind this film is a type of parable that can really be applied to any inter-racial or -ethnic conflict of any kind. It really states how we, regardless of race, religion, color, or ethnic background, can unite and work together to accomplish peace through increased efforts to bring about mutual understanding and trust. It is moving story of what "real" diplomacy is all about and the surrendering of one's own personal ambitions, prejudices, or fears to bring about the greater good of the whole. Too often we judge an entire group of people by a few bad men found among them and allow that to be the catalyst in forming our opinions or sentiments regarding another race or group of people. This story shows how there are good and bad among all people and that conditions of peace and friendship should not be based on the few "bad apples" that so often spoil those relationships with other peoples, races and nations by our holding up those few as being respresentative of an entire people or nation. It is a story that would serve all of us well today in a world filled with so much of hate, violence, prejudice, and mistrust. It also does much to tell the story of how one person, or small group of people, through their own personal efforts and sacrifice can do a great deal to help make the world a better place for everyone concerned. It really stirs consideration of how we can all unite together regardless of our backgrounds to overcome the real enemy in our midst.