Fort Apache

1948 • 2h 8m •

Western

MOVIEVIBE Rating

★ 7.0/10

427 reviews

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Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.

"John Ford's Masterpiece of the Frontier!"

Top Billed Cast

John Wayne

Capt. Kirby York

Henry Fonda

Lt. Col. Owen Thursday

Shirley Temple

Philadelphia Thursday

Pedro Armendáriz

Sgt. Beaufort

Ward Bond

Sgt. Maj. Michael O'Rourke

George O'Brien

Capt. Sam Collingwood

Victor McLaglen

Sgt. Festus Mulcahy

Anna Lee

Mrs. Emily Collingwood

Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews

J John Chard Verified TMDB Critic

2019-05-29

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Fort Apache is the first film of what came to be known as John Ford's US Cavalry trilogy. Just like the other two, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon & Rio Grande, this is also based on a short story by James Warner Bellah. Originally intended to be shot in colour, it was however filmed in black and white with Ford still making spectacular use of the Monument Valley location. The story primarily deals with opposite factions within the same army. On one hand is Lt. Col. Owen Thursday (Henry Fonda), stiffly rigid in his beliefs, a stickler for the rules and pig ignorant and hostile towar...

C CinemaSerf Verified TMDB Critic

2022-07-09

Certainly, I think, the best of the John Ford US cavalry trilogies this one. Henry Fonda is cracking as the honourable, but out of his depth, by-the-book colonel sent to run a ramshackle army post just as the Apache are on the rise again. He replaces the far more practically experienced John Wayne and soon it all gets a bit sticky. John Agar and Shirley Temple provide an amiable romantic sub-plot as the very green lieutenant son of the Sergeant Major (Ward Bond) and the daughter of the Colonel who fall in love - despite the disapproval of (for different reasons) both sets of parents. The photo...