A beautifully photographed, sparse, and philosophical Western that in my opinion ranks among the very best films made by John Wayne. Director John Farrow gives us a subtly different kind of Wayne than the hero from so many John Ford films -- this Wayne is rough and tough, but he has a singular ethical idea as far as "letting people do what they want". For instance in the scene where he warns the boy not to play with the dog, and after the dog bites the boy he emphasizes to the mother "he made his own choice." This is coupled by a not-so-subtle contemplation on the nature and value of honestly. The basic moral question being -- when is a lie justified, and when is a man just telling the truth to satisfy his own pride? The early parts of the story shadow the great "Shane" -- Wayne's hero Hondo comes out of the desert looking like a dead man, he finds a (seemingly) happy pioneer family in their homestead and enters into various experiences attempting to teach the young boy (Rayford Barnes) how to be a man, something his lousy father (Leo Gordon) never bothered to do. The film's main relationship develops between Hondo and Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page), the woman who was abandoned and left in Indian country by her drunkard husband. After Wayne is forced to shoot the husband, he fears to tell Lowe the truth because of the love affair blossoming between them. In perhaps the film's pivotal scene, she accepts his confession with surprising frankness, but then prohibits him from telling the boy the truth. Her statements at that point imply the film's thesis on truth -- it's best to tell the truth in most circumstances, but at other times we can be fooled by our pride into thinking that we MUST tell the truth when in fact the truth can do more harm than a lie.
The photography in this film is truly excellent, and I really love how Farrow manages to give each scene a kind of unique quality, partly by tying certain scenes around central visual images (the river, the joining of fingers by bloodbrothers, etc.). The film is made more memorable by the fact that the director didn't "throw anything away" -- each scene has its own interior meaning separate from its relationship to the entire film, and these scenes revolve around the human relationships in the story. The scene with Page and Wayne early on where she almost kills him is a great example of economic and effective direction IMHO. Likewise the scene where the Indians are shot at by the boy and end up making him the chief's bloodbrother. Each person in these scenes, including the chief (Michael Pate) come off very strongly and distinctly.
The performances are very good, with Wayne showing his maturity and self-knowledge at every turn. Page is wonderful at suggesting both the naivete and courage of her character. Gordon is suitably nasty, Ward Bond appears in his usual "tough buddy" part and gives it the usual amount of integrity, Pate gives us a relatively lucid and real picture of an Apache warrior who is trying to balance his sense of honor and his anger towards the white conquerors. James Arness also contributes good character work as a man who works with Hondo but tries to blackmail him with the knowledge of the true nature of Ed Lowe's death.
All in all, I would say this is a top notch Western, easily comparable to the best work of Ford, Hawks, Boetticher, and Mann.
The photography in this film is truly excellent, and I really love how Farrow manages to give each scene a kind of unique quality, partly by tying certain scenes around central visual images (the river, the joining of fingers by bloodbrothers, etc.). The film is made more memorable by the fact that the director didn't "throw anything away" -- each scene has its own interior meaning separate from its relationship to the entire film, and these scenes revolve around the human relationships in the story. The scene with Page and Wayne early on where she almost kills him is a great example of economic and effective direction IMHO. Likewise the scene where the Indians are shot at by the boy and end up making him the chief's bloodbrother. Each person in these scenes, including the chief (Michael Pate) come off very strongly and distinctly.
The performances are very good, with Wayne showing his maturity and self-knowledge at every turn. Page is wonderful at suggesting both the naivete and courage of her character. Gordon is suitably nasty, Ward Bond appears in his usual "tough buddy" part and gives it the usual amount of integrity, Pate gives us a relatively lucid and real picture of an Apache warrior who is trying to balance his sense of honor and his anger towards the white conquerors. James Arness also contributes good character work as a man who works with Hondo but tries to blackmail him with the knowledge of the true nature of Ed Lowe's death.
All in all, I would say this is a top notch Western, easily comparable to the best work of Ford, Hawks, Boetticher, and Mann.