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I love this movie so much

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Wayne turns in one of his finest patriarchal performances as aging Calvary Captain sent on final mission with little hope of success. Vivid cinematography is accented by a golden shimmer as warm as the characters in the story. A bit simplistic, but none the less effective. Like watching a monument come to life.

After the defeat of General Custer at the Little Big Horn several American army posts have been placed under full alert as various tribes have begun harassing everybody in their immediate area. One case in particular involves Fort Starke which has come under intense scrutiny by the Cheyenne who have migrated further south than usual. As a result, rather than keeping his wife and daughter at the army post the commanding officer, "Major Mac Allshard" (George O'Brien) decides to send them with a cavalry patrol further east where they will be safe. On their way, however, they encounter an Arapaho column heading in the same direction and as a result make a detour around them which causes the two female passengers to miss the last stagecoach out. And then the hostilities begin. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an excellent Western movie which benefits from the beautiful scenery and the on-screen charisma exhibited by John Wayne (as Captain Nathan Brittles) along with several other good actors in supporting roles. To that end, I believe that those who enjoy a film of this type might want to check this one out as it is definitely worth a view.

Every viewing of this wonderful movie seems to reveal an interesting, purposeful detail, so small and subtle in its message,but unnoticed in previous viewings. For example, in the early scene where John Wayne is kneeling at his wife's grave, right behind him is another grave marker with the name B. DeVoto. Bernard DeVoto was one of our foremost historians of our western settlement. His "1846, The Year of Decision" is a classic. I can't help but think John Ford was trying to give DeVoto some recognition (that name is not one you just would not pull out the sky for a grave marker). Well, maybe that was a macabre way do it as DeVoto did not die until 1955, 6 years after the movie.Another interesting detail concerned the "indians" horseback riding. True western indians rode bareback mostly, but some had makeshift saddles. But none had stirrups. It's extremely hard to gallop a horse without stirrups. In this movie, where you had a direct view of the side of the Indian's horse, you could see that the indians were using stirrups, but they were camouflaged/covered with cloth. A lot of westerns don't go into that much detail.

This may be a better movie than "Fort Apache".Here's what I liked:Undoubtedly one of Wayne's best career performances. At least as good as in "Red River". Ironic to see him playing a character 20 years older than himself, since he spent the next 15 years playing characters who were 10 to 20 years younger than himself. Thematically sound -- duty, aging, changing of the guard.Colorful Civil War references. Sergeant Tyree (Ben Johnson) is a former high ranking officer in the Confederate army.Ben Johnson is very good as the savvy scout.Monument Valley is stunning. Won an Oscar for cinematography.Fantastic stunt work as usual with the horses and wagons.Great example of John Ford's colorful, sentimental world of military fetish. Ford has a tendency to overdo the comic relief. He gets just about the right balance here. Victor McLaglen doing the heavy comic lifting again.Here's what kept it from being better:The plot is skimpy. They ride to the station to relieve a patrol and drop off two women at the stagecoach station. They come back. They run the Indians horses off. The end. The romantic subplot doesn't work. Joanne Dru looks good, but her character is annoying and gratuitous.There's virtually no heavy. The Indians are not well characterized.That's it. Really enjoyed this movie!! Tough to get eight stars from me!