John Wayne and Henry Fonda Go Off to War with John Ford
Shirley Temple is obviously much older than in her heyday, when she was singing "The Good Ship Lollipop" and other cutesy, sappy songs. Much older -- the initial attraction begins rather curiously - she meets him after accidentally walking in on him while he's walking around shirtless. She decides to linger for a while before he notices - and I, being of 21st century sordid mind, am thinking, my God, Shirley Temple wants to get into this guy's pants!
John Wayne provides the counterpoint to Fonda. Wayne's captain is the salt-of-the-earth type (like all of the other local soldiers); more concerned with the spirit rather than the letter of the life he chose to live. He is the one who violently opposes Fonda's decision to stare the Natives down and play along with government whim, rather than allowing them to live in peace, knowing full well the folly of Fonda's attempt at military glory.
John Ford is a very distinctive director. Every single film I've seen of his is more than just a "Western" - they are usually quiet, serio-comic, and often bittersweet dramas of the people of the Old West. His greatest films in my mind are My Darling Clementine and The Man who Shot Liberty Valance - both of which see the humanity beneath the cowboy myths. That humanity, unlike other Westerns, usually involves personality and humour rather than action - Clementine, another in the long line of films about Wyatt Earp, is a film one could almost call cute rather than action-packed.
Ford was also the man who made John Wayne into a bona-fide star, and Wayne's best movies are mostly the Ford-directed ones. Ford did not always make Wayne the centre of attention - the Duke was an actor in Ford's movie just like all the others (Jimmy Stewart was the real lead in Liberty Valance), and in Fort Apache, Wayne has a very subdued role, as the Captain of the regime, who only near the end gets somewhat tough.
This time, John Wayne gets a great closing scene for himself - with a speech which at once elevates the heroism of the many young and old soldiers who fought in the battles portrayed in this movie, and creates irony due to the facts of the events which brought the story to the point where Wayne would have to make such a speech (he has to praise everybody, after all; that's just
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