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DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY: GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND, GETTYSBURG

© Sean Gallagher

Although the U.S. is still a young country, comparitively speaking (as I write this, almost 228 years old), we've already had a rich history, and there are thousands of stories of our past that are certainly interesting enough, and dramatic enough, to be told on film. In addition to all the problems that face a regular docudrama, however - does it get the facts right, making the story dramatic - there's also the problem of if the movie is a movie or sounds like it's from a history textbook. Walter Hill's GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND and Ronald F. Maxwell's GETTYSBURG both struggle with this problem.

Hill, taking on one of the most famous native American warriors ever, at least knows what he wants as far as point of view goes. As far as Hill and writers Larry Gross and John Milius were concerned, the army, or at least the army leaders, felt enough sympathy for Geronimo and his men that they felt uncomfortable fighting him, even though they were ordered to. Unfortunately, that doesn't come off well in the film.

The movie focuses on two years of Geronimo's (Wes Studi) life - 1885-86, when he became known as a fierce warrior. At the time, Brigadier General George Crook (Gene Hackman) brokered a treaty settlement between the government and the Apaches for them to live on a reservation in Arizona. But when Crook's successor, Brig. Gen. Nelson Miles (Kevin Tighe) broke the treaty, Geronimo led his people in retaliation, and formed a guerilla tribe to fight the government. Leading the fight for the army were Lt. Charles B. Gatewood (Jason Patric), who considered Geronimo a friend, and Scout Al Sieber (Robert Duvall), who didn't like Indians, but respected Geronimo as a hunter would respect the animal he's tracking.

So far, so okay. But Hill, Gross, and Milius tell the story through the eyes of 2nd Lt. Britton Davis (Matt Damon), who was Gatewood's aide, and grew to respect Geronimo as much as Gatewood did. So the film becomes yet another Hollywood story of telling the story of a minority figure through a white guy. Worse, Damon is awful, though to be fair, he's saddled with badly written narration. Also, Hill has been revered as an action director (though I've always thought he was overrated), but while the battle scnes are well done, the movie for the most part feels curiously static, thanks to boring speechmaking. Finally, those speeches really don't give the context Hill seems to be aiming for.

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