Here's a fine Jimmy Stewart western that is often skipped over by critics interested only in his work with John Ford and Anthony Mann. Released the same year as Winchester '73 and Harvey, Broken Arrow makes Stewart's 1950 one of the greatest single-year outputs any actor has enjoyed before or since.
Other nominees for greatest year ever include Bogart in 1948 (Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, and Dark Passage--another Delmer Daves film), Stewart previously in 1940 (The Philadelphia Story, The Shop Around the Corner, and The Mortal Storm), Stanwyck in 1941 (Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve, and Meet John Doe), and Brando in 1954 (The Wild One and On the Waterfront). I'm sure there are many other worthy nominees that I've missed--if any of my thirty or so regular readers wants to add to the list that would be really cool.
Broken Arrow tells the Hollywood-ized story of Cochise and the Apaches making peace with the white man. Although they did not yet have the "courage" to hire Indian actors, Broken Arrow is one of the earliest examples of Hollywood portraying Indians in a positive light. The script is delightful in that uniquely '50s way that leaves you all warm and fuzzy inside and makes you want to go buy your steady a present.
Stewart lets Jeff Chandler steal the show as the dignified, noble Cochise. Each scene in which Chandler appears is effective and memorable. The generous script allows Cochise to be a complete character rather than a charicature, capable of clear communication, displaying a full-range of emotion, and even telling a joke (try to imagine one of John Wayne's "Comanch" doing that!) .
It's difficult not to compare this film to Kevin Costner's epic Dances With Wolves. The stories are so similar, yet the finished product is completely different. While each film is satisfying, Broken Arrow manages to convey the same emotions and message in nearly half the time. Personally I don't believe Dances With Wolves to be a particularly indulgent film, but the time difference does speak volumes to the way in which script writing has gotten much looser while, ironically, our attention spans have gotten shorter. For some reason people have forgotten that an epic story does not require three hours to be told. Gunga Din was less than two hours, as was The Searchers and The Wizard of Oz. Buster Keaton presented The General in 74 minutes!
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