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Hondo (Full Screen)
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by Paramount
Sales Rank: 9173
Price: $10.49
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Based on the Louis L'Amour story "The Gift of Cochise," this sparkling western has Wayne as a half-Indian Cavalry scout who, with his feral dog companion, finds a young woman and her son living on a isolated ranch in unfriendly Apache country. A poetic and exciting script, outstanding performances, and breathtaking scenery make this an indisputable classic. Page's debut.
Viewer Reviews
Thirty years after his death, John Wayne remains an enigma. Many books have been written about him, none of which I've read, and so I know little of his personal life other than he has been both praised for embodying traditional American ideals and reviled for his archconservative bigotry.
Yet he remains today perhaps this country's biggest movie star. Today's actors - Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson, Jack Nicholson - are more accomplished actors with greater range; while from Wayne's era, Clark Gable was more handsome, James Cagney more talented, Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda more eclectic. But for sheer screen charisma, I can't think of another actor from any era who brings more to the screen. Whenever Wayne is onscreen the viewer is simply compelled to watch him. Often described as ruggedly handsome, his face isn't particularly expressive. Some of his mannerisms, particularly his walk and some of his posturing, one suspects are contrived, yet a generation of men in the 40s and 50s aspired to be just like him. Heck, I knew some women in the 60s who patterned themselves after the Duke.
In Hondo, based on a Louis L'Amour novel and directed by John Farrow, Wayne plays a half-breed Apache. His sidekick is Sam, a dog as surly as Hondo. Hondo befriends Angie Lowe, a New Mexican farmwoman and mother of a young son whose husband deserts her for extended periods of time. Geraldine Page is well-cast as the "handsome" Angie, and was nominated for an Oscar for her first starring role, despite a performance that can best be described as wooden. Character actor Ward Bond and a young James Arness ably lend support.
Setting aside the rather cliché depiction of the Apache and several historical inaccuracies, Hondo can perhaps best be described as a morality play, a study of the power of lies and when, or if, it is beneficial to tell one. Hondo laments the lies the white man tells the Apache and tells Angie that the Apache language contains no word for "lie." Page's soliloquy on the subject of lies - those she endured at the tongue of her husband as well as those she told herself - near the end of the movie is a telling moment. Although delivered somewhat mechanically, the words speak for themselves.
Not ranked in the top ten best all time westerns or even one of Wayne's best films, it is still recommended viewing.
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Hondo (Full Screen)
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