Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
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70% of critics liked it
(10 reviews) -
54% of users liked it
(585 ratings)
John Ford's last western film, Cheyenne Autumn was allegedly produced to compensate for the hundreds of Native Americans who had bitten the dust in Ford's earlier films (that was the director's story, anyway). Set in 1887, the film recounts the defiant migration of 300 Cheyennes from… More John Ford's last western film, Cheyenne Autumn was allegedly produced to compensate for the hundreds of Native Americans who had bitten the dust in Ford's earlier films (that was the director's story, anyway). Set in 1887, the film recounts the defiant migration of 300 Cheyennes from their reservation in Oklahoma territory to their original home in Wyoming. They have done this at the behest of chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland), peaceful souls who have been driven to desperate measures because the US government has ignored their pleas for food and shelter. Since the Cheyennes' trek is in defiance of their treaty, Captain Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark), who agrees with the Indians in principle, reluctantly leads his troops in pursuit of the tribe. While there was never any intention to shed blood, the white press finds it politically expedient to distort the Cheyennes' action into a declaration of war. Thanks to the cruelties of such chauvinistic whites as Captain Oscar Wessels (Karl Malden), the Cheyennes are forced to defend themselves--and whenever Indians take arms against whites in the 1880s, it's usually misrepresented as a massacre. Only the intervention of US secretary of the interior Carl Schurz (Edward G. Robinson) prevents the hostilities from erupting into wholesale bloodshed. Based on a novel by Mari Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn is a cinematic elegy--not only for the beleaguered Cheyennes, but for John Ford's fifty years in pictures. It is weakest when arbitrarily throwing in a wearisome romance between Richard Widmark and pacifistic schoolmarm Carroll Baker, who out of sympathy for the Indians has joined them in their 1500-mile westward journey. When the Warner Bros. people decided that the film ran too long, they chopped out the wholly unnecessary but very funny episode involving a poker-obsessed Wyatt Earp (James Stewart). Contrary to popular belief, this episode was included in the earliest non-roadshow prints of Cheyenne Autumn; the scene was excised only when the film went into its second and third runs in 1966 (it has since been restored). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- John Ford
- Written By
- Mari Sandoz, James R. Webb
- Genres
- Western, Classics
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Oct 3, 1964 Wide
- Studio
- Warner Home Video
Critic Reviews
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Richard Brody, New Yorker
A sort of frontier Exodus that's filmed with a majestic passion for the wild lands and for its indigenous dwellers.
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Variety Staff, Variety
Somewhere in the telling, the original premise of the Mari Sandoz novel is lost sight of in a wholesale insertion of extraneous incidents which bear little or no relation to the subject.
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Geoff Andrew, Time Out
Over-long, often clichéd and uneven (there are comic interludes complete with cameo performances), but still imbued with moments of true poetry, thanks largely to William Clothier's magnificent Panavision landscapes.
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Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Cheyenne Autumn is a strong film, grandly directed and expertly played by a large cast.
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Aside from all this nonsense, it never loses its John Ford touch.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Richard Widmark
as Capt. Thomas Archer
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Carroll Baker
as Deborah Wright
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James Stewart
as Wyatt Earp
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Edward G. Robinson
as Carl Schurz
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Karl Malden
as Capt. Oscar Wessels
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Sal Mineo
as Red Shirt
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Dolores Del Rio
as Spanish Woman
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Ricardo Montalban
as Little Wolf
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Gilbert Roland
as Dull Knife
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Arthur Kennedy
as Doc Holliday
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Patrick Wayne
as Second Lieutenant Scott
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Elizabeth Allen (I)
as Guinevere Plantagenet
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John Carradine
as Maj. Jeff Blair
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Victor Jory
as Tall Tree
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Mike Mazurki
as 1st Sgt. Stanislaus Wichowsky
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George O'Brien
as Maj. Braden
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Sean McClory
as Dr. O'Carberry
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Judson Pratt
as Mayor Dog Kelly
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Carmen D'Antonio
as Pawnee woman
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Ken Curtis
as Joe
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Elena Altieri
as Duchess De Castro
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Walter S. Baldwin
as Jeremy Wright
- Danny Borzage
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Willis B. Bouchey
as Colonel
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Lee Bradley
as Cheyenne
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Paul Campbell (IV)
as Felipe
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Harry Carey Jr.
as Trooper Smith
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Nada Fiorelli
as Isabelle
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Shug Fisher
as Skinny
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James Flavin
as Sergeant of the Guard
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Sam Harris
as Townsman
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Chuck Hayward
as Trooper
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William Henry
as Infantry Captain
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George Higgins
as Martinez
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Nancy Hsueh
as Little Bird
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Ben Johnson
as Trooper Plumtree
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Duncan Lamont
as The Viceroy
- Ted Mapes
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Philo McCullough
as Man
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Denver Pyle
as Sen. Henry
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John Qualen
as Svenson
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Walter Reed
as Lt. Peterson
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Riccardo Rioli
as Ramon
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Chuck Roberson
as Platoon sergeant
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Bing Russell
as Telegrapher
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Charles Seel
as Newspaper Publisher
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Odoardo Spadaro
as Don Antonio
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Ralph Truman
as Duke De Castro
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Carleton Young
as Aide to Carl Schurz
- Jeannie Epper
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Anna Magnani
as Camilla
- David Humphreys Miller
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Donna Hall
as Entertainer
- James O'Hara
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John R. McKee
as Trooper
