the audience applauded

That was an excellent one.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's at least one of the worst. John Ford's "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964) was supposedly based on the book of the same name; the book's excellent, but this movie's a total fail. For one, the story focuses on what is known as the Northern Cheyenne Exodus wherein Chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland) lead over three hundred starved and weary Cheyenne from their reservation in the Oklahoma territory to eastern Montana. Google it and you can see the exact trail route. What's the problem? Well, Ford shot the picture entirely in his beloved Monument Valley and surrounding areas in Arizona. Evidently Ford thought that we're all doofuses and no one would notice that the desert Southwest looks absolutely nothing like the Great Plains where the exodus actually took place. Imagine a movie taking place in the northern Appalachians, but shooting it in the swamps of Louisiana; it's the same gross contrast.I'm not suggesting, by the way, that films based on factual events always have to be shot at the actual locations, but shouldn't the locations at least remotely resemble the actual locations? For instance, although the story of "Cold Mountain" takes place in North Carolina and Virginia parts of it were shot in Romania, but it was okay because the geography and climate is the same. Or take 1953's "War Arrow," which took place in West Texas, but was shot in California; it worked out because the CA locations were an acceptable substitute for West Texas (not great, but at least acceptable).If this weren't bad enough, the story as played out in "Cheyenne Autumn" is so dreadfully dull and the acting so melodramatic that you'll be seriously tempted to tune out by the half hour mark. And then there's this utterly incongruent sequence with Jimmy Stewart as Wyatt Earp in Dodge City, Kansas (which, again, looks absolutely nothing like Monument Valley).Needless to say, this film's so godawful you have to actually see it to believe it. In fact, that would be the only reason for viewing it; that and maybe having a good laugh. It's a cinematic abomination.What's crazy is that the current IMDb rating is 6.9. Can you believe it? I can only stock this up to Ford fanatics who can't face the awful truth that this great auteur barfed out such utter trash. And to think that this -- his last film -- was supposed to be some kind of apology to Native Americans for his one-dimensional portrayal in past films. What irony.To add insult to injury the film is painfully overlong at 2.5 hours (which feels like 4 hours).GRADE: F

Cheyenne Autumn was intended as the big-budget western release of 1964, the follow-up to How the West Was Won with several of the same cast members and one of that film's directors. For a movie made in 1963, the theme is a bold one about the White man's ill-treatment of the Cheyenne (actually the North Cheyenne tribe) and their 1878 journey back north to their homeland.Unfortunately, the film is a mess and for a movie made by a top 'A' director, it is surprisingly incompetently directed. Some comments:the Dodge City sequence. I would have liked to see this expanded to a feature length film and released separately. It is very funny. However, it doesn't belong in this film. What was Ford smoking when he put this in? Karl Malden's prototype Nazi officer who has "Orders, orders zat must be OBEYED". "I HAF ORDERS". Malden seems to think he is auditioning for John Cleese's role in The Germans episode of Fawlty Towers. Couldn't someone keep him under control? And what about that huge pipe he pulls out of his coat at one point and then exits stage left after blowing out the sergeant's offered match? That made me laugh. A touch worthy of Peter Sellers. One can see the point being made but the execution is ridiculous. It was also amusing to see the German name of Edward G Robinson's character being downplayed presumably because the writers had forgotten that one of the major 'good guys' was also of German ancestry when they created the Nazi character. (interesting historical footnote - the real Carl Schurz spoke with a thick German accent whereas the real Cpt Wessels was born in New York and likely didn't - he certainly was never a Prussian officer) in the first encounter between the cavalry and the Indians, Richard Widmark is summarily court martialled and put under arrest for reasons not apparent to this viewer (was something cut out?). Later Widmark goes up to a soldier and asks where the major is only for the soldier to point to a body which is virtually lying at Widmark's feet being attended to by a physician. This is like something out of The Naked Gun. I had to rewind here to check I hadn't missed anything as it looked so stupid.the second skirmish with the Indians is appallingly choreographed and edited. After establishing that we are in some kind of shrub/semi-desert area, when Pat Wayne leads a cavalry charge, the cavalry are shown charging over some flat sandy area which is obviously a completely different location. Then, the Indians set fire to a few fake-looking shrubs and about five seconds later, the cavalry's wagons and cannon are enveloped in flames despite being at least several hundred yards away. Richard Widmark and the rest of his command appear to be doing nothing whilst this happens although Wayne's men seem to be close enough for Widmark to be shouting at them. A quick cut and Widmark is personally helping save the cannon - what has happened to the hundred odd men in his command. Why aren't they helping? Who knows.Ricardo Montalban and Gilbert Roland's mullets. Very silly and must have given the set hairdresser lots of chuckles. Didn't anyone look at any pictures of the real Dull Knife and Little Wolf? Still, at least even they don't look as ridiculous as Sal Mineo.Surely someone must have realised that it sounded stupid to constantly refer to a major character as "Spanish Woman" rather than give her a proper name? There is no excuse for this as it's not even a real historical name.What did make me laugh was that most of the time it looked as if Little Wolf and Dull Knife's orders to the tribe were having to be translated for them by the elderly unnamed Cheyenne who was standing next to them in many scenes and was a real Indian (a senior Navajo I'm guessing). Almost every time they said something in Cheyenne, this guy would then turn round and repeat it to the other Indians. This again looked ridiculous Matters being brought to what seemed a premature conclusion by Edward G Robinson standing infront of an appallingly unconvincing piece of back-projection, not even pointed in the right direction, and mouthing a few platitudes. Had the money run out at this point? (the Robinson scene is completely fictitious by the way).In short, worthy in intent but incompetent in execution and in places mind-numbingly bad for an expensive film made by a talented director.

I got this film on the recommend of several people, but approached it with the attitude that "Oh, here we go; another of those "the-white-people-suck-and-the-Indians-are-saints" films like DANCES WITH WOLVES, which is also a great film, but let's be honest, was deliberately scripted to make whites look like devils incarnate and the Indians to be a cross between Mother Theresa and Gandhi. But just a few minutes into it, I relaxed and kicked back in my recliner, and 2 and a half hours later, when it ended, was a bit disappointed that it had ended. I also found myself wondering that although the Hispanic actors did a credible job, why there weren't any actual Native American actors. A BIG reason I liked DANCES WITH WOLVES was because of the Native American roles being taken by Native Americans. If any remembers the WWII TV show COMBAT, it was great because American actors were American and spoke English; the French actors were French and spoke French, and the German actors were Germans and spoke German. This only amplifies everyone's enjoyment of any show or movie and I am glad that most studios do just that. CHEYENNE AUTUMN may be an older film, but for it's few faults, it's worth watching often, so purchase a copy: you won't be disappointed!

The way Monument Valley is presented here is symbolic of half of what is wrong with this movie: unlike "Stagecoach," "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon," or "The Searchers," the mesas and valley are not revealed to us here as anything unique. They just serve as a backdrop, like any other picture-perfect-postcard generic movie setting. Seeing the river again, for instance, as the Cheyenne cross it, is pretty strange, like seeing an old friend who doesn't recognize you any more. And in "Autumn," when the soldiers yell out orders, they prolong it until the echoes are heard from the rocks. That's what this movie is, in a sense: just an echo of earlier, stronger movies.The other half of this film's awfulness is that it just can't get a focus; it sprawls out all over the place, and this is only worsened by the Overture, Entr'acte, and Intermission breaks, in spite of which apparently Ford still wanted to put the Dodge City sequence in there as an "intermission." That said, nothing by John Ford can be totally bad, and we can find here echoes of his vision: the sound the quiet, dignified, silent Cheyenne make as they move, like dry leaves falling to the ground; the nightmarish end of Karl Malden's scene at the fort; the whole "Cossacks" scene in the tent between Mr. Sergeant Wachoski (? spelling) and Captain Archer; and that wonderful little "noble savage" scene in the New York newspaper office.Maybe, given the chaotic times (those of both the 1960s AND the 1870s), Ford couldn't have come up with anything else, but the man who did "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" could not be the same man who did justice to the story of the Northern Cheyenne exodus in the fall of 1878. Maybe he knew that, too, and wanted to do a little penance; and that is why he put in that excerpt from "Ribbon" of the stagecoach rushing in and the driver tossing off some newspapers. That's real sad.However, Ben Johnson's riding skills are given more screen time than in "Ribbon"; that's something.I do hope that some day somebody as good as Ford but without his baggage does an in-depth film about what happened in 1878. That was really something.