Boring

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

For the first 20-30 minutes, "Hondo" seems like it just might transcend the "typical Duke western" label. Some SPOILERS AHEAD: The title character (played by Wayne) wanders out of the dusty plains and into a homestead run by Angie (Geraldine Page) and son Johnny (Lee Aaker). After helping Angie with some work, Hondo quickly discovers that her husband has deserted her. Riding back to the U.S. Calvary regiment that he sometimes scouts for, Hondo gets into a barroom fistfight with a local scoundrel...a scoundrel who turns out to be Angie's "lost" husband!At this point in the film, I thought it had real potential to be a great western tale. A lot of interesting pieces were established that could have been built upon. Unfortunately, from that point onward it becomes stock cowboys vs. Indians fare. Director John Farrow tries to weave a subplot about the white men and the Indians co-existing with each other, but everything we see/feel on screen says otherwise.At the end of the film, after a group of Cavalry men have fought off a warring band of Indians, Hondo makes the following quote: "It is the end of a way of life. A good way." This after an entire movie of killing more Indians than anyone else on screen. Now, I realize that movies (and especially westerns like this one) were made for different reasons and even different audiences than today and should be partially judged as such. However, in today's Hollywood, that type of empty moralizing is inexcusable. History, then, is not kind to a film like "Hondo".Overall, "Hondo" is a decidedly average (or maybe even a bit below) western. I give it three stars because the Duke gives a good performance and the setup did hold my interest for a time. In the wide view, though, I think the only reason this movie gets as much "press" as it does is because it became quite rare before coming out on DVD. When history has its say, it doesn't really stand out in any way.

No need to repeat the plot or echo consensus remarks. This is the film that reestablished Wayne's popularity coming off Hollywood's reverse blacklist. Wayne was one of those political righties who assisted in Hollywood's well-known purge of industry lefties. It's not generally known, but many actors who publicly denounced the lefties had their own trouble finding work afterward. Likely that's a main reason Wayne co-produced this indie film instead of waiting for a studio offer. Anyway, other informally listed righties included such notables as Ginger Rogers, Robert Taylor, and Walter Pigeon. The movie itself is generally an underrated Wayne western, perhaps because John Ford is not credited as director. After all, it's the Ford-Wayne cavalry trilogy that's treated as iconic by critics. Still, this feature blends human interest skillfully with battle scenes, including the last massed scene that's a real doozy. Page proves an excellent choice as a homesteader's abandoned wife. Her Mrs. Lowe is not only plain-faced (a real oddity for westerns), but sun- burned to boot. She's not exactly the standard feminine lead, if they could only leave off the lipstick. About Wayne's role, I have mixed feelings. His Hondo Lane is just a little too masterful and all-knowing to be believable, at least for me. The actor carries the self- assurance well, but still the constancy does get tiresome. Nonetheless, he and Page bring off their hesitant romantic scenes quite well.Perhaps the movie's most lasting feature is a refusal to dehumanize the Apaches. Instead, they're portrayed as worthy adversaries with their own customs and wisdom. This was one of the first A-westerns to break with the Hollywood tradition of treating Indians as little else than target practice savages. All in all, the movie's a first-rate oater, managing to combine poignant moments, personal honor, and grand-scale action into a highly entertaining package.

One of the final 3D films of the "golden era" of cinematic 3D, "Hondo" is a Western starring John Wayne in the title role. Hondo is an Army dispatch in the Southwest who comes upon a woman and her boy living on a neglected ranch in the wilderness amidst warring Chiricahua Apaches, led by Chief Vittorio (Michael Pate). Why did the woman's husband leave them? Will he ever come back? Why don't the Apaches massacre the mother & son like they do scores of other white settlers? Will she and Hondo fall in love? Wayne was 45 when the film was shot and was still lean and mean. Geraldine Page is effective as the woman because she lacked typical Hollywood starlet looks and has a sweet feminine spirit. Their relationship arc is well done. Leo Gordon appears as her delinquent husband. Gordon co-starred in "Gun fury" with Rock Hudson, which was released the same year and is arguably the better film.What's most interesting about "Hondo" is the significant role the Apaches play in the story and the amount of screen time Vittorio and his subordinate have. With old Westerns like this, this can be either good or bad depending on how authentic the Natives are depicted, but I was somewhat impressed with their portrayal here, especially for a Western from the early 50s. They appear as wild and potentially dangerous, but to some degree noble. I say "some degree" because the story reveals that they've massacred hundreds of white settlers, which – no matter how you slice it – definitely ISN'T noble. Nevertheless, the movie refuses to paint the Indians as all bad. In fact, Hondo has Native blood running through his veins and laments the passing of free-roaming Indians at the end (if they were able to learn to live-and-let-live with the settlers they would've never been put on reservations).On the downside, certain aspects of the storytelling don't flow well and strike me as boring, which is the case with a lot of old Westerns. On top of this, what happens to Hondo's faithful (but kinda mean) dog is unforgivable. But the two leads, the prominent role of the Apaches, their wild depiction and the magnificent Southwest locations (shot in Chihuahua, Mexico, and Utah) make "Hondo" rewarding.The film is short and sweet at only 83 minutes.GRADE: B-

John Farrow directs this western story that stars John Wayne as Hondo Lane, a dispatch rider for the cavalry who encounters a woman named Angie Lowe(played by Geraldine Page) and her son, whom he feels compelled to protect, since they are surrounded by Apache forces. Angie claims that, while her husband is away, they have a truce with the Apache chief, so don't feel threatened. Later on, Hondo is forced to kill a man in self defense who turns out to be Angie's husband! Before he can tell her, he is captured by the Apaches, but rescued by Angie, who informs the chief that Hondo is her missing husband. This of course puts Hondo in a quandary...Exciting and beautifully photographed film has a good cast and story, which is not as much of a soap opera as my summary may indicate! (Though those elements are present.)