Searching for an apology (Cheyenne Autumn (DVD))

Member Name: moronboy

Product:	Cheyenne Autumn (DVD)
Date:	23/07/00 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Classy looking

Disadvantages: Thin and unconvincing

Largely unsatisfactory, this John Ford Western shows the old ways faltering. While previous films could explore a certain level of racism in the gung-ho characterisation of the Duke (Jean-Luc Godard claimed to have wept in the last five minutes of 'The Searchers', when John Wayne's Ethan Edwards abandons his pathogical hatred of the Indians), this more open apology to marginalised Indians in a depiction of the poor treatment of the Cheyenne indians doesn't really work.

Both this, and Ford's film about blacks in the west, Sergeant Rutledge, are beautifully shot and well-acted, but they're fundamentally white films, pleading for minorities because times have changed and they know they ought to, rather than because suddenly Ford had converted to civil rights.

Summary: