Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Wuchak 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

williwaw John Ford who was Irish to the core was also the greatest director of American Western movies.Warner Bros gave John Ford a big budget and released this film in the Roadshow format such were the promises and expectations for this film.Ford collected part of the John Ford stock company such as James Steart and Patrick Wayne ( son of John Wayne) along with beautiful Dolores Del Rio, and rugged Richard Widmark in a rousing western. Carroll Baker an excellent actress is the female star. As with all John Ford western's the cinematography is brilliant and kudos to John Ford and William Clothier for the sweeping shots of the West.This is an exciting film beautifully filmed by a man called The Rembrandt of the Western

wes-connors In the 1870s American West, the Cheyenne Indians of Wyoming are sent to an Oklahoma reservation. When the lands proves barren, and most of the tribe dies, the 286 remaining Cheyenne leave for their once happy hunting grounds. Calvary Captain Richard Widmark (as Thomas Archer) leads a regime sent to stop the Cheyenne. Accompanying the tribe is tightly-outfitted Quaker schoolteacher Carroll Baker (as Deborah Wright), who also happens to be Mr. Widmark's love interest. Naturally, Widmark wants to avoid casualties, but hot-blooded Sal Mineo (as Red Shirt) isn't going quietly...This was John Ford's last western, and his penultimate film. Reported to be in declining health, Mr. Ford's directorial skills are, happily, still sufficiently in evidence. Widmark (in a role that sounds like it was written for John Wayne) and a few of the cast do well. And, the cinematography, by William Clothier, was understandably nominated for an "Academy Award". BUT, "Cheyenne Autumn" moves at a laborious pace, and is ultimately done in by a bizarre interlude involving Jimmy Stewart (as Wyatt Earp) with Arthur Kennedy (as Doc Holliday); the film needed something, but this wasn't it.***** Cheyenne Autumn (10/3/64) John Ford ~ Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, James Stewart, Sal Mineo

dglink Unfortunately, given the subject matter and the director, "Cheyenne Autumn" fails to achieve the greatness of its aspirations. Injustice to Native Americans has along tragic history, and the topic deserved a soaring film that brought those crimes to a broad audience. After years of depicting Native Americans as the villains, John Ford was certainly the right director to cast a sympathetic eye on their plight, and the film has many grand sequences that are reminiscent of Ford's finest westerns. The brilliant camera work of William Clothier captures the majesty of Monument Valley and often bathes the mountains and characters in the warm glow of sunsets.For some reason, Ford felt that Latino actors were appropriate for the roles of Native Americans, and Ricardo Montalban, Gilbert Roland, and Dolores del Rio do achieve a measure of dignity as members of the long-suffering Cheyenne tribe. While Carroll Baker tries hard as a Quaker woman who accompanies the Cheyenne on an arduous trek back to their homeland, her bleached blonde hair, immaculate make-up, and voice undercut her efforts. The work of composer, Alex North, also sounds out of place. Best known for his scores for "Spartacus" and "Cleopatra," North's music here evokes Roman legions rather than the U.S. cavalry.However, the biggest flaw in the film is a misconceived episode in the middle that features James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, and John Carradine. As Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, Stewart and Kennedy perform a comedy routine that jars with the solemnity of the previous scenes. Indeed, the entire Dodge City sequence is a western comedy, and viewers would be justified in thinking that some film reels were mislabeled and an entire sequence from another film had been inserted accidentally. Whatever dignity and concern was established in the film's first hour are destroyed when the action moves from the Cheyenne to Earp and Dodge City."Cheyenne Autumn" was likely conceived as a follow-up to the successful "How the West Was Won." John Ford was one of the directors of that Cinerama film; Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, James Stewart, and Richard Widmark are featured in both films; and the ads for the two westerns are strikingly similar. Widmark anchors "Cheyenne Autumn" and provides a narration much as Spencer Tracey did for "How the West Was Won." However, the earlier movie was a rousing adventure with a great score and an uplifting theme of westward expansion. Despite an overture and intermission, "Cheyenne Autumn" is a small, sober tale of racial injustice that has been stretched out and embellished with a jarring music score and a schizophrenic mix of comedy and tragedy that lays waste to some fine epic moments.