Btexxamar I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

grantss Army scout Hondo Lane (played by John Wayne) stumbles across an isolated homestead in the middle of Apache territory. The inhabitants - a woman and her son - believe they are safe, as there is a treaty with the Apaches. Lane knows better though, as the Army has just broken the treaty, causing the Apache to seek revenge on settlers. Despite being a scout for the US Army, Lane has sympathies for the Apaches, having been married to a native American woman and living with her people for five years. With divided loyalties he now has to tread a fine line.Based on a Louis L'Amour novel, this is one of John Wayne's lesser- known movies. It's easy to see why - is quite short and doesn't have the grandness and epicness of his classics. Plot is quite simple, almost too simple at times. Yet, for the most part, it works. Good action scenes, some profound, even emotional, moments and John Wayne even gets to be more than just an action hero at times, showing some vulnerable moments.Not brilliant - the simplicity and lack of depth in the story prevents that, as well as some scenes being fairly clumsily written. Geraldine Page, in her feature film debut, isn't entirely convincing either. Still, reasonably entertaining.

Bill Slocum A gripping action-romance, "Hondo" showcased Hollywood's newest gimmick, 3-D, but scores instead as a centerpiece for a much older cinematic device, John Wayne in a cowboy hat.Wayne is Hondo Lane, a scout and dispatch rider for the U. S. Cavalry who comes upon a woman and her son in hostile Apache territory. Hondo tells her to pack up, but she doesn't want to leave her family farm or her missing husband. Hondo protects them instead, both on his own volition as well as that of the Apache leader making war with the white man, Vittorio.Despite adhering to many of the day's cinematic conventions involving westerns, "Hondo" is a modern film. The woman, Mrs. Lowe (Geraldine Fitzgerald), is no afterthought but the center of our emotional engagement. And while hardly the first western to question the legacy of western expansion, "Hondo" presents the Apache side of the story with bracing sympathy."There's no word in the Apache language for 'lie,' and they've been lied to," Hondo tells Mrs. Lowe in explaining why the treaty she counts on to protect her and her son is no good anymore.In fact, the most honorable character in the film may be Vittorio (Michael Pate), who demonstrates great concern for both Mrs. Lowe and her son, the latter a reminder of his own sons the white man killed. He's as much her savior as Hondo is, when you look at the arc of the movie, yet Pate plays him without any of the "noble savage" ahistorical stylings common with revisionist westerns of later vintage. "Hondo" finds a way to make its points without weighing down a taut, 84- minute film.Director John Farrow deserves credit for keeping matters economical (and the 3-D tricks to a minimum), but the true force behind the scenes is screenwriter John Edward Grant, working from an early Louis L'Amour story which he augments nicely. Grant was Wayne's usual writer, and his screenplays could get awful woolly, but here he's on point and lifts the film with a kind of terse wisdom that hangs with you after the gunplay is over."Sam's independent," Hondo says, talking about his canine companion. "He don't need anybody. I want him to stay that way. It's a good way."For a lot of the movie, Mrs. Lowe seems an amiable sop for Hondo's one-liners, yet Grant keeps her in focus, and pays this off magnificently when she reveals her true feelings for her husband and for Hondo. Yes, it is a wifely ideal she holds to, but the strength of her character when revealed is too formidable for even Hondo to buy off with one of his self-reliance quips.There's a wonderful scene early on, when Mrs. Lowe talks about "destiny" guiding love. Hondo regards this with laconic if polite amusement, but the joke's on him as we discover later on.Fitzgerald got her first of eight Oscar nominations here, oddly for a supporting role when she is actually the female lead. Her performance is off-pitch in places, too stagy as some say, but when she lands a good line, she's quite effective.The supporting cast is also excellent. Ward Bond is entertaining as always, while James Arness impresses as a more dubious character with whom Hondo must tangle.The film isn't quite a classic. The handling of the final battle scene (directed by an uncredited John Ford) is exciting but perfunctory, and the resolution of the Hondo-Mrs. Lowe relationship is brushed over too lightly. I could see a longer "Hondo" being one of Wayne's classic films, but I could also see it running out of steam, which this compact production never does.As far as Wayne is concerned, this is one of his most assured performances, light in tone but with the sort of shadings he was beginning to master. You see him coming out of the screen in the opening moments of the film, making for the best 3-D effect. It stays like that for the rest of the picture, Wayne giving us a layered, tactile performance both enjoyable and deep. "Hondo" is a keeper for Wayne fans, and anyone else not scared of cowboy movies.

gavin6942 Army despatch rider Hondo Lane (John Wayne) discovers a woman (Geraldine Page) and her son (Lee Aaker) living in the midst of warring Apaches, and he becomes their protector.Some of this is your standard Western fare, with the white settlers at odds with the Apache warriors. And then you have the "half breed" Hondo, who is able to walk between both worlds with some level of success. The angle of Hondo being both a surrogate father and a murderer is a nice touch.While perhaps not his finest acting, any John Wayne fan will enjoy this film. Heck, it is not like he is really known as a great actor anyway.

AaronCapenBanner 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.)