Amazing Historical Movie
Added 6/26/2009
This movie is simply amazing. It came so quickly that I had it in less than a week. I love this movie simply because it is the most factual movie about the Apache Indian nation and their fight against the American Army.
Thank you
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Great movie, but an axe to grind against Matt Damon?
Added 6/21/2009
Matt Damon is the narrator and constant presence in this great story, based on the real-life first person account of Britton Davis. But he doesn't even rate a mention on the front of the DVD, and you have to look carefully on the back to seem him mentioned at all. To top it off, even the Amazon.com "Editorial Review" shown above gets it wrong. What gives? Not that he is necessarily the greatest presence of this exemplary ensemble; I was highly impressed with all of them, and even remarked to my wife that Jason Patric must be a fine horseman before learning that he did all the stunts himself.
The story and scenery are all first rate too. The next time you get out to Moab, Utah you can check out the spectacular locations (near or maybe in Canyonlands National Park for some of them). But the final scene is the most moving and visually impressive of any movie I have ever seen. It is worth the price of the DVD all by itself.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Geronimo Revisited
Added 5/23/2009
Of all the stories to come out of the West, none stirs the soul quite like the saga of the great Apache warrior known as Geronimo. It is a saga that has been told before, most notably in 1962's GERONIMO with (an admittedly miscast) Chuck Connors in the title role. But perhaps the best telling of the story comes through via director Walter Hill's 1993 film GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND.
In decades past, particularly if his opponent had been portrayed by someone like John Wayne, Geronimo would be seen onscreen as the villain. But real life rarely ever squared with the Duke's view of the Native American; and it is that fact that Hill and screenwriters John Milius and Larry Gross go after. Jason Patric (as Lt. Charles Gatewood) and Matt Damon (as 2nd Lt. Britton Davis) are the U.S. Cavalry men assigned to bring Geronimo in for surrender upon orders of General George Crook (Gene Hackman), and with help from an expert scout (Robert Duvall). But when the cavalry break up a medicine man ritual on the Apache reservation at Turkey Creek, Geronimo (superbly played by Wes Studi) goes on the warpath. The film concerns itself with the dichotomy that the U.S. Army faced when dealing with the Apache in Arizona during the 1880s. On the one hand, they were the only true protection the Apache had against incoming white settlers who wanted to remove all traces of Native American life from the West; on the other hand, the Army was also being used as a tool by those same settlers.
Though nowhere near as bloody or violent as it could have been, given the reputations of Hill and Milius, GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND doesn't shirk away from the hostilities committed by both the Army and the Apache against the other. And whereas John Wayne's films upheld American Manifest Destiny over all else, especially the Indian, this film questions it in a low-key way through Patric's and Damon's dealings with their superiors, and in particular with Duvall, who questions Patric's admiration for Geronimo and loyalty to the Union: "You don't love who you're fightin' for...and you don't hate who you're fighting against." Even Duvall's scout, however, comes to see that the U.S. Army's battle against Geronimo and his people isn't so black-and-white.
Hackman and Duvall, of course, are at their usual best in their respective roles, as are Patric and Damon in theirs. But the true stand-out role belongs to Studi, whose portrayal of the great Apache warrior is one of courage, strength, and well-earned sympathy. Featuring superb cinematography by Lloyd Ahern, mainly on Utah and Arizona locations, and a fine period score from roots-rock musician Ry Cooder (who also did the score for Hill's Peckinpah-influenced 1980 epic THE LONG RIDERS), GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND showed that the stories about the West, and about how we dealt with the Indian (rather poorly and unsympathetically, as history has shown us), still had a lot to tell us about our past and what might be for our future. Great filmmaking tends to do that, and GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND is a superb example of that in our time.
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"No guns, No bullets could ever kill me. That was my power... Now my time is over."
Added 5/7/2009
There's a lot wrong with Walter Hill's Geronimo: An American Legend. For a start, there's far too little of the magnificent Wes Studi and far too much of the unconvincingly one-note (and an off-key note at that) Jason Patric and a milquetoast Matt Damon when we want to spend more time with Geronimo. As John Milius said, "I wrote a script about a mighty warrior chief. They made a film about a ***king white male model." Not to mention film critic Larry Gross' rewrite is overly partial to other movies, particularly The Magnificent Seven and Alan Sharp's script for Ulzana's Raid. And, like all historical manhunt movies, it winds down as attrition wins over courage. Yet despite its flaws it's still one of the most impressive American Westerns of the past few decades.
Geronimo may be sidelined for much of the picture, but when Wes Studi is allowed centerstage, he burns with the intensity of a supernova in a performance at once ferocious yet controlled, giving a sense not just of the rage and calculated violence but of the sadness that drives it. He's a proud man, but also a constantly disappointed one. When he's on screen, everyone else might as well not be there. When he isn't, Gene Hackman's General Crook and Robert Duvall's tracker Al Sieber provide enough believable old-school professionalism to compensate for Patric and Damon.
Then there's the film's extraordinary visual sense. Unlike most modern films (including Hill's own subsequent Western, Wild Bill) it really embraces the landscape and isn't afraid of strikingly composed extreme long shots to give a real sense of scale to the picture. Ry Cooder's score, a mixture of sparse and plaintiff Native American airs and lightly ragged American hymnals, is another major feather in its cap: on paper it sounds like cliché, but put to picture it's absolutely right.
It's perhaps easy to see why it flopped: it's a tragic story without any winners, only losers and the action scenes are often more brutal lightening strikes than enjoyable action setpieces. But it's certainly a film well worth rediscovering even if it's better seen on the big screen than the small one - though if you do see it on DVD, make sure you get the widescreen release rather than the fullframe version.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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great movie. i could watch this a million times and not be sick of it.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Amazing Historical Movie
Added 6/26/2009
This movie is simply amazing. It came so quickly that I had it in less than a week. I love this movie simply because it is the most factual movie about the Apache Indian nation and their fight against the American Army.
Thank you
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Great movie, but an axe to grind against Matt Damon?
Added 6/21/2009
Matt Damon is the narrator and constant presence in this great story, based on the real-life first person account of Britton Davis. But he doesn't even rate a mention on the front of the DVD, and you have to look carefully on the back to seem him mentioned at all. To top it off, even the Amazon.com "Editorial Review" shown above gets it wrong. What gives? Not that he is necessarily the greatest presence of this exemplary ensemble; I was highly impressed with all of them, and even remarked to my wife that Jason Patric must be a fine horseman before learning that he did all the stunts himself.
The story and scenery are all first rate too. The next time you get out to Moab, Utah you can check out the spectacular locations (near or maybe in Canyonlands National Park for some of them). But the final scene is the most moving and visually impressive of any movie I have ever seen. It is worth the price of the DVD all by itself.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Geronimo Revisited
Added 5/23/2009
Of all the stories to come out of the West, none stirs the soul quite like the saga of the great Apache warrior known as Geronimo. It is a saga that has been told before, most notably in 1962's GERONIMO with (an admittedly miscast) Chuck Connors in the title role. But perhaps the best telling of the story comes through via director Walter Hill's 1993 film GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND.
In decades past, particularly if his opponent had been portrayed by someone like John Wayne, Geronimo would be seen onscreen as the villain. But real life rarely ever squared with the Duke's view of the Native American; and it is that fact that Hill and screenwriters John Milius and Larry Gross go after. Jason Patric (as Lt. Charles Gatewood) and Matt Damon (as 2nd Lt. Britton Davis) are the U.S. Cavalry men assigned to bring Geronimo in for surrender upon orders of General George Crook (Gene Hackman), and with help from an expert scout (Robert Duvall). But when the cavalry break up a medicine man ritual on the Apache reservation at Turkey Creek, Geronimo (superbly played by Wes Studi) goes on the warpath. The film concerns itself with the dichotomy that the U.S. Army faced when dealing with the Apache in Arizona during the 1880s. On the one hand, they were the only true protection the Apache had against incoming white settlers who wanted to remove all traces of Native American life from the West; on the other hand, the Army was also being used as a tool by those same settlers.
Though nowhere near as bloody or violent as it could have been, given the reputations of Hill and Milius, GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND doesn't shirk away from the hostilities committed by both the Army and the Apache against the other. And whereas John Wayne's films upheld American Manifest Destiny over all else, especially the Indian, this film questions it in a low-key way through Patric's and Damon's dealings with their superiors, and in particular with Duvall, who questions Patric's admiration for Geronimo and loyalty to the Union: "You don't love who you're fightin' for...and you don't hate who you're fighting against." Even Duvall's scout, however, comes to see that the U.S. Army's battle against Geronimo and his people isn't so black-and-white.
Hackman and Duvall, of course, are at their usual best in their respective roles, as are Patric and Damon in theirs. But the true stand-out role belongs to Studi, whose portrayal of the great Apache warrior is one of courage, strength, and well-earned sympathy. Featuring superb cinematography by Lloyd Ahern, mainly on Utah and Arizona locations, and a fine period score from roots-rock musician Ry Cooder (who also did the score for Hill's Peckinpah-influenced 1980 epic THE LONG RIDERS), GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND showed that the stories about the West, and about how we dealt with the Indian (rather poorly and unsympathetically, as history has shown us), still had a lot to tell us about our past and what might be for our future. Great filmmaking tends to do that, and GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND is a superb example of that in our time.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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