Cheyenne Autumn (1964)

★ 6.7 2h 37m IMDb

Western

A reluctant cavalry Captain must track a defiant tribe of migrating Cheyenne.

Where to Watch

Not available for streaming right now

Rent / Buy

Rent

Not available for rent

Buy

Not available to buy

Cast

Richard Widmark as Capt. Thomas Archer Died 2008 · Sunrise Township, Minnesota, USA Richard Widmark (December 26, 1914 – March 24, 2008) was an American actor of films, stage, radio and television. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his...

Carroll Baker as Deborah Wright Age 94 · Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is a former American actress who has enjoyed popularity as both a serious dramatic actress and, particularly in the 1960s, as a movie sex symbol. After studying unde...

Karl Malden as Capt. Wessels Died 2009 · Chicago, Illinois, USA Karl Malden (born Mladen George Sekulovich; Serbian Cyrillic: Младен Секуловић; March 22, 1912 – July 1, 2009) was an Serbian-American actor. He was primarily a character actor who for more than 60 ye...

Sal Mineo as Red Shirt Died 1976 · The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA Salvatore Mineo Jr. (January 10, 1939 – February 12, 1976) was an American actor, singer, and director. He is best known for his role as John "Plato" Crawford in the drama film Rebel Without a Cause (...

Dolores del Río as Spanish woman Died 1983 · Durango, Mexico Dolores del Río (3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983) was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Later in life, she became an im...

Ricardo Montalban as Little Wolf Died 2009 · Mexico City, Mexico Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino (November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican-American actor. He had a career spanning seven decades (motion pictures from 1943 to 2006) across radio, t...

Director John Ford

Cast Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Sal Mineo, Dolores del Río, Ricardo Montalban, Gilbert Roland, Arthur Kennedy, James Stewart, Edward G. Robinson

John Chard 6/10 Apr 26, 2014

A Cheyenne is a soldier from the first slap on his bottom.

Cheyenne Autumn is directed by John Ford and is a "Hollywood" telling of the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1877/9, where the Northern Cheyenne, fed up with lack of food and poor facilities, tried to return to their one time home in the North after having been located in the Southern Reservation by the United States Army. It stars Richard Widmark, Caroll Baker, Dolores del Rio, Karl Malden, Gilbert Roland, Ricardo Montalban, Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart and Arthur Kennedy. Music is scored by Alex North and cinematography by William H. Clothier. It is photographed in Super Panavision 70, in various Utah locations, predominantly Monument Valley.

Does it ever matter who fired the first shot?

John "Pappy" Ford's penultimate film, and his last Western, is epic in scope and production and seen as an honest attempt to redress the balance for years of misrepresentation of Native Americans in Hollywood, though not necessarily his own since he, I believe, isn't on record as saying that to be the case? Thematically it's important and doesn't back off from being sympathetic to the Cheyenne's plight, we root for them and rightly so. Yet it always feels like a film shot through the vision of a white man's eyes, you find yourself wanting more from the Cheyenne perspective, for them to dominate the narrative. It would have been nice to know some of the big players involved in the heroic and tragic trek back to Wyoming. It's also annoying that Ford or the studio chose to interrupt the flow of the story with the pointless light relief section at Dodge City. Which comes across as just an excuse for James Stewart and Arthur Kennedy to play Wyatt Earp & Doc Holliday respectively. And sadly, they are not very successful in doing so either.

As has been noted by many critics over the years, the film ultimately rounds out as an honourable misfire from the great John Ford. The cast, away from the loud and brash Dodge City collective, are mostly fine. Widmark proves to be a watchable axis as the reluctant Captain tasked with returning the Cheyenne to the barren reservation. Baker does a nice line in sexy Quaker, Robinson adds a touch of class late in the day, while Montalban & Roland are excellent as Cheyenne chiefs Little Wolf & Dull Knife respectively. But all pale in the shadow of Clothier's magnificent photography, stunning vistas that dominate the screen, the colours so rich and splendid, Monument Valley an iconic character of nature observing the Cheyenne desperately trying to get back to home comforts.

It's unmistakably a John Ford picture, with some inspired filming techniques, but the heart of the story is lost due to a too long run time, a daft mid point sequence and much extraneous nonsense. 6/10