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DVD Hondo (Special Collector's Edition) (1953)
Although scarcely seen in its original 3-D, and entirely out of sight for a decade and a half after its producer-star died, Hondo has maintained a high rep among John Wayne fans--and it wasn't even directed by Howard Hawks or John Ford. (Actually, Ford did shoot some second-unit stuff while visiting Wayne on location.) Half-breed Hondo, companioned only by an antisocial dog, tends to be more sympathetic toward the Apaches than toward the white society he occasionally scouts for. He falls into uneasy friendship with a New Mexico farmwoman (Geraldine Page) whose husband deserts her for long stretches, and whose son (Lee Aaker) is blood brother to the local Apache chieftain. A good, spare frontier tale--Louis L'Amour via James Edward (Angel and the Badman) Grant--in which danger and solace come in unexpected ways. John Farrow, who did direct, brings it in at a lean 84 minutes. Page was Oscar®-nominated for this first film role. --Richard T. Jameson
Review(s): DVD Hondo (Special Collector's Edition) (1953)
A Great Western
HONDO is less well known that it should be. It is a good western starring the leading light of the genre, John Wayne.
Wayne plays the part of Hondo Lane who is first seen carrying dispatches for the cavalry in Arizona. His horse has been shot out from under him by Apaches and he wanders into a farmstead inhabited a woman and her young son. She is justifiably worried about the strange man and tries to maintain the fiction that her husband will be back at any time. Hondo sees through this but his direct, forthright and honest character makes an impression on her. It out that her husband has been gone for quite a while and she has no idea if or when he will return.
After Wayne leaves, the woman, played by Geraldine Page, is visited by the Apache leader Victorio. He is impressed by the bravery of her young son and has no personal animosity against the woman but warns her that she cannot stay without a husband to care for her and the son. He tries to set her up with some of his warriors but she manages to resist for a little while. Still, he warns her that her husband must return soon or she will be provided with a new husband.
Wayne, in the meantime, delivers his dispatches and the news is grim. The Apache are ready to rise. He gives the warning and then has a few run-ins with Page's absentee husband. They do not get along. Eventually, it is up to Wayne to save the day for the cavalry, the homesteader, Arizona and goodness and decency. It's a bit pat but it is fun.
The Indians are treated respectfully in this western. Along with Wayne himself, they are portrayed as the only completely honest people in the film. It is fun and exciting and well done.
Loner Wayne, Great Cast, in Rewarding Western...
At first glance, John Wayne's 1953 western, "Hondo", bears a remarkable similarity to another 1953 release, George Stevens' classic, "Shane". Both films open with an iconic stranger appearing out of the wilderness, spotted first by a young, impressionable boy. Both title characters arrive at homesteads in need of an 'extra pair of hands', and form unspoken bonds with the women of the households. Both Hondo and Shane have survival skills the families desperately need, even as the families fill a void in their own lives. But while Stevens' film
moves at a slow, deliberate pace, meticulously creating a near-mythic vision, "Hondo" director John Farrow, working from a script by longtime Wayne scribe James Edward Grant (from Louis L'Amour story), cuts the exposition down to basics, giving the film a much leaner 'look', with a climax (actually directed by John Ford, as Farrow had scheduling problems with another film) that is so fast-paced that it can leave a viewer in 'midair', expecting more. As a result, "Hondo" isn't held in as high esteem as "Shane", but is certainly a rewarding, entertaining experience, with one of Wayne's best pre-"Searchers" performances, and Geraldine Page earning an Oscar nomination in her film debut.
The only discordant note on the set was stage actress Page. Wayne had hoped to get Katharine Hepburn for the role of Angie Lowe, but the liberal actress wasn't comfortable working with the politically conservative Wayne at that time (during the "Witch Hunt" for suspected Communists in the film industry), and passed on the project (as would her long-time love, Spencer Tracy, in "The High and the Mighty", Wayne's next production).
It would be 22 years before Hepburn and Wayne would finally team up together (in "Rooster Cogburn"). Geraldine Page, picked by Farrow for her fresh, 'natural' look, carried her stage training and 'attitude' into the filming, which did little to endear her to the cast, and Wayne felt little chemistry between them (although her performance would be the most honored, by the film industry).
With colorful characterizations, a chaste romance, plenty of action, and little of the obvious '3-D' gimmicks (only noticeable in the titles sequence, and two Indian fight scenes), "Hondo" was a HUGE hit when released, and has endured as one of John Wayne's most popular westerns.
Best of the Special Edition DVD 'extras' is a wonderful "Making of" documentary, with comments by Pate and the film's juvenile lead, Lee Aaker; brief bios of writer Grant, and Ward Bond; and a revealing, VERY balanced Apache overview of both the film and the REAL Chiricahua Chief Vittorio.
With nearly pristine image and sound quality, the "Special Edition" certainly lives up to expectations!
"Comin' At Ya!!!"
No wonder 3-D never took off. "Hondo" has the makings of a really great film but the makers of the film are so concerned with projectile images emanating from the screen("Watch the Duke shod a horse!" "Wonder at that Apache spear that whizzes at you!") that they compromise a great story. John Wayne though does a terrific job as Hondo Lane, the half-breed with the ambiguous past. The film suggests a dark side to Hondo's character that is not fully exploited here but in a scant few years Wayne would tackle Ethan Edwards in "The Searchers" who was a fully developed morally complex individual. Geraldine Page, deserving of her Oscar nomination for her work here, assays a non-stereotypical account of the frontier woman. The film also offers an enlightened view of the Apaches. I give this film a pass but it's a shame that it compromised story for the sake of faddish technology.
Related DVD's Hondo (Special Collector's Edition) (1953)
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