It's 1886 in New Mexico Territory. The Long Knives have captured Geronimo and the rest of the Apaches and herded them onto the reservation. They ship the warriors, including blue-eyed Burt Lancaster as Massai, to Florida to get rid of the trouble makers, but Burt escapes from the train. He manages to walk and steal rides from St. Louis back to New Mexico, encountering many strange people and customs, mostly played for laughs. From a Cherokee in Oklahoma, he picks up some seed corn, although he has no use for it because, after all, the Apache are hunters and gatherers, not farmers.
I don't want to get into too many plot details but some important points are made. One is that the soldiers who guard the train to Florida include what were called Colored Troops at the time. They're happy in their work. But once back on the reservation, Burt sees that the men are working in the fields exactly as we've seen slaves in other movies, swinging picks and plowing fields, and all under a white overseer. The White Eyes refer to the Indian men as "Bucks," in case we missed the analogy. They don't look like happy campers.
Betrayed by the Apache chief, Burt kidnaps the chief's daughter and takes her into the wilderness after a brief but destructive rampage. The daughter is blue-eyed Jean Peters, not bad looking, but Burt treats her the way the white overseer and chief bad guy -- John Dehner -- treats the Apache, like a slave. As they trek across mountains and valleys, Burt very sensibly rides the horse and makes her walk behind carrying the bed rolls. Not a peep out of her. She loves Burt and besides, she's an Apache.
At the end, Burt has learned to treat Peters as a human being instead of a pack animal. Surrounded by a horde of Long Knives, led this time by a good guy, John McIntire, he throws away his weapons and goes into his little hut to comfort his now-pregnant wife.
Burt has decided to abandon the role of warrior, grow the Cherokee corn and become an independent farmer, an equal to the whites. Better to adapt, like the Cherokee, than to die according to outmoded concepts.
Well, after all, the slaves themselves adapted, didn't they? Look how cheerfully they carry out their duties as members of the US Colored Troops. Why, it's a lesson for all of us. It's even a moral lesson about women's lib. Burt goes from knocking her about with a stick to cuddling her like the Dad in a 1950s television family series.
It's mostly a myth, of course. Traditions, even dangerous ones based on myth, don't die so readily. At the time of this movie's release, you could depend on being refused service in some Southern restaurants if you wore a beard, as I know. And in the Middle East, some Shiite and Sunni have been going at each other for more than a millennium. It's been a shorter time than that in Northern Ireland because the West is so terribly civilized.
As "The End" appears on the screen, and director Aldrich gives us a helicopter shot of Burt throwing away his rifle, we all get a warm glow. How nice that he's given up his warrior ways and decided to become a farmer, and how nice that he finally treats his wife like an equal. Geronimo himself wound up in a Wild West show. We're permitted to wonder what happened to Massai, the warrior turned worrier.
I don't want to get into too many plot details but some important points are made. One is that the soldiers who guard the train to Florida include what were called Colored Troops at the time. They're happy in their work. But once back on the reservation, Burt sees that the men are working in the fields exactly as we've seen slaves in other movies, swinging picks and plowing fields, and all under a white overseer. The White Eyes refer to the Indian men as "Bucks," in case we missed the analogy. They don't look like happy campers.
Betrayed by the Apache chief, Burt kidnaps the chief's daughter and takes her into the wilderness after a brief but destructive rampage. The daughter is blue-eyed Jean Peters, not bad looking, but Burt treats her the way the white overseer and chief bad guy -- John Dehner -- treats the Apache, like a slave. As they trek across mountains and valleys, Burt very sensibly rides the horse and makes her walk behind carrying the bed rolls. Not a peep out of her. She loves Burt and besides, she's an Apache.
At the end, Burt has learned to treat Peters as a human being instead of a pack animal. Surrounded by a horde of Long Knives, led this time by a good guy, John McIntire, he throws away his weapons and goes into his little hut to comfort his now-pregnant wife.
Burt has decided to abandon the role of warrior, grow the Cherokee corn and become an independent farmer, an equal to the whites. Better to adapt, like the Cherokee, than to die according to outmoded concepts.
Well, after all, the slaves themselves adapted, didn't they? Look how cheerfully they carry out their duties as members of the US Colored Troops. Why, it's a lesson for all of us. It's even a moral lesson about women's lib. Burt goes from knocking her about with a stick to cuddling her like the Dad in a 1950s television family series.
It's mostly a myth, of course. Traditions, even dangerous ones based on myth, don't die so readily. At the time of this movie's release, you could depend on being refused service in some Southern restaurants if you wore a beard, as I know. And in the Middle East, some Shiite and Sunni have been going at each other for more than a millennium. It's been a shorter time than that in Northern Ireland because the West is so terribly civilized.
As "The End" appears on the screen, and director Aldrich gives us a helicopter shot of Burt throwing away his rifle, we all get a warm glow. How nice that he's given up his warrior ways and decided to become a farmer, and how nice that he finally treats his wife like an equal. Geronimo himself wound up in a Wild West show. We're permitted to wonder what happened to Massai, the warrior turned worrier.