John Ford dealt with one of the long-lasting Indian tragedies in his "Cheyenne Autumn," the wasting away of a tribe in an uncongenial pen called a reservation and its efforts to take matters into its own hands…

Indians, to use a modern term, had become redundant; that was their true tragedy… They were unwanted in what the whites wanted to make of the West and so they were 'placed' and disposed of, thereby suffering the usual 'superfluous' maladies of physical and moral debilitation… Here they are portrayed as the victims of insensitive herding…

The Cheyennes—1,500 miles away in Oklahoma from their Yellowstone home—had seen their numbers depleted from one thousand to less than three hundred in the course of a disease-ridden year… With these sorts of statistics it was as much a matter of simple logic as an act of desperation when they upped and left one night, bound on foot for their old hunting grounds, probably knowing full well that the cavalry would make them hurry, as they did, all the way… An epic in real life. Would the master epic-maker match it? In purely visual terms the answer was 'yes'. Ford vivid1y depicted the starvation and disease plaguing the Cheyenne trek… But somehow Ford never wholly got to the heart of the matter although the intent was there and at times this is a most impressive and moving film…

Carroll Baker appears as a Quaker teacher who tries in vain to he1p the unfortunate migrants… Richard Widmark is the army captain who is as sympathetic as uniform allows, and Arthur Kennedy is razor-sharp in his impersonation of Doc Holliday, who, with Stewart's Earp, is drafted into leading a posse against the Indians… Stewart deliberately re-routes them and the Indians get away… Edward G. Robinson plays a humane and kindly Secretary of the Interior who helps bail out the unlucky Cheyenne.

This movie is odd in that it truly looks like two completely different movies fused, not so seamlessly, together. The first 1/2 of the film is concerned with the plight of the Cheyenne people and their running from their horrible reservation land--starring Richard Widmark, Ricardo Montalban and Gilbert Roland. The acting, direction and writing for this was superb. Then, there is a completely stupid and meaningless segment with a completely different cast. It fortunately only lasts about 20 minutes (that's short considering the overall length of the film). Jimmy Stewart is Wyatt Earp and Arthur Kennedy is Doc Holladay. Neither plays their role very convincingly and little energy goes into their performances. The segment, believe it or not, is played comically and is neither interesting nor funny--and it completely disrupts the somber tone of the film. Then, abruptly, the film returns to the Richard Widmark portion for the remainder of the film. Without this horrible "guest shot" within the movie with Stewart and Kennedy, the film would probably merit a score of 9, as it really was a unique look at how some Indian tribes were forced into conflict by the reservation system. But, with it, the overall message is somewhat muddled and the movie just went on too long. It's sad, though, because the meaningless 15% of the film could easily be edited out to make a far more effective picture.

Contrary to some belief, Cheyenne Autumn is not the film vehicle John Ford used to make it up to the American Indian. Fort Apache was a film in which Ford showed the Indian as the wronged party. But Cheyenne Autumn is the one where the Indians are given equal time with the white soldiers. The action of the film is about 45% with the soldiers, 45% with the Cheyenne, and that 10% being that famous comic interlude in Dodge City.

In 1878 a band of Cheyenne, tired of the conditions on the reservation in Indian territory that they were enduring, broke the reservation and started north to their native homelands in what would be Wyoming. They were led by their three chiefs played by Victor Jory, Ricardo Montalban, and Gilbert Roland. Jory dies along the way.

The army goes after them and Captain Richard Widmark takes command after Major George O'Brien is killed. Widmark has another reason for pursuit. It seems as though Quaker school teacher Carroll Baker is with the fleeing Cheyenne.

Baker's not there because of being forced. She elects to go, considers it her Christian duty to be with them. She was a school teacher on the reservation and the kids need some looking after. She's a great Christian lady who obeys her conscience and walks the walk in her religious beliefs.

Widmark too is a man of conscience and in the course of the film makes a potentially career ending decision in dealing with the Cheyenne. Of course his association with Baker helps him see the light. There are other people of conscience here in this film, Sergeant Mike Mazurki, Army Doctor Sean McClory and real life Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz played by Edward G. Robinson.

Robinson came into Cheyenne Autumn after Spencer Tracy bowed out due to ill health. Fortunate I think because Robinson captures the real Carl Schurz who was something of a crusader in his day. He was a German immigrant from a liberal tradition who fled Europe after the 1848 revolutions.

It's a stunning film, but so tragic in its story that John Ford realized that their had to be some kind of comic relief so the sequence where the fleeing Cheyenne set off a panic in Wyatt Earp's Dodge City. James Stewart got on the list of a whole group of distinguished players who've been Wyatt Earp on the big screen. In playing Earp, Stewart dusts off the character of Guthrie McCabe, the mercenary marshal he played for Ford in Two Rode Together. Arthur Kennedy plays Doc Holliday here and Judson Pratt is Dodge City's famous frontier mayor Dog Kelly. Harry Carey, Jr. in his book Company of Heroes said that Ford had the scene because he just wanted to work with these actors again. In Kennedy's case it was a first and only time in a Ford film. I think the idea was to give the audience a break from the tragic plot line of the main story. The Dodge City interlude could be released as a short comedy film on its own.

Another view of Cheyenne Autumn comes from a recent biography of Sal Mineo who played Gilbert Roland's son. Ford could be a sadistic bully on the set and apparently chose Mineo as his target here. He constantly belittled him and continually called him 'Sol." Mineo himself was going through some angst about some bad career choices and his own sexual orientation.

Cheyenne Autumn is beautifully photographed in Ford's last visit to Monument Valley. It didn't do well at the box office, today it is a classic. The story is probably better suited for a TV mini-series. Still it gets a great recommendation from this writer.