Hondo

source: Hondo

Trailer—Hondo

Hondo

More than a western, it is a beautiful film about family. And precise self definition of John Wayne. So, a classic is the easy term defining it. But its significance is more profound because you discover it keeping admirable freshness of story. So , a touching film about family, in modern perspective, yet.

John Farrow directs this western story that stars John Wayne as Hondo Lane, a dispatch rider for the cavalry who encounters a woman named Angie Lowe(played by Geraldine Page) and her son, whom he feels compelled to protect, since they are surrounded by Apache forces. Angie claims that, while her husband is away, they have a truce with the Apache chief, so don't feel threatened. Later on, Hondo is forced to kill a man in self defense who turns out to be Angie's husband! Before he can tell her, he is captured by the Apaches, but rescued by Angie, who informs the chief that Hondo is her missing husband. This of course puts Hondo in a quandary... Exciting and beautifully photographed film has a good cast and story, which is not as much of a soap opera as my summary may indicate! (Though those elements are present.)

Someone in an earlier comment said that John Wayne is, "always bad." I take great umbrage in that statement. He was always good and often marvelous and sometimes Magnificent. His Hondo is a very different character from Ethan Edwards or Thomas Dunson. Here, he is a younger Wil Anderson or a more somber Quirt Evans. I like Hondo. It's not a great film like Red River or The Searchers, but it does explore the lonely existence of a woman living in the back of beyond. It also explores the way in which a semi-tamed man becomes a father substitute and good husband, something Ethan Edwards would never become. Geraldine Page shines like a new penny in this, her first film. She won an Academy Award nomination for her role in Hondo, and she deserved it. Hondo is a man who is hardened by experience but still capable of understanding, compassion and love. He also works HARD. It's fun to see John Wayne with nails in his mouth, shoeing a horse!