FORT APACHE | johnfordfilmcenter

Fort Apache (1948)

BACKGROUND

In 1935 Ford first pitched a treatment entitled The Glory Hunters to Zanuck who rejected the project. It took 12 more years and a world war before the project was finally produced, without Zanuck, as Fort Apache. Zanuck was officially reprimanded by congress which questioned his unique brand of glory hunting a safe distance from the actual shooting yet near enough to the front to help him feel like a real veteran. Ford, who was briefly assigned to work with Zanuck in Africa was deeply embarrassed by his association with the famous producer who seemed to view the war as a kind of personal carnival ride. After the congressional investigation Zanuck promptly resigned his commission.

In addition to critiquing men like MacArthur, Patton and Zanuck who viewed war as a source of pleasure, prestige and adventure, Fort Apache is also a thinly disguised depiction of Custer's last stand. Unlike the hero worship of Custer found in Raul Walsh’s 1941 They Died With Their Boots On starring suspected Nazi sympathizer Eroll Flynn, Ford finds only tragedy in glory hunting commanders who lead men to their deaths out of pure vanity and personal ambition. Fort Apache also has the distinction of being the only film that contains both of Ford's primary leading men, Henry Fonda and John Wayne. The film marks the pivotal moment when Ford shifted his preference from the former to the latter, a passing of the torch that plays out in their character’s tense onscreen rivalry.