Broken Arrow (1950).

Review #1376: Broken Arrow.

Cast: 
James Stewart (Tom Jeffords), Jeff Chandler (Cochise), Debra Paget (Sonseeahray), Basil Ruysdael (Gen. Oliver Otis Howard), Will Geer (Ben Slade, Rancher), Joyce MacKenzie (Terry, Scatfly Proprietress), Arthur Hunnicutt (Milt Duffield, Mail Superintendent), and Jay Silverheels (Geronimo) Directed by Delmer Daves.

Review: 
There have been plenty of Western directors, and one who had his own place with stars was Delmer Daves. He started his film career as a prop boy on a Western with The Covered Wagon (1923), having aspired to be a lawyer in California. Despite finishing his studies, he decided to become a screenwriter for MGM in 1929. Through various studios such as MGM and Warner Bros, he wrote numerous films such as The Petrified Forest (1936) and Love Affair (1939). Although he did not receive the kind of nominations and awards like other directors of his time, he still found time to make a 22-year career worthwhile while directing numerous stars in his films, revolving from Gary Cooper to George C. Scott in his 22-year directing career, with highlights including 3:10 to Yuma (1957), The Hanging Tree (1959), and Spencer's Mountain (1963). This film was not different when it came to stars, in terms of Stewart, who started the decade with a renewed output in films that evolved his everyman persona with a bit more ruggedness (with this being the first of his Westerns for the era), while Chandler was a relative unknown with physicality and radio (and a bit of film) experience that lifted him to stardom.

The film was adapted from Elliott Arnold's novel of the same name by Albert Maltz (who used a front name due to blacklisting), which told the story of a peace agreement between Cochise and the U.S. Army that occurred for a few years, with dramatizations of historical figures such as Jeffords and Cochise, particularly with the former in terms of a romance. However, it is the attempt to show Native Americans in a balanced manner that made it stood out from the hostile manner of other Westerns in previous years. It is dignity that encompasses the film in its portrayal of attempted peace in the face of prejudice that has its own merits now as it did then, where understanding is the real key to a just land as opposed to a whirlwind of strikes and revenge. Stewart is the fiber of the film, one with growing principles towards a future besides the status quo of war. Chandler (who would play the role again alongside Silverheels in The Battle at Apache Pass two years later) proves to be just as interesting with fiber, giving credence to a fairly balanced historical role with a sense of presence that makes him compelling to watch. Paget seems a bit too young for this particular role, since there is a considerable age difference of 25 years between her and Stewart, which ends up with a bare sense of chemistry that tangles up the climax a bit. Ruysdael and the others lend a fair hand at giving credence and differing tension to a film that yearns to tell a story beyond just fighting for a Western - which works itself out most of the time. On the whole, the film works itself for 93 minutes without too much trouble, a careful film that stands competently after eight decades with structure worth looking forward to now among the usual Westerns of its time.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.