Gorgeous, sensitive film. Also with Warren Oates in a magnificent, touching performance and Verna Bloom from Medium Cool. Haunting Soundtrack by Bruce Langhorne. And mind-bogglingly gorgeous cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond.
I’m in agreement! It’s my mistake for picking films that contain Oscar nominated (in this case winning) performances in the initial frame. It’s Peter Weir’s last Australian co-production, The Year of Living Dangerously, before he rode the last wave and ditched the Antipodes for Harrison Ford.
(Sigourney enjoying the company of Mel, both of whom are terrific).
Another part of the Fort Apache story was Ford’s relationship with John Wayne, to whom Ford could almost be described as an abusive father. This was especially true on the set of Fort Apache, where Ford rode Wayne mercilessly about not having served in the war. It got to the point where Fonda, who was a war vet, told Ford to knock it off.