Rating: 
Summary: Geronimo
Review: This is the second Walter Hill movie I've seen recently, and I believe I'm getting the hang of it. At least as far as his westerns go. Hill takes as his subject matter a larger-than-life character, in this case the Apache warrior Geronimo, and embellishes the facts to fit a larger truth. I say that without sarcasm or disapproval. Hill turns a bandit queen into a prostitute, kills off one of his characters in the wrong place at the wrong time (to give a big star a death scene,) invents a fight between two men who probably never met, much less knew of each other. There's a good reason this one is subtitled "An American Legend." It's a fair approach for a filmmaker to take, but the raw material of his films have been so finely sifted by so many passionate students for so long they're almost magnets for those prone to nit-pick the tiniest historical accuracy.
When I set aside my concerns for historical accuracy I discovered I enjoyed the heck out of this movie. It looks beautiful, always a plus with a western shot on location. Wes Studi, an American Indian of the Cherokee Nation, really reaches deep into the core of Geronimo - courageous, proud to the point of arrogance, and ultimately doomed. To Hill's credit Geronimo isn't a two-dimensional wooden noble. Likewise, his "bad" guys, in this case racist scout Robert Duvall, aren't caricatures either. Hill doesn't paint in bold contrasts, and GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND feels real. This mature approach comes at a price. It's hard to build up to big dramatic moments in an action film when you don't have highly contrasted Good Guys and Bad Guys. Fortunately for the film and the audience GERONIMO'S cast is filled with high-caliber actors able to portray complex characters without losing the audience in the process.
There's also a highly developed sense of intervention in GERONIMO. Gene Hackman's General Crook ("They don't realize it, but I'm the best friend the Apaches have") shields the Indians from a harsh interpretation of his orders. Jason Patric visually embodies this theme - in a number of scenes he steps in between an angry aimed gun and the Native American it's pointed at. Ultimately, I believe, Hill also intervenes between his audience and awkward facts and sour interpretations. It's an approach that drives some historians to distraction, but also occasionally results in highly entertaining movies.
Rating: 
Summary: AS FAIR AS HOLLYWOOD GETS
Review: A fair look at the clash of white-Indian civilization was in John Milius' excellent "Geronimo", the story of the last Apache captured and brought in, bringing to an end the Indian Wars in 1890. Gene Hackman plays the officer charged with negotiating and capturing Geronimo. It fairly shows brave Indians, a well-meaning government, circumstances that were beyond control of the ability to foresee, white settlers whose ingenuity made use of the land that was previously unheard of, and how these events brought about bad feelings in the Indian community. The film is even without demonizing either side.STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM
Rating:
Summary: AS FAIR AS HOLLYWOOD GETS
Review: A fair look at the clash of white-Indian civilization was in John Milius' excellent "Geronimo", the story of the last Apache captured and brought in, bringing to an end the Indian Wars in 1890. Gene Hackman plays the officer charged with negotiating and capturing Geronimo. It fairly shows brave Indians, a well-meaning government, circumstances that were beyond control of the ability to foresee, white settlers whose ingenuity made use of the land that was previously unheard of, and how these events brought about bad feelings in the Indian community. The film is even without demonizing either side. STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM
Rating:
Summary: I dislike westerns, but this was incredibly good!
Review: A friend who had lent me the Alamo, Rough Riders, Squanto and Gods and Generals pressed this into my hands saying, "this is really good." Uggh, I thought, not another awful cowboy movie! Wow, I was really impressed. This is one of the best movies I have seen in the last five years!
The profound fact is that this is really a war movie set in the U.S. west, about two militaristic cultures who spend a lot of energy trying to kill each other. That sounds simplistic but the complexities are deep and abundant, and are all played out with excellent effect in less than two hours. It is a rare film that can do this in under two hours. This is rare stuff indeed!
The characters are very deep and very complex. The violence (about 50% of the movie) is dramatic and not pretty. No one culture comes away clean, everyone has their massacres. This is war after all. There is no real moralizing here, no good guys and bad guys, this gives it a very real feel.
The Apaches speak what is presumably Apache when they are speaking to each other, and English when not. This gives it a truly bilingual feel. Even the Texans vocabulary is laced with Spanish words, setting them off from others.
There is tremendous suspense. One never knows who will come out alive at any given moment. There is no predictable sense that the leading actors are guaranteed to finish the film. This is played to tremendous effect by Patric and Studi. Duvall's coarseness is a great counterpoint to the more sensitive Patric, and Hackman plays a good balance between bureaucrat and soldier.
The scenery is fantastic, and the sad story of the Apache's losing battle to preserve and express their culture in a shrinking frontier is poignant. There is much to the mix of a variety of cultures in conflict that is expressed very well here in a complex movie. Probably a film that many directors could learn from. I thought this was a tremendous film!
Rating:
Summary: A war drama that feels like a western pic.
Review: Although the movie is based on a real U.S. Army campaign against the Apache, one feels like watching a well-made western. There are "battle scenes" that are really short skirmishes. Suprisingly, the best scene of cinematic violence is a shootout inside some bar, I mean saloon, between the heroes and a group of bounty hunters. (Hence, the title of this review.) Wes Studi plays Geronimo, an Apache shaman who refused to surrender to the U.S. and be assimilated. Being a farmer in an enclosed reservation was not his suit, nor was it for the small band of warriors who followed him as a renegade. Watching Studi, I can't help but think of his role as a Huron war party captain in "Last of the Mohicans." As in "Mohicans", Studi's character in "Geronimo" kills, both white soldiers and civilians, with cold blooded brutality. This film manages to romanticize Geronimo's noble but lost cause while also emphasizing that he and his warriors were merciless in combat and not above killing unarmed civilians.
Rating:
Summary: A war drama that feels like a western pic.
Review: Although the movie is based on a real U.S. Army campaign against the Apache, one feels like watching a well-made western. There are "battle scenes" that are really short skirmishes. Suprisingly, the best scene of cinematic violence is a shootout inside some bar, I mean saloon, between the heroes and a group of bounty hunters. (Hence, the title of this review.) Wes Studi plays Geronimo, an Apache shaman who refused to surrender to the U.S. and be assimilated. Being a farmer in an enclosed reservation was not his suit, nor was it for the small band of warriors who followed him as a renegade. Watching Studi, I can't help but think of his role as a Huron war party captain in "Last of the Mohicans." As in "Mohicans", Studi's character in "Geronimo" kills, both white soldiers and civilians, with cold blooded brutality. This film manages to romanticize Geronimo's noble but lost cause while also emphasizing that he and his warriors were merciless in combat and not above killing unarmed civilians.
Rating:
Summary: A war drama that feels like a western pic.
Review: Although the movie is based on a real U.S. Army campaign against the Apache, one feels like watching a well-made western. There are "battle scenes" that are really short skirmishes. Suprisingly, the best scene of cinematic violence is a shootout inside some bar, I mean saloon, between the heroes and a group of bounty hunters. (Hence, the title of this review.) Wes Studi plays Geronimo, an Apache shaman who refused to surrender to the U.S. and be assimilated. Being a farmer in an enclosed reservation was not his suit, nor was it for the small band of warriors who followed him as a renegade. Watching Studi, I can't help but think of his role as a Huron war party captain in "Last of the Mohicans." As in "Mohicans", Studi's character in "Geronimo" kills, both white soldiers and civilians, with cold blooded brutality. This film manages to romanticize Geronimo's noble but lost cause while also emphasizing that he and his warriors were merciless in combat and not above killing unarmed civilians.
Rating:
Summary: Accurate and visually delightful
Review: Geronimo is bringing the story and old photographs of the Apche leader and his brave warriors to life. The accuracy of such is demonstrated in various scenes reconstructed precicely from authentic photographs from the 1880's. Strong performance by "less-is-more"-Patric, and of course Studi portrays the fierce chief with irony and necessary harshness. The mood of the film is hot and lazy, with sudden bursts of violence, the trademark of a Walter Hill movie. Fine performance by the dry Hackman, and probably Duvall doing his best since the Godfather (and of course the later "The Apostle") as the wry scout Sieber. The movie pays strong attention to details such as language, manners, music, costumes and persons, all relying on historical facts. It just lacks that tiny little bit that satisfies both the average audience and the history buffs. The first group probably miss more plot, and the latter would like to see some more, i.e. how the Apache dealt with their imprisonment in Florida and the return to Oklahoma and so on. All together an honest attempt to tell the story of one of the strongest, if not wisest, personalities in the history of native Americans.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Film Well Made!!!
Review: I am not going to say anything negative about this film because it has none. This great film should have been shot in the Chiricahua mountains of south east Arizona near Bisby and Tombstone. This georgous area of the country would have given the movie complete accuracy. Geronimo and his tribal members were removed from their land under false promises and were relocated to Florida. Geronimo died in Oklahoma. This film contains American history at it's best. A must see movie!!!
Rating:
Summary: Historical Film Well Made!!!
Review: I am not going to say anything negative about this film because it has none. This great film should have been shot in the Chiricahua mountains of south east Arizona near Bisby and Tombstone. This georgous area of the country would have given the movie complete accuracy. Geronimo and his tribal members were removed from their land under false promises and were relocated to Florida. Geronimo died in Oklahoma. This film contains American history at it's best. A must see movie!!!
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