GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND (1993)

   Wes Studi, Jason Patric, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Matt Damon, Walter Hill (director)

   Although Walter Hill’s Geronimo did not do as well at the box office as it deserved, this alternative Western film is a major contribution to the Western genre. For the first time, the legendary story of Geronimo is told through Apacheeyes. Wes Studi played the famous warrior in what was probably his best acting role. Gene Hackman played the infamous General George S. Crook who, despite being a lifelong Indian killer, has in the end developed a measure of respect for the Apachechief, at least the respect of one warrior for another. The Apaches fight ferociously to avoid being shipped to a reservation in Indian Territory. Only with the help of renegade Apache scouts can the U.S. Cavalry finally hunt down Geronimo and pressure him to surrender. The United States promises the Apaches a reservation in central Florida instead of Indian Territory, and as soon as the Apaches surrender, they are rounded up along with the renegade Apaches who cooperated with the army. Unfortunately for the Apaches, the U.S. government finds that the Florida land is too valuable for Indians and ships them to Indian Territory after all. John G. Cawelti sees this film as a more complex treatment of Native American history than Dances With Wolves (1990) because it “suggests that the destruction of the Apache culture was not only a betrayal but a historical tragedy” (1999, 108).

   See also INDIANS.