In the early 90s, your local Boot Barn must have been rejoicing. All things vaquero were at the forefront of popular culture.
Country music star Garth Brooks was dominating the Billboard charts. The NFL’s Dallas Cowboys took down three Super Bowl titles in four years.
And perhaps, seizing the moment, the American Western genre came back.
Dances with Wolves (’90) and Unforgiven (’92) collectively earned 21 Academy Award nominations (winning 7 and 4, respectively). And genre classics like The Last of the Mohicans (’92) and Tombstone (’93) raked in the cash at the box office.
These reimagined cowboy tales largely discarded genre tropes (except Tombstone, which takes a hot bath in those gooey cliches all night long).
They deconstructed the heroic exploits of the American West into clouded moral questions, particularly around the treatment of Native Americans by settlers and the US Government.
And right in the thick of this environment, like a missile made for the moment, flew in Walter Hill’s Geronimo: An American Legend (1993).
A historical portrait of both sides of the US Army’s struggle to capture the Apache leader, Geronimo looked well-placed to ride the Western wave.
But the film tanked. It allegedly brought back a paltry $18.6 million of its $35 million budget.
Hill believes Geronimo failed due to a made-for-tv movie about the Apache leader debuting just five days before, kneecapping the appeal.
He has said, “….What can you say, `My Geronimo has better locations?'”
But glance at the film’s cast; the last thing you’d expect is failure. Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Matt Damon, Wes Studi, and Jason Patrick took on the leading roles.
And Hill was at the helm, working from a script by the venerable John Millius (Apocalypse Now, Conan the Barbarian) and Larry Gross (48 Hrs.).
So was Geronimo an overlooked gem in a genre high point or a blunder to forget?
The Plot of Geronimo: An American Legend
When the Apache agree to settle onto a reservation, General George Crook (Gene Hackman) sends a small company, including 1st Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood (Jason Patrick) and 2nd Lieutenant Britton Davis (Matt Damon), to accept Geronimo’s (Wes Studi) surrender.
But after Gatewood and Davis escort Geronimo to the reservation, he and many other Apache fail to embrace their new life as farmers, growing restless.
With tension high, a brutal murder kickstarts Geronimo into leading a rebellion.
The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:
- Robert Duvall as Al Sieber
- Pato Hoffmann as The Dreamer
- Rodney A. Grant as Mangas
- Kevin Tighe as Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles
- Steve Reevis as Chato
- Carlos Palomino as Sergeant Turkey
- Stuart Proud Eagle Grant as Sergeant Dutchy
- Victor Aaron as Ulzana
- Scott Wilson as Redondo
- Stephen McHattie as Schoonover
- John Finn as Captain Hentig
- Rino Thunder as Old Nana
- Lee de Broux as City Marshal Joe Hawkins
The Good Things:
The Plight of the Apache and their Pursuers, + 4 points
Hill thought the US Cavalry officers “were the most sympathetic to the Indians of the Southwest. They knew them and understood that what was happening was a tragedy. They understood that the imposition of the reserve system would have tragic consequences. Yet, they were the ones being asked to carry out this policy. They were being asked to fight, so there was this kind of conflict between feelings and duty.”
It’s an astute observation at the film’s heart, as inner conflicts are depicted on both sides.
Several Apache serve in the Army as scouts. But when the rebellion forms, they turn back against the Army, compelled to side with Geronimo.
These Apache are hanged as traitors to the Army, a sentence Crook takes no pleasure in carrying out.
Soldiers like Davis and Gatewood reluctantly hunt Geronimo because it’s their duty. Yet there are plenty, like General Miles, who would happily hang Geronimo’s head on the wall.
Altogether, it’s a rounded portrait of the inevitable sadness of the war.
Action Style, + 2 Points
The film has Sam Peckinpah-esque violence similar to Hill’s The Long Riders, though not the same spectacle.
Melees or gunfights are grounded, with plenty of impressive horse stunts.
And for good measure, there’s a badass unexpected bar gunfight straight out of any western you’ve enjoyed that builds tension and pays off beautifully.
Excellent Visual Style, + 2 points
The film “…was shot with an unorthodox combination of a wide screen and telescopic lenses to produce huge landscape filled with small, but carefully defined, human figures.”
The unique cinematography brings us impressive shots like Geronimo and his warriors ready to raid on horseback or the immense vistas, almost serving as a character in the film.
Character Dynamics and Actors’ Performances, +5 points
Matt Damon’s young Britton Davis, a West Point graduate, narrates portions of the film in voice-over. Wild-eyed, the fresh-faced officer is a stand-in for the audience’s view into both sides of the US Cavalry vs. Apache conflict.
As the naive Davis learns the false glory of his mission and begins to sympathize with the Apache, so does the audience.
Rumor has it that, at the film’s premiere, Jason Patrick was so disappointed with the movie’s quality that he had to leave and be driven around town in his limo until he could calm down.
But if his performance upsets him, he’s an intense self-critic. In an esteemed cast, he’s arguably the best.
Patrick brings a standout poise and charisma to the sophisticated Lieutenant Gatewood, always speaking gracefully and holding his nerve.
While Gatewood serves his country, he has a deep respect for the Apache at all times, sympathetic to their plight and educated in their customs. It’s enough to win Geronimo’s respect.
And he has some incredibly impressive horse riding. In one sequence, he lays his horse down to the ground, fires from his rifle, and in one motion sweeps the horse to rise, flying back into the saddle.
Robert Duvall’s Al Sieber is a perfect foil for Gatewood. Sieber, a scout and soldier, shares Gatewood’s appreciation for the Apache’s way of life.
But Sieber’s fascination is more with how an exterminator might admire the survival capabilities of a cockroach.
Gene Hackman brings a grandiose quality to the plain-speaking General Crook. He’s a commander more like a policeman – trying to keep the peace over rounding up the enemy.
And if you had a film with a Native American hero or villain in the early 90s, honorary Academy Award winner Wes Studi (Last of the Mohicans, Dances with Wolves) was your man.
Studi is a fearsome but intelligent Geronimo with a direct manner and unwavering eye contact. Spouting wisdom like poetry, he’s a far cry from the caricature of Native Americans seen in westerns of earlier eras.
The Not-As-Good Things:
Meandering Story, -6 points
**Small Spoilers Here**
The story doesn’t anchor to a main character arc and unfolds on a simple narrative line.
This lack of “film feel,” as I’d call it, of hitting familiar script beats and cadence, could have hurt its box office and critical reception.
The ambitious story weaves in Britton Davis’s journey from green officer to experienced dissenter. And we follow Geronimo, Crook, Sieber, and Gatewood as the Geronimo campaign unfolds, dividing screen time between them.
I applaud the film for attempting a rounded picture of a historical period. But it’s an epic that, at just under two hours, couldn’t smush together what could be said into the timeframe.
Each character does change (or dies or leaves the story) and feels fulfilled by the film’s end.
But within the story, the audience doesn’t feel nailed to a linear progression. We don’t quite feel the definitive rise of tension of Act 2 or the impending confrontation of Act 3. It’s like getting payoffs that weren’t set up enough emotionally within the script. We reached the end of a journey without quite knowing the trip we were on.
It’s strange for this to happen as this is a Walter Hill film written by both Milius and Gross – creatives with many scripts by this point in their careers.
No Female Characters, -2 points
It wouldn’t be accurate to put women among Geronimo’s forces or slot them into the Army of the 1880s.
But it’s problematic for female audiences to have virtually no representation. And it hurts the film’s dramatic potential, as there is no love interest or female perspective.
Should I Watch Geronimo?
Total Arbitrary Points Score: 5 Points
Geronimo: An American Legend is far better than its reputation. It ponders moral questions and has an accomplished cast. It’s beautifully shot and is an authentic telling (if not entirely accurate) of historical events.
And like the lost early 90s western classic that wasn’t, it compares interestingly to those celebrated films.
It doesn’t have the storytelling nous of the three-hour epic Dances with Wolves. Still, it’s stripped of that film’s heavy-handedness and can’t-we-all-be-friends moralizing, grounding itself in a historical authenticity and grittiness.
Its action won’t match Tombstone’s staredowns and quickdraws, but it sidesteps (most) all that film’s throwback genre staples for realism.
It’s “historically authentic,” if not accurate, much like Last of the Mohicans. But it leaves behind Mohican’s romantic adventure for a somber tone.
And similar to how Unforgiven stripped fearless gunslingers of their reputation, showing what happens as they age and feel the legacy of murder, Geronimo depicts the horror of manifest destiny’s effect on the Native Americans. But it does it from the perspective of those whose duty was to intern them, making semi-villains of could-be heroes.
That being said, it’s story doesn’t hit the heights of a classic like those other big four early 90s westerns.
So, if you’re a patient audience who likes history and can enjoy a film that will whisper rather than scream to you what it’s trying to say, give Geronimo a try.
But if you like your westerns full of showdowns at high noon, maybe this isn’t your ticket.
PS — whatever led to Geronimo’s box office downfall, this God-awful movie poster didn’t do it any favors. It looks like a made-for-TV movie you couldn’t be tempted to borrow free from your library.
Geronimo: An American Legend is rated PG-13 and directed by Walter Hill.
You can rent it from Amazon Prime Video or other streaming sites.
You can watch the trailer here.
Disclaimer:
The factual information about the film in this review was gathered through online sources, such as Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.
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