History Film / FortApache

* OverprotectiveDad: Col. Thursday. He doesn't want his daughter Philadelphia seeing that dashing young Irish lieutenant, so much so that he sends O'Rourke on a [[TheUriahGambit seeming suicide mission]] to fix telegraph cables as bait.

* NiceHat: Colonel Thursday's iconic, if somewhat ludicrous cap-and-havelock combination which in the final scene is also worn by Colonel York.

''Fort Apache'' is a 1948 Creator/{{RKO}} {{Western}} film directed by Creator/JohnFord, starring Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/ShirleyTemple, her then-husband John Agar, Ward Bond, Victor [=McLaglen=], and Pedro Armendariz. ''Fort Apache'' is considered, with ''Film/SheWoreAYellowRibbon'' (1949) and ''Film/RioGrande'' (1950), a part of Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy." The film is an adaptation of the 1947 short story "Massacre" by James Warner Bellah.

* SkunkStripe: Thursday, the main antagonist, sports one of these.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: The most prominent is the Apache leader Cochise. One of his supporters is Geronimo. Robert E. Lee gets name-dropped by Col. Thursday while giving out orders to set up a trap using Lt. O'Rourke as bait. Thursday himself is a stand-in of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, as the movie is a re-telling of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: As noted, the main plot is a retelling of the Little Bighorn, transplanted to Arizona; Custer, like Thursday, was regarded as TheNeidermeyer by his men. Custer, like Thursday, led his men blindly into an ambush. As with the cavalry regiment in this film, Custer and the half of the regiment with him died to the last man while the other half of the regiment, commanded by Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen, escaped.)

* MetaphoricallyTrue: York's responses to the reporters at the end are all technically true. Thursday did die bravely and brought honor to the regiment which improved the quality of the soldiers at the post. When he responded, "Correct in every detail.", it could be interpreted that he was commenting on the reporter's description of the Thursday's Charge painting, not on the historcal accuracy of the painting, itself.

** Owen Thursday's charactization as an arrogant, aging martinet with no social skills whatsoever, is actually rather different from the flamboyant Custer, whose attitude to non-regulation dress and hair was actually the opposite of Thursday's, and Custer was privately sympathetic towards the Sioux (his [[GloryHound ambition]] was greater than his sympathy). What they have in common is bitterness towards the government—which in their view did not properly recognize their brilliance in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar—and a fatal show of incompetence in their last battle.

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Colonel Owen Thursday is a thinly disguised and revisionist take on General George Armstrong Custer, i.e. a GloryHound martinet who blindly leads his soldiers into a suicidal charge against the Apache in a manner similar to the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

* {{Retirony}}: Captain Sam Collingwood is trying to get moved from the eponymous Fort to an instructing position at West Point. When his wife finally gets the letter saying that his transfer went through, he is riding off with the regiment to confront the Apaches. Someone tells her to go, to run and tell him that he should come back, but she says "Sam isn't a coward", and then twists the knife by handing the letter back to the message-boy, saying "Keep it. For the captain's return."

* TactfulTranslation: Slightly inverted, in that Cochise calls the Bureau of Indian Affairs agent Meacham "''un hombre malvado, que no dice la verdad''," which Sergeant Beaufort renders as "a yellow-bellied polecat of dubious antecedents and conjectural progeny" (It literally means "an evil man, who does not speak the truth"). It's pretty obvious by his tone that Beaufort wouldn't piss on Meacham if he was on fire, so he likely took the opportunity to throw in his own opinion.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: As noted, the main plot is a retelling of the Little Big Horn, transplanted to Arizona. (Custer, like Thursday, was regarded as TheNeidermeyer by his men. Custer, like Thursday, led his men blindly into an ambush. As with the cavalry regiment in this film, Custer and the half of the regiment with him died to the last man while the other half of the regiment escaped.)

* WorthyOpponent: York and Cochise regard each other that way, and would prefer not to fight eachother unless absolutely necessary (and are both willing to take pains to avoid such a necessity). Colonel Thursday on the other hand...
* YouAreInCommandNow: At the end, Thursday realizes he's led half his army to their deaths, and he refuses York's offer to drag him to safety. Asking for York's saber (to rejoin his doomed men), Thursday snorts "When you command this regiment, and you probably will, '''command it!'''" With Thursday's death, York ''does'' gain command, and is clearly not happy about it, as the fight didn’t need to happen in the first place and some of the men who died with Thursday were his best friends.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: The most prominent is the Apache leader Cochise. One of his supporters is Geronimo. Robert E. Lee gets name-dropped by Col. Thursday while giving out orders to set up a trap using Lt. O'Rourke as bait. Thursday himself is an stand-in of Col. George Armstrong Custer as the movie is a re-telling of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

* HandshakeRefusal: Thursday pulls this on Collingwood in front of his wife and and all of the other officers upon his arrival at the fort, firmly establishing himself as a JerkAss.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: Neither side is shown as particularly nice. The Apache's torture prisoners while TheGovernment tolerates corrupt treatment of Indians. At the same time there are honorable people on both sides.

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: Years after Thursday wiped out half his own troops, York is in command of Fort Apache and is preparing a campaign to capture the latest Apache rebel Geronimo. Chatting with reporters covering the campaign, they mention a flattering portrait of Thursday's doomed last stand hanging in Washington DC, discussing how heroic Thursday must have been in leading that charge. York, knowing the real story but also knowing that they probably won't believe him and even if they did, at this point the truth would just hurt army morale, goes along with the false story. This is also [[TruthInTelevision Truth in Television]] as people covered up the blunders made at the real Battle of Little Big Horn for decades.

* {{Deconstruction}}: This was one of the earliest Westerns to [[FairForItsDay depict with some sympathy the plight of the Indians.]] The Apache are suffering at the hands of a corrupt government Indian Affairs Agent, with little recourse but to flee the reservation to force the military's hand to get rid of that agent. Instead, it's the racist Thursday, who's dismissive of Apache fighting skills and itching for a glorious military victory, who aggravates the situation and leads half his men to their doom. And when Captain York stands alone as the Apache charge at him, they stop right in his presence and turn back, demonstrating that they honor soldiers who respect them and aren't the violent savages depicted in other Western films of the day. The ending also shows how history is WrittenByTheWinners when [[spoiler:Thursday gets a posthumous HistoricalHeroUpgrade similar to Custer after Big Horn, while Colonel York grimaces as he lies about his "greatness"]].

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: The most prominent is the Apache leader Cochise. One of his supporters is Geronimo. Robert E. Lee gets name-dropped by Col. Thursday while giving out orders to set up a trap using Lt. O'Rourke as bait. Thursday himself is an stand-in of Col. George Armstrong Custer as the movie is a re-telling of the Battle of Little Big Horn.

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Colonel Owen Thursday is a thinly disguised and revisionist take on General George Armstrong Custer, i.e. a GloryHound martinet who blindly leads his soldiers into a suicidal charge against the Apache in a manner similar to the Battle of Big Horn.

** {{Discussed}}

-->'''Thursday''': Your word to a breechclouted savage? An illiterate, uncivilized murderer and treaty-breaker?
-->'''York''': There's no question of honor, sir, between an American officer and Cochise. There ''is'' to me, sir.

* NotSoDifferent:

* YouAreInCommandNow: At the end, Thursday realizes he's led half his army to their deaths, and he refuses York's offer to drag him to safety. Asking for York's saber (to rejoin his doomed men), Thursday snorts "When you command this regiment, and you probably will, '''command it!'''" With Thursday's death, York ''does'' gain command, and is clearly not happy about it.

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: Years after Thursday wiped out half his own troops, York is in command of Fort Apache and is preparing a campaign to capture the latest Apache rebel Geronimo. Chatting with reporters covering the campaign, they mention a flattering portrait of Thursday's doomed last stand hanging in Washington DC, discussing how heroic Thursday must have been in leading that charge. York, knowing the real story but also knowing that the truth would hurt army morale, goes along with the false story. This is also [[TruthInTelevision Truth in Television]] as people covered up the blunders made at the real Battle of Little Big Horn for decades.

* HonoraryUncle: Sergeants Mulcahey, Quincannon, Beaufort, and Shattuck to 2nd Lieutenant [=O'Rourke=]. They have all served with Sergeant Major [=O'Rourke=] since at least the end of the Civil War, have all had a hand in raising young Michael, and he calls them his uncles when not in front of the Colonel.

** Owen Thursday's charactization as an arrogant, aging martinet with no social skills whatsoever, is actually rather different from the flamboyant Custer, whose attitude to non-regulation dress and hair was actually the opposite of Thursday's, and Custer was privately sympathetic towards the Sioux (which was overridden by his [[GloryHound ambition]]). What they have in common is bitterness towards the government—which in their view did not properly recognize their brilliance in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar—and a fatal show of incompetence in their last battle.

** Sgt. O'Rourke warns one of his men not to spike the punch at the ball after what happened at the previous year's dance.

* SouthernGentleman: Sergeant Beaufort is a "fallen" example. A former Confederate officer, he enlisted in the U.S. Cavalry as a private after the Civil War. While not exactly conforming to the stereotype visually — he is played by Pedro Armendáriz — he is easily the most polished of the regiment's non-coms (some of whom had been officers in the Union army).

* TactfulTranslation: Slightly inverted, in that Cochise calls the Bureau of Indian Affairs agent Meacham "''un hombre malvado, que no dice la verdad''," which Sergeant Beaufort renders as "a yellow-bellied polecat of dubious antecedents and conjectural progeny" (It literally means "an evil man, who does not speak the truth"). It's pretty obvious by his tone that Beaufort wouldn't piss on Meacham if he was on fire, so he likely threw in his own opinion.

* TontoTalk: Averted in the negotiations with Cochese, where we have a somewhat reverse situation: the focus is not on Cochese not being able to speak English, but on the negotiating officer York ''not being fluent enough'' in ''Apache''. Therefore, York decides to use a Spanish interpreter to interpret for Cochese, who is rather fluent in Spanish.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: As evidence of Apache prowess, York tells of an attempted raid by the Sioux which met with a bloody disaster at Apache hands.

** Owen Thursday's charactization as an arrogant, aging martinet with no social skills whatsoever, is actually rather different from the flamboyant Custer, whose attitude to non-regulation dress and hair was actually the opposite of Thursday's, and Custer was privately sympathetic towards the Sioux (which was overridden by his [[GloryHound ambition]]). What they have in common is bitterness towards the government which in their view did not properly recognize their brilliance in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar and a fatal show of incompetence in their last battle.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: The usual pattern from Westerns, where Indians are shown as bad shots that engage in headlong charges that make them easy targets is inverted in the scene where the cavalry charges recklessly into a canyon and is picked off by Apache sharpshooters from both sides.

''Fort Apache'' is a 1948 Creator/{{RKO}} {{Western}} film directed by Creator/JohnFord, starring Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/ShirleyTemple, her then-husband John Agar, Ward Bond, Victor [=McLaglen=], and Pedro Armendariz. ''Fort Apache'' is considered, with ''Film/SheWoreAYellowRibbon'' (1949) and ''Film/RioGrande'' (1950), a part of Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy."

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Not to be confused with]] the 1981 ''Fort Apache, The Bronx'', which is about an [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCityCops NYPD]] precinct in [[TheBigRottenApple South Bronx]] (although the "Fort Apache" part is invoked).

* CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: When young lieutenant O'Rourke seems embarrassed as he is about to train a platoon of recruits, the sergeants comment that young O'Rourke is a gentleman and training recruits is not a job for a gentleman. And then they take it over.
* CatchPhrase:

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Colonel Owen Thursday is quite obviously derived from General George Armstrong Custer, as was admitted by John Ford himself to Peter Bogdanovich in later interviews.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: And Col. Thursday resents it, which is why he's such a dick to the men.