Geronimo vs. the Blue Coats!

"Geronimo" claims to be 'based on a true story'. I suppose that's true in a general sense, but it's also current day Hollywood political correctness gone mad. The movie portrays Apaches as peaceful, honorable people who only want to be left alone. Once again, I suppose this is true in a general sense. But, what Apaches really wanted to be left alone to do was to prey on their neighbors, something they'd been excelling at for several centuries. The Spanish and later Mexican military was never able to deal effectively with them. One solution that was tried was paying bounties for Apache scalps. The movie depicts this fairly accurately. While real scalp hunter bands tended to be much larger groups than that shown in the movie, what is clear is that this 'solution' caused more problems than it solved. The solution to the Apache problem that the Mexican government eventually put in place was to leave the Apaches alone in the mountains and in Arizona and to pay them tribute to keep them quiet. This was in place when the Americans took over in 1848. Of course Americans would never go for such a thing. Imagine the reaction of the politicians, "Pay the savages not to attack us??!!NONSENSE!! What do we pay an Army for?!" And so the Apache wars began, ending some forty years later with the final surrender of Geronimo. So much for history, now back to the movie.

“Geronimo” is subtitled “An American Legend”, and this is appropriate for this film. Geronimo is the star of it and is brilliantly portrayed by Wes Studi. Studi is the epitome of the intractable wild Indian. Lean and mean he really looks the part. The actual Geronimo was just as wild and intractable but, unfortunately, he looked like someone’s curmudgeonly grandfather. This isn’t the only liberty this film takes with history. The balance of the cast is equally brilliant with Jason Patric as Lieut. Gatewood, Matt Damon as Lieut. Britton Davis, Gene Hackman as Gen. Crook, Kevin Tighe as Gen Nelson Miles, and Robert Duvall as Chief of Scouts Al Sieber. Indeed it is the cast’s excellent acting that makes this movie. It certainly isn’t the story that, at times, comes perilously close to being a pro-Indian propaganda film. Tighe, Hackman and Duvall do bear some resemblance to their historical counterparts. The historical detail is impressive with Gene Hackman wearing civilian clothes in the field to include a pith helmet, and riding a mule as Crook actually did. Tighe’s portrayal of Gen. Miles is flawed, for the film makes him the heavy of the whole piece. In reality, Miles didn’t want the assignment when Crook resigned. Arizona was a military backwater that featured a war without glory. A case can be made that the Apache wars in Arizona was the Vietnam of its day. Miles often comes off badly in history for he was supremely ambitious and very much a self-promoter. The only way to emerge from Arizona with reputation intact was to end the war by capturing Geronimo. This he did.

I think that this film’s biggest flaw is not so much what is actually says as the impression it gives. The movie was significant as much for what you don't see as for anything else. Whites are shown committing numerous mindless atrocities on camera. Indians are not. In fact, except in what is obviously stand-up combat with armed men, Geronimo or the Apaches are not shown killing anyone. The noteworthy exception is the Apache killing of a group of unarmed white miners. All the white men are shot down except one, who Geronimo spares because, ". . . you are a fool, but at least you are brave." In fact, the battle scenes show the Apaches inflicting casualties on the soldiers at a rate of at least five or ten to one. You’d wonder how the Apaches managed to lose their war if this was actually the case. While Geronimo appears to have no innocent blood on his hands, late in the movie he admits to having killed fifty whites in revenge for the death of his family, who he says were murdered by the Mexican Army. This at least has the virtue of being historically accurate. The movie goes out of its way to make the point that the Apaches are confined to a very small reservation. The place may have been small by Apache standards, but I've driven across several Indian reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. They are huge tracts of land that have few people living on them. Admittedly, the land seemed like poor desert that was good for very little, certainly not for farming. However, the movie shows Apaches living cheek by jowl, practically stacked up like cordwood. This is a very deceptive impression, especially when presented to an uninformed viewer. As the movie shows, Geronimo was shipped off to Florida. He was, as the movie said, never allowed to return home. However, he did not spend the rest of his life in a cell. He lived out his last years at Fort Sill, Oklahoma under what amounted to a loose 'house arrest'. He became something of a tourist attraction, making some money by allowing himself to be photographed, becoming in the process one of the most photographed Indians in history. Geronimo excepted, most Apaches were eventually allowed to return to their reservations in Arizona.

The movie ends with an act that seems so odious I originally questioned whether it happened at all. All of the Apache scouts are forcibly disarmed, dismissed, and returned to the reservation, except Chiracahua scouts, who, by-the-way, were of the same tribe as Geronimo. They are shipped off to Florida as prisoners with him. This is so ungrateful and massively evil that I didn’t believe it. Unfortunately, it proved to be all too true. But consider this: the Army used Indian scouts, including Apaches, to assist in chasing errant renegades leaving the reservation well into the 20th century. So it is safe to say that the ban on Apaches in the Army didn’t last.

During surrender negotiations, Gen. Crook tells Geronimo that the Army is the best friend the Apache has. This isn’t a popular sentiment today, but it was none-the-less true. The government had decided that the Indian would live on reservations, and it was the Army’s job to keep them there. The Army often treated Indians better that the Indian Agents charged with the task. Once securely confined to reservations, the government promptly forgot the Indians, something that is basically still the case.

“Geronimo, An American Legend” is a very good film. The acting is superb, especially Studi, Hackman, and Duvall. Most films heavily weight their stories in favor of the hero. This one is no exception. Geronimo is the hero. It is his story. There’s plenty of action and you can almost feel the heat of the Arizona desert. In spite of the film’s rather P/C tone, I enjoyed it immensely, and I heartily recommend it! I have the honour to remain,
Your Most Humble Obedient Servant,
Kevin J. Mansfield,
Adkins, Texas.