Cheyenne Autumn

Cheyenne Autumn is a 1964 western starring Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, James Stewart, and Edward G. Robinson. The film was the last western to be directed by John Ford, who proclaimed it an elegy for the Native Americans who had been abused by the American government and misinterpreted by many of the director's own films. With a budget of more than four million, the epic film was relatively unsuccessful, failing to earn a profit for its distributor, Warner Bros.

Cheyenne Autumn was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by William H. Clothier, whose work was nominated for an Academy Award. Gilbert Roland earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The original version was 158 minutes, Ford's longest work. Warner Brothers later decided to edit the "Dodge City" sequence out of the film, reducing the running time to 145 minutes, although it was shown in theatres during the film's initial release. This sequence features James Stewart as Wyatt Earp, and Arthur Kennedy as Doc Holliday. Some critics have argued that this comic episode, mostly unrelated to the rest of an otherwise serious movie, breaks the flow of the story. It was later restored for the VHS and subsequent DVD releases.

Plot

In 1878, chiefs Little Wolf (Ricardo Montalban) and Dull Knife (Gilbert Roland) lead over three hundred starved and weary Cheyenne from their reservation in the Oklahoma territory to their home in Wyoming. The government sees this as an act of rebellion, and the sympathetic Captain Thomas Archer (Richard Widmark) is forced to lead his troops in an attempt to stop the tribe. As the press misrepresents the native's motives and goals for their trek as malicious, Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz (Edward G. Robinson) tries to prevent violence from erupting between the army and the natives. Also featured are James Stewart as Wyatt Earp and Carroll Baker as a pacifist school teacher and Archer's (Widmark) love interest.

Cast

Actor	Role
Richard Widmark	Captain Thomas Archer
Carroll Baker	Deborah Wright
James Stewart	Wyatt Earp
Edward G. Robinson	Carl Schurz
Karl Malden	Captain Oscar Wessels
Sal Mineo	Red Shirt
Dolores del Rio	Spanish Woman
Ricardo Montalban	Little Wolf
Gilbert Roland	Dull Knife
Arthur Kennedy	Doc Holliday
Patrick Wayne	Second Lieutenant Scott
Elizabeth Allen	Guinevere Plantagenet
John Carradine	Major Jeff Blair
Victor Jory	Tall Tree
Mike Mazurki	1st Sergeant Stanislaus Wichowsky
George O'Brien	Major Braden
Sean McClory	Dr. O'Carberry
Judson Pratt	Mayor Dog Kelly

External links

References