Google Ads
Login | Sign Up

Cheyenne Autumn Overview:

Cheyenne Autumn (1964) was a Drama - Historical Film directed by John Ford and produced by John Ford and Bernard Smith.

SYNOPSIS

The last Western from director Ford and a farewell to his familiar Monument Valley locations. After portraying Indians as villains in many of his classic Westerns, Ford cast them in a compassionate light in this rueful, elegiac film. The story follows the Cheyenne Indians as they flee their squalid Oklahoma reservation and return to their traditional homeland along the Yellowstone River in Wyoming. Cavalry officer Widmark gets the call to return the tribe to the reservations, but, after he sees the starvation and sickness endured by his quarry, he questions the government's decision. A cast of great stars (including a brief nod from Stewart as Wyatt Earp), and available in a restored version with additional footage.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Academy Awards 1964 --- Ceremony Number 37 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best CinematographyWilliam H. ClothierNominated
See More Oscar Winners

Cheyenne Autumn BlogHub Articles:

Cheyenne Autumn (1964): John Ford’s Western Swan Song

By 4 Star Film Fan on Jan 10, 2021 From 4 Star Films

If we had to provide a broad sense of Cheyenne Autumn, it would be all about the mass Exodus of the Cheyenne in 1878 as they journey from the arid land they’ve been subjugated to back to the land the white man had promised to return to them all along. This is a Hollywood rendition so, obviousl... Read full article

Cheyenne Autumn (1964)

By Beatrice on May 20, 2018 From Flickers in Time

Cheyenne Autumn Directed by John Ford Written by James R. Webb, suggested by “Cheyenne Autumn” by Mari Sandoz 1964/USA Warner Bros./Ford-Smith Productions First viewing/Netflix rental This beautiful movie represents the peak of John Ford’s later career. It is 1878.  The Cheyenne I... Read full article

See More Cheyenne Autumn Articles

Cheyenne Autumn Quotes:

[narrating]
Capt. Thomas Archer: But this wasn't just another day to the Cheyenne. Far from their homeland, as out of place in this desert as eagles in a cage, their three great chiefs prayed over the Sacred Bundles that at last the promises made to them more than a year ago would today be honored. The promises that had led them to give up their own way of life in their own green and fertile country... 1500 miles north.
Sr. First Sergeant: [a Cossack] kills Poles just because they're Poles. Like we're trying to kill Indians just because they're Indians.
Capt. Thomas Archer: Come on, Wichowski. You fought Indians before!
Sr. First Sergeant: I fought Indians who wanted to fight me, not just some poor blanket-heads trying to go home!
Capt. Thomas Archer: You claim to be a doctor. You gonna let him put those women and children in a warehouse at 10 below zero? What are you gonna do about it?
Dr. O'Carberry: What are you gonna do about it?
Capt. Thomas Archer: Dull Knife! Little Wolf! What happened today changes nothing. The Indian Bureau is still pledged to provide you with adequate clothing and rations. And you're still pledged to abide by the law. Remember that!
Dull Knife: We are asked to remember much. The white man remembers nothing.
Wyatt Earp: Say, you're the doctor around here. How come I always have to perform all the complicated operations?
Doc Holliday: You know I am a dentist, not a doctor. Wait until somebody shoot him in the teeth.
See More Quotes from Cheyenne Autumn
Cheyenne Autumn Facts
According to both John Ford and James Stewart, Ford added the segment with Stewart in place of an intermission. Ford didn't want people leaving the auditorium to go the bathroom or concessions counter, even though the film was long, and so he came up with the Wyatt Earp segment. He later quipped to Stewart that the actor was the "best intermission" in the movies.
The "Cheyenne" are actually Navajo, telling dirty jokes in their native tongue.
Spencer Tracy was first cast as the secretary of interior Karl Shultz, but had a heart attack and was replaced by Edward G. Robinson, whose scenes were entirely photographed in studios, including the climatic meeting scene between Shultz and the Cheyenne chiefs, in which the background had to be done with screen process.
When film critic Peter Bogdanovich visited the set to interview John Ford, he was introduced to Nancy Hsueh, who played Little Bird, whom Bogdanovich later cast in his first film, Targets. While Bogdanovich was on the set, Sal Mineo recommended the book "The Last Picture Show" by Larry McMurtry to him, which became his second film as director seven years later.
John Ford would not allow Sal Mineo to speak any English dialog in the movie due to the actor's Bronx accent.
See More Facts about Cheyenne Autumn >>