The film was one of the first to present an authentic and sympathetic view of Native Americans. In his review of the DVD release of Fort Apache in 2012, The New York Times movie critic Dave Kehr called it "one of the great achievements of classical American cinema, a film of immense complexity that never fails to reveal new shadings with each viewing" and "among the first 'pro-Indian' Westerns" in its portrayal of indigenous Americans with "sympathy and respect".[7]
After the American Civil War, highly respected veteran Captain Kirby York is the acting commander at Fort Apache, an isolated U.S. cavalry post on the Arizona frontier. York commanded his own regiment during the Civil War and had learned the ways of the Apache. To universal surprise and disappointment, the regiment is given instead to Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday, a highly arrogant, acidic and abrasive martinet who had been brevetted a general during the Civil War for a valiant charge. A West Point graduate with unconcealed ambition, he regards the assignment as distasteful, unwarranted, and a serious derailment of his career.
His arrogance and overbearing egocentrism not only pervades his command but extends to his attitude towards the native Indians, whom he treats with condescension and complete disregard.
Accompanying widower Thursday is his daughter, Philadelphia. She becomes attracted to newly minted Second Lieutenant Michael O'Rourke, the son of highly regarded Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke, the post's ranking non-commissioned officer. The elder O'Rourke had been a major in the Irish Brigade during the Civil War and earned the Medal of Honor, entitling his son to enter West Point and be commissioned an officer. However, the class-conscious Thursday forbids his daughter to see someone whom he does not consider an equal and a gentleman worthy of her.
When Thursday is forced to deal with unrest among the Apache, led by Cochise, he ignores York's advice to treat the tribes with honor and to remedy problems on the reservation of malnutrition, alcoholism and decay caused by corrupt Apache agent Silas Meacham. Thursday's by-the-book rigidity prevents him from dealing with Meacham effectively, protecting him as an agent of the United States government despite his personal contempt for the man and his ways. Thursday then squanders an opportunity for peace with high-handed belligerence, and is openly disrespectful of Cochise to his face.
Using York, who has an honorable friendship with Cochise, as a cat's paw, Thursday tricks the Apache warriors back from Mexico into U.S. territory. Eager for glory and recognition, he plunges headlong into an obvious ambush despite York's urgent warnings that such a charge would be suicidal. Thursday relieves York and orders him to stay back with Lt. O'Rourke and protect the supply train, replacing him with Captain Sam Collingwood.
There is both charity and sage behind Thursday's seeming sleights, as he knows his command will wiped out...including Captain Collingwood and Sgt. O'Rourke. He cannot savage his beloved Philadelphia by killing off her intended husband too, and knows that of all the officers York is best qualified to lead upon his death. Wounded and separated from his men, he borrows York's horse to return to the doomed survivors and lead them to their last. Cochise spares York and soldiers who did not participate in the battle, in respect for York and to send a message to all who witnessed the slaughter, and the gesture, should understand.
Several years later, regimental commander Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York entertains a room full of Eastern correspondents. When asked if he has seen the famous painting depicting "Thursday's Charge", with the Apache massed brazenly in rows in war paint and feather bonnets awaiting Cavalry lances, he hews strictly to the fable crafted to cover Thursday's vainglorious and suicidal destruction of his command. Lying through his teeth (but not to himself) he says it is completely accurate. He then waxes on how those who died that day will never be forgotten as long as the regiment lives, and that he has an arduous campaign ahead to bring in Geronimo.
After briefly introducing his adjutant, Lt. O'Rourke, now married to Philadelphia, and calling their young son - Michael Thursday York O'Rourke - the "best soldier in the outfit", he mounts his horse and leads the regiment off after the Apaches.
Fort Apache is commonly ranked among the most significant films of the "cowboy/western" genre, including:[12]
"Top-Grossing Westerns from 1930–1972 and Plot Classification" per Wright, W. (1975) in Six guns and society: A structural study of the Western (pp. 30–32). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
#43 in the "Top 100 Westerns": Western Writers of America
#28 of 92 in "Chronological Listing of Major and Representative Western Films" (Cawelti, 1999)
#28 in "Chronological Listing of 100 Major and Representative Western Films" (Hausladen, 2003)
#19 in "Top 100 Western Films (1914–2001)" (Hoffmann, 2003)
Crowther, Bosley (June 25, 1948). "Fort Apache, RKO Western, With Fonda, Wayne and Temple, Bill at Capitol". The New York Times.[permanent dead link] In his contemporary review, Crowther writes "apparent in this picture, for those who care to look, is a new and maturing viewpoint upon one aspect of the American Apache wars. For here it is not the 'heathen Indian' who is the 'heavy' of the piece but a hard-bitten Army colonel, blind through ignorance and a passion for revenge. And ranged alongside this willful white man is a venal government agent who exploits the innocence of the Indians while supposedly acting as their friend."
Levy, Emanuel (March 10, 2008). "Fort Apache (1948)". Recent, highly favorable review of "John Ford's superb black-and white elegiac Western".
Schwartz, Dennis (August 15, 2001). "Fort Apache". Ozus' World. Archived from the original on April 12, 2018. Retrieved May 15, 2013. Schwartz summarizes the film as "a reworking of the Custer myth, in a film that over sentimentalizes Army life and chivalry".
