In 1953, Director John Farrow led actor John “The Duke” Wayne and Geraldine Page in a brief (83 minutes) story about a stubborn woman living with her young son alone in what was quickly becoming Apache territory. Hondo (Wayne) enters the lives of the Lowe family at the outset of the movie, having been separated from his horse. He immediately pitches in to help Angie (Page) with the chores and the two strike a relationship before long. Hondo is convinced that she needs to abandon her home before the Apache violently take it over. Being part Apache himself, Hondo has some favor with the Apache, perhaps enough to keep the Lowes safe.
The story was written by popular western writer Louis L’Amour. It’s largely conversation and relationship driven, at least until the final minutes when all hell breaks loose. The acting is great and the pacing is good. If anything, you could argue the movie is just a little too short, but at the same time I didn’t feel like the story was rushed. Wayne plays one of his typical omnipotent characters who can’t seem to say or do anything “wrong,” but that’s the Duke we know and love. Michael Pate is Vittorio, the full blood Apache chief who is interested in the Lowe’s and Hondo, yet more in a respectful sort of way than in friendship. Ward Bond, a star in many of Wayne’s movies, plays the comic-relief character of Buffalo Baker, too. Having seen a few dozen John Wayne movies, I can’t honestly say I’d rank Hondo high amongst them. My favorites include a lot of his other westerns, like Chisum, Big Jake, Rio Bravo, and El Dorado to name a few. Most of those have excellent replay value, something I think Hondo largely lacks despite its brevity.
As for the Blu-ray release, it’s a mixed offering. No 3D elements are included which is a fairly minor disappointment given this was actually filmed in 3D. However, the film as a whole was remastered. It’s also presented in 1:78:1 widescreen, 1080p, with 5.1 Doly TrueHD sound for the first time, along with several other 5.1 language tracks and subtitles. My takeaway of the image quality was simple: when it’s good it’s great, when it’s bad, it’s awful. Many scenes suffer from a severe degradation in visual fidelity as camera angles are switched. I would say most of the movie looks great, but a very significant portion of it — popping up from start to finish, not just in a consecutive block — looks quite terrible. When the video looks good, it’s crisp, clean, and colors are rich. When it looks bad, the entire image is muddy and dull. The suddenness of these changes from great to awful create a disjointed viewing experience.
The Hondo release does gain back some merit with its extra features though:
-Intro with Leonard Maltin – An optional few-minute introduction by the movie buff himself.
-Audio Commentary with Critic Leonard Maltin, Western Historian Frank Thompson, and Actor Lee Aaker.
-The Making of Hondo (~42m, 480p)
-From the Batjac Valuts (2.5m) – A snippet from a 90s Entertainment Tonight episode.
-The Apache (15m) – A brief documentary on the Apache.
-Trailer (HD)
-Photo Gallery
To the summary…