Art Vandelay Broken Arrow is a bit of a precursor to Dances With Wolves and I don't mean that as a compliment. You've got your Indians being portrayed as human beings rather than savages. You've got whites portrayed as clueless bumblers and interlopers. You've got a pathetically painted white woman portraying the Indian love interest. You've got bad dialogue stiffly delivered. You've got narration for half-wits who can't follow the story. And you've got beautiful photography and exciting action sequences. Jimmy Stewart delivers his lines so indignantly and earnestly the words come across as a first-semester term paper from a co-ed at Arizona State University majoring in Southwest American studies. The love angle is cringe-worthy. I almost barfed when they kissed. If you want to learn about Arizona native tribes visit the Heard Museum in Phoenix. If you want to get an eyeful of Sonoma, go visit it in person because it's even more beautiful in real life than on film.

JohnHowardReid Although generally regarded as a trail-blazer in treating Indians sympathetically, "Broken Arrow" was far from the first. That honor belongs to Kit Carson (1903). Similar sympathetic studies include Pioneer Days (1907), The Call of the Wild (1908), The Justice of the Redskin (1908), The Redman and the Child (1908), The Red Man (1909), A Red Man's Love (1909), The Redman's View (1909).We could continue, year by year, but it is sufficient to say that "Broken Arrow" was the 411th Hollywood film to depict Indians as major screen characters. It's not even true to state that before "Broken Arrow" most westerns treated Indians unsympathetically. A minority did regard Indians solely as bloodthirsty savages, but I stress these films were in the minority. They were, however, much more influential than their representation because they were generally big-budget attractions like Red River (1948), Unconquered (1947), They Died With Boots On (1942), Kit Carson (1940), Northwest Passage (1940), Geronimo (1940), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Union Pacific (1939), Stagecoach (1939), Allegheny Uprising (1939), Wells Fargo (1937), The Plainsman (1936). What we can say is that "Broken Arrow" was the first of the postwar "A" westerns to cast Indians in a more tolerant and understanding light, to present them as emotional human beings with cultural and religious identities. As such, the movie stands up remarkably well. Of course we are still burdened by the twin conventions of white actors impersonating Indians and all speaking beautiful English (though James Stewart's off-camera commentary at least makes an attempt to explain this latter problem away). All the same, Chandler does bring a charisma and a dignity to his role, whilst Debra Paget — forsaking all her usual mannerisms — is astonishingly convincing. Stewart of course is his usual capable self. And he is backed up by a solid support cast. "Broken Arrow" is less sentimental and has far more action than I remembered. Both action and dialogue scenes are staged with great competence by Delmer Daves. When all's said and done though, it's the marvelous locations, superbly captured in great Technicolor images, that stay in the memory.

Edgar Allan Pooh " . . . to your Secret Place." So Tom Jeffords takes a breather from his archery lessons by Apache Chief Cochise to take some "Me Time" with his bride, Sonseeahray, at their honeymoon Wikiup that she'd built. But it would take nearly a century for the U.S. Supreme Court to declare mixed-race marriages legal in America, so the Red State One Per Centers--shouting "God made Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and Sonseeahreeve!"--begin taking potshots at the happy couple while the scabs on their hands from the wedding ceremony are still crusty. You just know that a marital union is getting off on the wrong foot when the bride is sporting a through-and-through belly would during Week One. Young kids today often question why all 887 Tribal Nations enumerated in the 1490 Western Hemispheric Census "surrendered" to the One Per Center Fat Cats "just visiting" from Europe. "Isn't even ONE of the 887 making a stand against these Nazi forefathers today?" they ask incredulously. BROKEN ARROW illustrates why "Indian Reservations" in the U.S. and elsewhere are "Sovereign Nations" in name only. Though there may be tiny pockets of free range people scattered across South America's Rain Forests, Mr. Dollar continues to hold every man, woman, and child in the U.S. hostage. The Oscar-nominated writer of BROKEN ARROW had to work under an assumed name to avoid being lynched by the Mad Dog Monied Interests of 1950.

angelfolks In the film "Broken Arrow," the members of the Apache tribe were portrayed as smart and fair people who had some of the same ideas and morals as the Whites. The film begins with the main character, Tom Jeffords, healing a wounded Apache boy. When the Apache boy is departing after being healed his father greets Jeffords and the boy with the intent to kill. This scene shows the fairness of the Apaches when the boy's father says "You did not kill, we will not kill this time." Although the boy's father had the intention to kill Jeffords, he didn't kill him because Jeffords healed his son instead of killing him. This shows the Apaches' sense of fair play, stated later by Jeffords, "They wanted to kill me alright, but they let me go. I learned something that day: Apache women cried about their sons and that Apache men had a sense of fair play." This also shows Jeffords' learning that the Apaches have the same emotions as the Whites. Jeffords realizes that the Apaches act the same as the Whites after the Apache boy describes why he must get back to his mother. "'My mother has cried,' he said. Funny, it had never struck me that an Apache woman would cry over her son like any other woman," Jeffords thought. The film also suggests that the Apaches had a sense of intelligence. In the scene when Jeffords begins his journey to meet Cochise, he sends a smoke signal with Juan, Juan then notes that "Apache eyes are quick." This symbolizes the intelligence of the Apaches because, although they can't be seen, they're always on the lookout for oncoming attacks. Meaning that they are aware of the possibilities of malicious attacks from enemies. One of those sneaky attacks occurs when Col. Bernall planned an attack and ultimately failed. Col. Bernall states that he has "50 rifles in hiding under the blanket" that looks like mail. However, Cochise outsmarts the Col. Bernall and sends his men to circle the military men, shoot them, and steal their wagons. This scene shows that the Apaches were smarter than the Whites.Although the film noted the intelligence of the Apaches, the film did consist of scenes that negated it. The first scene that Sonseeahray and Jeffords meet privately, Sonseeahray is seen admiring an object that she's never seen before: a mirror. She grabs the mirror and inspects it with amazement then says "This is much better than looking through a pool of water." This is ironic because in an earlier scene the Apaches are seen communicating with each other by reflecting sunlight off of a mirror. The film attempted to acknowledge some of the strong suits of the Apaches but didn't fully captivate all of their qualities due to the racism still present in this time period. Racism is shown throughout the plot and through the way the film was directed. The use of white actors are prominent in this film, none of the Apaches are truly colored. All of the actors are coated in brown makeup because the director, Delmer Daves, didn't want to cast colored people. Daves didn't want to cast colored people in this film because they still weren't seen as truly equal during this time period. In fact, Jeff Chandler, who played Cochise, is a white sergeant in another film named "Pillars of the Sky" in which he rescues the Indians from the cruelty of his associates.As in "Pillars of the Sky," "Broken Arrow" depicts that the Whites were always the people seeking to negotiate a peace treaty with the Native Americans. This fictional film depicts Jeffords seeking peace instead of the Apaches; this essentially suggests that white people were always partial while the Apaches were always ready to kill instead of seeking out peace. When Jeffords first asks Cochise to allow the mail to pass by the Apache territory Cochise hesitates to allow this and says "I will not listen," after Jeffords asks "Is it not possible that someday your people and mine can live together as one people?" This shadows the truth that the Whites in fact enticed the war between the Native Americans and the Whites.