Best movie of this year hands down!

The Worst Film Ever

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The west started to grow up in the Fifties and Fort Bowie was not the kind of film that would have been a Saturday matinée feature for the Gene and Roy crowd a decade earlier. It deals with sexual attention and suggested infidelity stuff that was not covered by those Republic cowboys in this United Artists release.A pair of biblical stories served as plot devices for Fort Bowie. Jan Harrison is the bored wife of commander Kent Taylor and one day in a fit of pique like Potiphar's wife after Ben Johnson rejects her advances says that she and Johnson got it on. Taylor reacts like King David and sends Johnson on a Uriah the Hittite like mission to try and talk to Larry Chance as Vittorio leader of the Apaches to surrender peacefully.Quite understandably Vittorio is in no mood to talk peace with any white men. An eager for promotion officer played by J. Ian Douglas massacred a bunch of Apaches who came in under a flag of truce. By sheer luck and rescue from an unexpected source Johnson escapes.The climax of the film is a slam bang see saw battle for Fort Bowie is the highlight of the film and western fans who crave action will have no cause for complaint.Color might have added something, but Fort Bowie is a western fans dream.

Ben Johnson is nothing if not a genuinely likable guy. Sure, he's from Oklahoma and Texas and grew up with horses and for all we know his politics, combined with all that equinity, may have put him somewhere to the right of Genghis Kahn. But that would be hard to believe. He's measured and slow in speech and demeanor. When he says "Yes, sir" or "No, sir", it sounds like he's been using those polite forms of address since infancy. I've always liked the guy, even when he was a heavy in "Shane." (He reformed.) He's handsome too, and he sits a horse splendidly. Under John Ford he was never anything except a "trooper" or, at most, a sergeant. Here, he's a commissioned officer. It's easy to see why he might have gotten mixed up in the unholy mess that is this movie.Alas, he's not only a Captain, he's a romantic lead. It just doesn't sound kosher when Ben Johnson is compelled to say something like, "Listen, you mean more to me than any woman I've ever known, but you're not for me." That's not Ben Johnson. That's the screenwriter, Maurice Tombragel, taking a snooze instead of working.At least the woman he's romancing, the mammose Maureen Hingert, is beautiful. She was Miss Ceylon somewhere back in the 1950s. She doesn't look much like an Apache though. She's all glamorized up with eye make up and lipstick and silken hair. But then so is the dissatisfied and ambitious wife of the Commanding Officer. He's Kent Taylor. She's Jan Harrison. Taylor has a Hollywood haircut and the neatly trimmed beard of a college professor. He acts like a Hollywood utility player. Jan Harrison can't act at all, but at least she was "Miss Washington State" at some point. With a little imagination Maurice Tombragel could have interpolated a swimsuit competition. ("Darling, why don't you and Chanzana go down to the river, slip into your tiny bikinis, and have a nice swim? I'll join you later with the videocam." See how easy it is?) I don't know how far I want to bother getting into this. The musical score is by Les Baxter, who did some nice arrangements for pop songs in the 50s, but this is generic and could have been written by a Magic 8 Ball. The Apaches speak Indianese. "You get off horse. Leave guns." (That's a direct quote.) You know, I hate saying this, but it's impossible to watch a movie like this -- cavalry versus Apache -- without Ford's enchiridion coming to mind, especially examples like "Fort Apache" and "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon." Ford's movies have a lived-in quality. It's not just that characters are fleshed out with human quirks, while here everyone is stripped of every feature that doesn't advance the story. It's that in "Yellow Ribbon," John Wayne wears red long johns under his dusty uniform. Here, the uniforms are tightly tailored, not baggy and used. The boots are refulgent. They're so polished they probably emit a glow in the dark.There's a scene in which a sergeant is captured and tortured by the Apache. ("Torture him. Torture him good.") Well, the truth is that the Plains Indians were pretty rough customers when it came to torture, though of course it wasn't torture to them. They probably called it "enhanced execution." The Apache might debone captives, beginning with the phalanges, but they expected the same treatment from their enemies. The attitude towards battle of the Indians on the high plains was remarkably similar to that of the Greek city states -- bravery was a virtue of the highest order.Anyway, however much I enjoy Ben Johnson, he's not enough to save this movie. Let's fillet this sucker.

When a ruthless and bloodthirsty major slaughters a band of Apaches who have come with a white flag looking to surrender, the U.S. army finds itself in an all out war with Apaches under Victorio, who has left the reservation. The commander of Fort Bowie, Col. Garrett, finds his job to contain the hostiles complicated after his wife, unhappy in her situation, makes false allegations of improper advances against Captain Thompson. The colonel then decides to send the captain on a suicide mission, to find and order Victorio back to the reservation.Very much a "B" western, with script and acting to match, it features the always entertaining Ben Johnson in a rare leading role. His horsemanship is very much on display, at one point jumping his horse over the walls of Fort Bowie to get at the Apaches, who have overrun the fort. Beautiful Jana Davi also graces the screen as the half Mexican, half Apache Chanzana, one of Victorio's former wives. She has her heart set on landing Captain Thompson, but he is distracted by Alison Garrett, thinking her an ideal army wife.Though "Fort Bowie" will never be mistaken for one of John Ford's western classics, there is plenty of action to satisfy most fans of the genre.

This film is a surprise, it turns out to be much better than expected, considering few people ever heard about it. Ben Johnson as Capt. Thompson proves that he should had more leading roles. The two women, the beautiful Jana Davi (born in Ceylon) and Jan Harrison are responsible for making this a better than average B western. Harrison is Allison, the unfaithful wife of Col. James Garret. Jana Davi is Chanzana one of the wives of Victorio, who leaves the reservation and declares war. This reaction was caused by Major Wharton's bloody and unjustified massacre of Santo and his men who wanted to make peace. Both women fall in love with Thompson, who tries to resist because of the consequences. Good cinematography and the music is by Les Baxter.