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Created Feb 28, 2015 06:02PM PST • Edited Mar 05, 2015 12:00PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   John Wayne starring in an Old West fairytale based on a Louis L’Amour story endows Hondo with loads of old fashioned panache, yet saddles it with too many cliches for enduring greatness. That’s in 2D however. Having seen it years ago in 3D, I recall it as being better but still not great.

   It is a well crafted story, centering on a classic L’Amour ranch romance: three combative men become involved with an attractive young mother and her adorable little boy. Plus it delivers the goods for fans of the genre and its iconic star, of which I’m one. Said another way, it’s a cliche-fest, before they were cliches.

   • Not seven minutes in and the Duke’s breaking a horse
   • The Cavalry literally comes riding over the hill.
   • There’s even a circle-the-wagons scene

   The less attractive cliches mount up also.

   • John Wayne frequently looks trail worn, and then moments later looks fresh as a daisy.
   • The Apaches are played by white actors.
   • Many of the battle scenes are ridiculous.

   Notwithstanding the above, if Hondo ever airs in 3D again, I’m donning the glasses and saddling up.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   John Wayne bought Louis L’Amour’s story, recognizing a John Wayne role when he saw it. He’s ideal as Army dispatch rider Hondo Lane. Iconic, you might say.

   Geraldine Page made her first big splash on the Silver Screen as the homesteader he rescues. Page was already a major star of the theater and would go on to several more major movie roles.

   • Leo Gordon plays her no-good husband
   • Lee Aaker played her adorable son, later starring in The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
   • Ward Bond has 273 acting credits on IMDb. Hondo isn’t one of his four Known Fors.
   • Michael Pate played the Apache Chief, notwithstanding that he’s Australian.
   • James Arness later became an icon in Gunsmoke, here plays a small role as an Army Indian Scout
   • Tom Irish played a fresh-faced Cavalry officer

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

    Hondo dates from a time when 1950s America aspired to be like an idealized 1870s America. Seen now in post-modern America, that strong, independent and self-reliant world is sadly out of favor.

    The film deserves credit for giving a nod to the plight of the Indians, with John Wayne’s Hondo acknowledging that they’d been lied to by the white man and thus were understandably on a war footing.

    How dated is it? This short movie (84 minutes) includes an Intermission. Popcorn anyone?

11. Direction OK 2.5

    Directed by John Farrow, father of Mia Farrow

12. Play Very Good 3.5

    The screenplay by James Edward Grant from a short story by Louis L’Amour includes several powerful exchanges. For instance, a woman acknowledges that she can’t change the way she feels about a man, but “what about the boy?” (Her son) Adult question, that.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Hondo was shot in 3D, thus explaining why a tomahawk comes flying towards the camera, etc. Even in 2D, the high-country southwestern vistas are stunning and the idyllic ranch is well drawn.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.6

17. Sex Innocent 1.2

18. Violence Fierce 2.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.7

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.6

23. Biological Glib 1.5

24. Physical Natural 1.0