Rating: Country: USA Release Date: June 5, 2012 Distributor: Paramount Director: · John Farrow Cast: · John Wayne · Geraldine Page · Ward Bond · Michael Pate · James Arness · Lee Aaker Related Sites: · IMDb: Hondo Grade: A-

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My first John Wayne film was “The Shootist” on pay cable sometime in the early ‘80s. I can’t claim to have seen a majority of the Duke’s 170-odd films, but I have seen a good many. Wayne’s a prototypical movie star that commands the screen with a dynamic charisma that few other mortal men have ever shown. “The Searchers” is quite possibly my favorite of Wayne’s films, so it’s interesting to finally see “Hondo,” which was released a few years prior. At 83 minutes it’s lightning paced, yet there’s still a tremendous depth to the production.

The story “Hondo” is based on the Louis L’Amour novel of the same name. It’s a simple setup with Wayne as the titular Hondo Lane, a cavalry rider, who finds himself in the middle of an Indian war. Hondo attempts to save Geraldine Page’s Angie and her son Johnny played by Lee Aaker. There are some interesting falling-in-love sequences and heaps of cowboy and Indian action. Considering how short it is the film still feels like a complete journey with powerful character arcs.

The film is loaded with excellent performances. Geraldine Page received an Oscar nomination for her work. It’s interesting that the Native Americans aren’t portrayed with complete disdain. It’s an interesting film with quite a bit of nuance and nobody is really presented as a total villain. There are many shades of grey with all of the characters. Michael Pate (an Australian) does noble work as Vittorio the Apache chief. As I stated it’s nice to see Pate allowed to present Vittorio with nuance and not downright evil. The love story between Hondo and Angie at the film’s center is lent gravitas since Hondo killed Angie’s husband. There’s a lot of depth and quite few storytelling surprises.

It’s always exciting when a movie studio deems the audience worthy to put some special features onto classic films home releases. While they are not voluminous there are some substantial extras to enjoy on the “Hondo” Blu-ray. Leonard Maltin plays a huge part in the special bits as he is involved with a commentary along with former child star Lee Aaker. Maltin also served as narrator for three documentaries “The Making of Hondo,” “Profile: James Edward Grant,” and “The John Wayne Stock Company: Ward Bond.” The three pieces run about 40 minutes combined and shed plenty of light on the production, the writer of the film, and one of the co-stars. There’s also a short piece on John Wayne’s film vault which was culled from an early-90s episode of Entertainment Tonight (again featuring Maltin). Maltin’s total screentime nearly rivals Wayne’s if you factor in all the extras he takes part.

Also included are the typical photo galleries one would expect and the prerequisite trailer. More entertaining is a fifteen minute piece detailing the real life Apache tribe. It offers a history of the tribe as well as what the film got right and wrong in its portrayal of the Native Americans. When you look at the entire package the transfer and sound are top notch, the extras are worthy of well over an hour of fun and the film includes an iconic performance by a Hollywood legend. There aren’t much better Blu-rays available in stores or online.