The Film (4/5)

James Stewart is one of my all-time favorite actors, and having an opportunity to write about him is always a special event. He was an amazing actor whose acting career lasted over fifty years. In many of the films, his characters always seemed to have an incredible amount of ambition, whether it was George Bailey in It’s  a Wonderful Life , Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or even as Glenn Miller in The Glenn Miller Story. His performances as a character that is driven by ambition, who were pursing dreams against all odds, were simply unparalleled and second to none. To me, there is no one that played the role of a man who dared any better than James Stewart.

In Broken Arrow, Stewart, in one his earlier Westerns, playing Tom Jeffords, once again has a role where he has that same drive, that same ambition to have a goal that he will stop at nothing to achieve. The major difference was that this goal that was considered both taboo and even life-threatening.  After ten years of war between the white men and Chiricahua Apache tribe, Tom Jeffords wants to make peace between them. This idea comes after he both saves a young Apache boy’s life, and in turn is also spared his life for saving the boy by the tribe. Because he wasn’t killed, Jeffords believes that there is a human, ‘non-killing’ side of the Apache, and is determined to create peace between them and the Americans. Jeffords has grown tired of the war, and becomes an ‘American ambassador’ of sorts to begin the peace efforts. He goes to make peace with the Apache leader Cochise (Jeff Chandler, Abandoned) and wants learn about the ways and customs of the Apache. His talk of peace doesn’t sit well with his American friends and leads to a conflict in philosophies. While he visits and learns about the Apache ways, he meets Sonseehray (Debra Paget, Tales of Terror) and before you can pronounce her name four times, they fall in love with each other and eventually wed.

A treaty is signed, Cochise ‘breaks the arrow’ (hence the movie title) for peace. But there are Apaches who disagree with Cochise, led by Geronimo (Jay Silverheels, Drums Across the River) form their own faction, and leave the territory, still wanting to kill Americans. And of course there are still some white male, Apache haters which results in making the peace that much more difficult. This hatred leads to a finale that may leave you in tears.  

Based on the true story of Tom Jeffords, Broken Arrow is a thought provoking, intelligent film with a literate script. The topic of a mixed marriage (in this case an American man and Indian woman) was definitely ahead of its time in 1950, and the tragic climax probably also shook a few heads back then. The acting is superb as one would expect.

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

Boasting a new 2K scan, in 1080p with an MPEG-4, AVC encode, and in its original aspect ratio of 1:33:1, Broken Arrow looks stunning. The daylight scenes look marvelous, with vivid, clear colors. Flesh tones look correct; the scenery has great depth and detail. 

The audio used by Kino for Broken Arrow is the usual English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. The dialog, music and gunshots all sound fine all the way through

Extras (1/5)

There is not much in the way of extras; there is Fox Movietone news and trailers, for Broken Arrow, No Highway in the Sky, Ten Seconds to Hell and Tales of Terror

Overall (4.5)

Who needs extras? This is a great classy film shot in beautiful technicolor now given a masterful 2K scan, making the film that much more delightful to watch. With the superior audio and video quality given to a underrated, but quality film, even without the way of supplements this is a highly recommended release!