All All. Sign In. User reviews. Hide spoilers. This is my father's favorite film,. He got me hooked on it when I was a young girl by pointing out all the gentle humor and the repeated comedic bits that separate it from many other westerns. I still love it for those reasons and more. Brittles is -- needless to say -- the antithesis of Henry Fonda's Col. Thursday in "Fort Apache. Brittles has earned the respect of his troops and won their loyalty, and by the fade-out they have come to love him like devoted sons.
For someone who was allegedly so difficult to work with, John Ford put together a truly remarkable stock company of actors and technical personnel. They appeared in his films time and again, and there was more or less a core group of professionals on screen and off that gave all of Ford's westerns color, excitement and realism. But "Yellow Ribbon" has something less expected: warmth. And there's not a thing wrong with that.
This film is the second entry in John Ford's "cavalry trilogy" and may be the best of the three with John Wayne's performance being one of the best of his career. The picture is an ode to the U. Wayne's escort patrol is the film's focal point which also has an on-going romantic squabble between two young officers and a woman which explains the movie's title. The wonderful lensing captures the natural beauty of Monument Valley, and the scenes of the patrol crossing the wide expanses during a thunderstorm with lightning streaks against the dark clouds are among the picture's best moments.
Ben Johnson stands out as an ex-Confederate soldier and point man and other Ford stock regulars such as Harry Carey Jr. NewEnglandPat Sep 28, Permalink. The army is always the same. The sun and the moon change, but the army knows no seasons. The second instalment of the acclaimed John Ford cavalry trilogy had a lot to live up to after Fort Apache So it may not be too controversial to state that "Yellow Ribbon" doesn't quite achieve the potential promise that Fort Apache's foundation building had provided.
However, here is still a mighty Western of many joys. The lead theme here is the passing of time, of time and love lost, lest we forget indeed. These themes give the film a strong emotional heartbeat from which to work from - even if on proviso it's noted that elsewhere there is not much in the way of an adrenalin pumping action extravaganza. Accepting it as an affecting character piece is something of a requisite if you want to get the most out of the viewing experience, and of course simultaneously getting wrapped up in the gifted art of film making in the process.
