I saw this in the cinema - I think it was the first Walter Hill film that I saw on the big screen, and I remember loving the images and being underwhelmed by the drama. Rewatching it years on and that hasn't changed - it's a mess. I know this film has its admirers but I struggle to see what Hill was going for, apart from aping John Ford.
There's beautiful visages - the desert, horses climbing out of the sand, people taking pot shots at each other, horses going through the river.
But dramatically it's all over the place - it's not about Geronimo, or other Indians, or even the white men. It's about a bunch of actors looking cool. There's no point to Matt Damon's character - Jason Patric's character is mostly an accent. Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall get by on star power and ability... but really there's two sorts of white characters... racists and people who fight the Indians but by gosh darn they respect them and they're not racist. Why not vary it a little? Why not give Damon something to do? Or cut him out?
The Indians either fight for the white men and have noble dignity or fight against them and have noble dignity. Why not vary them? Why not have some interesting character interaction?
Why not pick a particular story... say Geronimo's final break out? It's a film of moments rather than narrative cohesion and so many of those moments are repetitive - we get two scenes of Geronimo surrendering in an anti-climactic way for instance. I kept watching it going "that could be cut... and that..." Notably Damon's pointless narration.
Heavy and plodding, overwritten with no passion, for all the "right on" comments the Indians make about the white men stealing their land. Why don't we see it?
Some decent moments - Duvall's death, the tracker being betrayed at the end. But it feels like a museum exhibit.
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