Legendary pioneers of the big-screen Western John Wayne and Ward Bond starred in a staggering 23 movies together, the most acclaimed of which is John Ford’s seminal Fort Apache. Wayne and Bond went way back together, having known each other for most of their respective careers in the industry. both as actors and friends.
Typically, Ward Bond would be utilized as a supporting actor in John Wayne’s movies. A well-respected character actor in Hollywood, Bond played a variety of roles, sometimes serving as a secondary antagonist or a friend to Wayne’s cowboy hero. He was with Wayne before he was a star in the 1920s and 1930s, and continued to appear in his films when he was one of Hollywood’s biggest icons. Notably, the last two Westerns they collaborated on, The Searchers and Rio Bravo are generally regarded as some of the greatest movies ever made. But according to the consensus of film critics, neither of these cinematic landmarks tops Fort Apache.
Fort Apache Was John Wayne & Ward Bond’s Greatest Movie Together
It Trumps More Famous Westerns In Storytelling And Characterization
Fort Apache was made in 1948, preceding The Searchers by several years and Rio Bravo by more than a decade. As such, it was far more revolutionary for the Western genre. What’s more, the film’s innovative portrayal of Native Americans, narrative structure, and subversion of the roles Wayne and his most frequent co-star were expected to play, elevate it above its celebrated successors. Fort Apache offers a bolder approach to the cinematic Western than the other movies Ford directed. Its nuanced characterizations and courageous narrative decisions mark it out for greatness.
Fort Apache isn’t a John Ford Western. While The Searchers and Rio Bravo deliver sweeping panoramas and climactic gunfights, this earlier film utilizes storytelling devices and character tropes years ahead of its time. The more authentic and balanced representation of Native American in Fort Apache, for example, was unheard-of in Western movies at the time. Likewise, the film’s sudden jump forward in time for its final act was a game-changer for Hollywood action movies of all genres, let alone Westerns.
Meanwhile, Wayne playing against type as a pacifist army veteran who’s cultivated a friendship with tribal Apache leader, Cochise, sets Fort Apache apart from virtually all of his other performances in the Western genre. It’s a prime example of his underappreciated range as an actor, alongside 1952’s The Quiet Man, Wayne’s best film with Maureen O’Hara. Bond’s unusually quiet supporting role as Fort Apache’s elder statesman also runs contrary to his later collaborations with Wayne in other Westerns. Opposite Wayne, Henry Fonda upends almost every other performance in his career, as an arrogant white-supremicist hellbent on defeating the Apaches.
Why John Wayne & Ward Bond Collaborated So Many Times
The Two Actors Started Out Together Under John Ford’s Mentorship
By the late 1940s, John Wayne and Ward Bond were serial onscreen collaborators, with a working relationship stretching back almost 20 years. Both Wayne and John Ford rightly viewed Bond as a reliable co-star for the Duke. When he took up his role in Fort Apache, Bond had already starred in 11 of his 13 movies to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Yet the pair’s relationship went back even further than their first acting appearance together, in 1929’s Words and Music.
Wayne and Bond went to college together at the University of Southern California, and met while both playing for the university’s football team. They soon became friends, and jointly decided to approach Ford for more acting work after he cast the USC football team as extras in his movie Salute. From that point on, the careers of Wayne, Bond and Ford would become inextricably intertwined. Their journey towards Fort Apache, The Searchers and Rio Bravo had begun.