If ever there were a filmmaker for whom 70mm were made, it’s John Ford. It’s a shame he didn’t get to work with the format until late in his career (he only made two subsequent features), and that Cheyenne Autumn is hardly a film to rank among his best works.
It’s a disjointed telling of a tribe of Cheyenne Indians and their 1,500-mile journey back to their homeland from enforced exile and a harsh winter spent in a reservation – something of an apologia for Ford’s less-than-progressive depictions earlier in his career.
While the film feels padded to epic length – not least through a diversion to Dodge City for an extended James Stewart cameo – there’s no denying the majesty of its location work, stunningly captured in Super Panavision 70 by cinematographer William Clothier.
Captain Thomas Archer
Richard Widmark
Deborah Wright
Carroll Baker
Captain Wessels
Karl Malden
Red Shirt
Sal Mineo
Little Wolf
Ricardo Montalban
Dull Knife
Gilbert Roland
Doc Holliday
Arthur Kennedy
2nd Lieutenant Scott
Patrick Wayne
Guinevere Plantagenet
Elizabeth Allen
Major Jeff Blair
John Carradine
Tall Tree
Victor Jory
Sr First Sergeant Stanislas Wichowsky
Mike Mazurki
Major Braden
George O’Brien
Dr O’Carberry
Sean McClory
Major ‘Dog’ Kelly
Judson Pratt
Joe
Ken Curtis
Wyatt Earp
James Stewart
Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior
Edward G. Robinson
Jeremy Wright
Walter Baldwin
Little Bird
Nancy Hsueh
Skinny
Shug Fisher
Lieutenant Peterson
Walter Reed
Senator Henry
Denver Pyle
Swenson
John Qualen
Running Deer
Nanomba ‘Moonbeam’ Morton
Director
John Ford