when they found that under the bibles and henry fonda asked him to pour me a drink of that scripture, maybe it was just me, but hearing that character combined with henry fonda made that one of the funniest lines i have ever heard
"So, Lone Star, now you see that evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -Dark Helmet
Absolutely agree!
It was funny 'cause he said it in such a casual way (not implying the humour of the remark.)
"I will behave!"
I agree, I've seen the movie a dozen times and I still chuckle at the scene.
I'm a Luna-tic and more importantly a JESUS-tic.
It's the Bible, you get credit for trying!
i found it offensive and bordering on sacrilege, i would advise you all to mute that scene in the future, for the sake of your immortal souls
the lord giveth and the lord taketh awayeth
Good lord, if you think a 1948 John Ford is sacrilege than I suggest not watching pretty much any film.
shareIt was supposed to be a sarcastic remark regarding what was supposed to be Bibles and obviously not. If you look at Henry Fonda's character, he was not the type to be funny, but actually sarcastic. Ther ewere other lines in Fonda's character that showed his sarcastic side and in most cases, actually cutting remarks intened to hurt that individual.
It seems that every person in this film was not fond of Mr Beechem, the Indian Agent. The Indians and the Army both seem to know what he was about but was shielded behind his official title far away from Washington and carried out nefarious activities. So the despising of Meecham was something that John Wayne's and Henry Fonda's characters has in common.
> It seems that every person in this film was not fond of Mr Beechem, the Indian Agent. The Indians and the Army both seem to know what he was about but was shielded behind his official title far away from Washington and carried out nefarious activities.
Well, the Indian Agents being corrupted was among the most notorious part of the western frontier's mythology, and Ford was vehemently critical about them--after all they represented what Ford disliked the most in the world: obsession to money, and shielding themselves behind the bureaucratic authorities.
> It was supposed to be a sarcastic remark regarding what was supposed to be Bibles and obviously not. If you look at Henry Fonda's character, he was not the type to be funny, but actually sarcastic. Ther ewere other lines in Fonda's character that showed his sarcastic side and in most cases, actually cutting remarks intened to hurt that individual.
Yes, you are absolutely right about that. Maybe something he adopted from his diplomatic services in Europe, since that kind of sarcasm is typical in European aristocratic snobbism, also something Ford disliked.
> So the despising of Meecham was something that John Wayne's and Henry Fonda's characters has in common.
Well, they hate Indian Agents for different reasons, but it comes down to the same critical attitude for sure. For Wayne the dishonesty is unbearable, as well as them corrupting the Indians that he respected, while for Fonda that was a disgrace to the face of the government he respected.
Mr. Beecham was actually named Silas Meacham as the credits show.
Fort Apache is loosely based on the short story "Massacre" by James Warner Bellah. Though it is a reinterpretation of Custer's Last Stand in 1876 it is set during the Ute War (in 1879 in real history) and so could be considered a combination of The Little Big Horn and Major Thornburgh's defeat.
Bellah's novel "White invader" or Rear Guard, filmed as The Command(1954), involved a unit riding to reinforce the army of General Crook after Custer's Last Stand in 1876. I believe I remember reading the Doctor thinking that he remembered the Thursday Massacre. Thus in this fiction series by Bellah Thursday's Disaster happened in or before 1876 despite being based on events in 1876 and 1879.
This timeline puts "white Invader" in 1876 and "Massacre" in 1874. http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/misc/Bellahtime.htm
As I remember, the story "Massacre" included the White River Indian agent Custis Meacham taking the place of Nathan C. Meeker, the historical agent at White River in 1879 (honest but tactless in his dealing with the Utes), so Meacham's character comes from the original story. And Meacham's name is another historical ingredient in Bellah's mixture, a name I recognized from the Modoc War of 1873.
And as this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_B._Meacham shows Alfred B, Meacham (1826-1182) was about the opposite of Silas Meacham, a supporter of Indians rights instead of a greedy exploiter of them.
So the character of Meacham had a long evolution from his historical roots, both good men, to the "blackguard, liar, hypocrite and stench in the nostrils of honest men" seen in Fort Apache.
One of the disappointments of Fort Apache is that we see Silas Meacham beside Thursday the day before the battle but do not recognize him amo9ng those killed the next day, though he deserves it more than anyone else.
It is impossible to commit sacrilege.
shareWhat makes that line is that Fonda's character is a martinet and tends to be humorless...of course the way Henry Fonda delivers that line is supurb.
Great line, great delivery
'Cause I'm Black you think I did it?
Best line in the movie. One of them at least. It really ges the lighter side of Thursday across. Shows he did have some humanity to him.
this one we call, "f_ck you HBO".
http://tinyurl.com/83bp3dj
The exact line is: "Sergeant, pour me some scripture." (I'm watching the movie right now.)
http://ocdviewer.com