Sometimes, you have to watch a John Wayne film.  Luckily, I found one that clocks in at just a little over an hour and twenty minutes in length.  I say “luckily” because his movies seldom have a middle ground to them in terms of quality.  Since he is known for making Westerns, this variety comes with the expected negative cultural baggage.  When you can find his roles away from horse and saddle pictures, he has given some solid performances.  My favorite will always be The Alamo (1960).  However, one could contend that it is still a Western.  After all, it is set in Texas.  If you want to see his acting chops on display, though, I recommend The Quiet Man (1952).  The movie I am about to discuss, Hondo (1953), shares little in common with those titles, aside from it fitting into Wayne’s usual genre.  It is not very good, but like I said early on, it is short.

Another thing Hondo is short on is introduction.  Homesteader Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page) and her son, Johnny Lowe (Lee Aaker), live on a farm inside Apache territory.  This might sound like a reason for alarm, but they are more untroubled by the sudden appearance of Hondo Lane (John Wayne) on their property.  He appears horseless and without his dog, having been scouting the native peoples in the area.  For his part, he is surprised to find anyone of a lighter complexion still around.  He is part Native American, but he is working for the United States Army as a scout.  The backing of the government means he can offer remuneration for whatever the Lowes give him in terms of hospitality, including a new horse.  As he makes his preparations, he settles in for a couple days, even doing some of the chores.  While going about his business, he wonders about Angie’s husband, Ed Lowe (Leo Gordon), who she says should be back from chasing errant cattle in the nearby hills.  Hours, then a day pass, and Ed does not come home.  There is clearly something off about the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Lowe, enough that Hondo feels bold enough to kiss Angie.  The expression of some kind of feeling from him has him suggesting that she and Johnny clear off their farm and get to safety since the Apache are about to be on the proverbial warpath.  Angie waves away his concern, telling Hondo that she has a great relationship with them.  Since he has a tendency to let people live with their decisions, he departs for the nearest army base.  Not long after leaving, the Apache appear at the Lowe homestead.  Despite their previous friendliness, the arrival of the Apache is met with unease.  Their leader, Vittorio (Michael Pate), senses the same thing that Hondo did: that Ed is absent.  When the visitors start getting rough with Angie, Johnny finds the household pistol and takes a shot at one of Vittorio’s lieutenants.  Rather than being enraged by the assault, Vittorio is impressed and makes Johnny a blood brother of the Apache.  This gets the them to leave, and Johnny is excited about being treated as a warrior in training.  As for Hondo, he gets to the fort and tells the officers what is going in with the Apache.  While there, he meets Ed, who notices that Hondo had been in contact with his family.  Ed does not take kindly to this interaction and they have a fight in the bar.  At the same time, the cavalry is about to go out on patrol, a move that Hondo believes will end in disaster.  What he is more interested in doing is getting back to Angie.  Setting off on his own, he is followed by Ed and an accomplice, who catch up with Hondo.  Though Hondo is able to fend off the attackers, including killing Ed after Mr. Lowe tries to shoot Hondo in the back, the scout has bigger problems.  The Apache have found him, and after a brief chase they capture him.  They are about to execute him when they find a daguerreotype (an early form of photograph) of Johnny that Hondo had taken from Ed.  Since Johnny is a part of the people, Vittorio instead allows Hondo to prove himself in hand-to-hand combat with one of his men.  Hondo triumphs but lets his opponent live, resulting in him being unceremoniously dumped on the Lowe farm as a potential mate for Angie.  Making this happen is going to prove a little difficult, particularly because the brutally honest Hondo feels compelled to admit that it had been him who had killed Ed.  Angie takes this development hard, but her feelings for Hondo are such that she forgives him.  It also helps that Ed had been unfaithful to her, or so we are told.  As things are getting settled, the cavalry gets to the homestead on their way to Apache territory.  Despite warnings from Hondo, their eager young leader, Lieutenant McKay (Tom Irish), pushes ahead.  In a few days’ time, the battered remnants of the patrol straggle back to the farm.  They have managed to collect other farmers in the area with their wagons.  In looking over the bunch, Hondo makes the decision that Angie and Johnny must leave, too, and head with him to his own land in California.  What follows is a bizarre sort of running battle with the Apache where the wagons circle three times for no discernible reason I can tell.  Whatever it is that happens, Angie, Hondo, and Johnny survive and ride into the sunset.

At least I guess they ride into the sunset at the end of Hondo.  It makes sense since California is west of where they are, and that is where the sun goes down.  Nonetheless, see?  I told you it is a short movie.  It also does not leave much for me to discuss in terms of a Catholic analysis.  As so often happens when analyzing movies, I will have to grasp something, so let us talk about honesty.  As discussed in the previous paragraph, Hondo is the kind of person who believes the truth should be told regardless of the situation.  Some might call that refreshing, but is that how a Christian should approach honesty.  Scripture has a lot to say on the subject, but arguably the best comes in Ephesians 4:15, “Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into Him who is the head, Christ. . . .”  The key phrase there is “living the truth in love.”  At one point, Hondo admits to not being able to remember being happy.  In other words, the man is bitter, which I guess has something to do with whatever it is he had been up to in the unseen years before the movie.  His experiences have made him conclude that the truth should be presented plainly, which basically means roughly.  An example of this is when he is about to tell Johnny what had really happened with his father.  It is Angie that forestalls Hondo, saying that the revelation will not only ruin the boy’s opinion of Ed, but that of the man his mother has come to love.  It is in this moment that we see the example of the truth being spoken in love.  Her perspective on the damage that could be done from handling this in this manner is the Christ-like approach.

This moment is the only Christ-like thing about Hondo.  In actuality, there is nothing special about the film.  I chose it because, aside from its brevity, it was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Page for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.  If you watch this movie for some reason, you might find this as baffling as I do, but that explains much of the end of these proceedings.