How others will see it. John Wayne capably fills the big boots of Western leading man yet again. He tames a horse, shoots Injuns, has a knife fight with an Injun, shoots a bad white man, helps a woman in peril, and serves as role model to her admiring son.
In short, it's all John Wayne, with Wayne only slightly past his prime. There are better Wayne films, to be sure, but for better or worse, no film so personifies the Wayne stereotype as Hondo. He'll do nothing to disappoint his many fans, even when he takes up arms against the Apaches after promising he wouldn't. After all, what's a promise to a dead man worth?
How I felt about it. Geraldine Page has been heralded as the greatest actress ever. She lives up to such hyperbole in films like A Trip to Bountiful and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Just kidding on the second film. Here, in Hondo, she has the easier, yet thankless task of winning battles with Wayne while losing the war. Or, perhaps, she really wins the war when she finally coaxes a marriage proposal out of him. But I think he'll miss the Indians once back on his presumably placid ranch in California.
All the characters are exaggerated, of course. Poor Ward Bond gets the worst of it, playing an Army scout in a character that borders on the "colorful" (and eccentric, and borderline mentally-challenged) aged Western sidekick of "B" comedy short tradition.
Only slightly better off is Lee Aaker, the perfect six-year old who minds his mother, is impressed by Wayne, and has no fear of renegade Apache leader Vittorio (Michael Pate). Every day is a new adventure for golly-gosh Aaker, and you won't catch him whining about early bedtimes or his mother's cooking.
We will discuss Vittorio only in passing, to note that he's Tonto with the addition of the voice of authority and a propensity for undelivered threats.
Page's husband Leo Gordon is a detestable man who deserts his wife, hates dogs, curses soldiers, and tries to shoot Wayne in the back. You'd think that Page, who is always testing Wayne to ensure he's Mr. Right (was there ever any doubt?) would never have married such a jerk to begin with, but that just goes to show how love is blind, particularly when it exists only as a set-up to bring Wayne into the story.
And it's all about Wayne, who fills his role completely without even revealing that he's actually capable of more. Which is our loss, more than his.