Jimmy Stewart’s ‘Broken Arrow’ Has Flaws, But It Excels at This (original) (raw)
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Published Nov 29, 2023, 1:45 PM EST
Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wife and daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, and conducts interviews. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own. His novella, The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain,was released in 2023. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" from the Western Writers of America in 2025. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.
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Summary
- Broken Arrow portrayed Native Americans as sympathetic characters and explored their culture in a positive light, challenging the common Western trope of Native Americans as villains.
- The film depicted Thomas Jeffords as a complex character who showed compassion towards and fought for peace between the Apache people and the white settlers, promoting ideas of tolerance and equality.
- While the casting of non-Native actors in Native American roles was a common practice at the time, Broken Arrow's honorable ideals and promotion of peace and tolerance transcend this flaw.
For a long time, the Western genre portrayed Native Americans as only the villains of the story. The phrase "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" is often associated with the Old West and the resulting years in which Native peoples were persecuted and portrayed in poor taste, and aptly describes the marring of their image throughout the centuries. In recent years, Native peoples have been portrayed with new respect and authenticity, with shows like Reservation Dogs and Dark Winds highlighting the truths about tribal cultures and peoples in the modern day. But back in the 1950s, there was one Western that hoped to kickstart the trend of better sympathizing with First Nations peoples, and that was none other than Jimmy Stewart's Broken Arrow.
Release Date
August, 1950
Runtime
93 minutes
Director
Delmer Daves
Writers
Elliott Arnold, Albert Maltz, Michael Blankfort
What Is Jimmy Stewart's 'Broken Arrow' About?
Loosely adapting the true story of Thomas Jeffords and the Apache leader Cochise, which was first adapted into the novel Blood Brother by Elliot Arnold, Broken Arrow starred James Stewart as Jeffords, a man who, after saving a young Apache boy from death, is spared by the Native people and demonized by his peers. Witnessing the horrors of both the white man and the Indian, Jeffords eventually opts to broker peace between the groups and learns the Apache language as a result. In meeting with Cochise (Jeff Chandler), Jeffords convinces the Apache chief to let the mail run through their territory. But while there, Jeffords falls in love with the beautiful young Apache woman, Sonseeahray (Debra Paget), and eventually marries her.
Alongside General Oliver Otis Howard (Basil Ruysdael), a man known as "the Christian general" who treats the Indians with the same respect he does any person, Jeffords and Cochise eventually persuade most of the Apache to sign a peace treaty with the United States. Hoping to save both peoples from war, they fight for this peace by silencing rebels like Geronimo (Jay Silverheels) and Ben Slade (Will Geer), each of whom attempt to destroy the peace by attacking the other. Unfortunately, Jeffords and Sonseeahray get caught in the middle, and the latter is eventually killed by those who would have no peace.
While the offending party is eventually captured by General Howard and his men, Jeffords is left brokenhearted. Despite Cochise breaking the arrow (a symbol of the peace between races), violence and death still came. The movie ends with a monologue by Jeffords, who notes that "the death of Sonseeahray had put a seal upon the peace, and from that day on wherever I went, in the cities, among the Apaches and in the mountains, I always remembered, my wife was with me."
'Broken Arrow' Portrays Native Americans as Sympathetic, Not Villains
Cochise, played by Jeff Chandler, meets with Tom Jeffords in Broken Arrow.
Image via 20th Century Fox
At the time, most Westerns opted to use Indians as their antagonists. We see Geronimo and his Apache warriors pursuing our heroes throughout John Ford's Stagecoach, for example, and there are multiple Indian attacks in Howard Hawks' iconic Red River. This was and, in many ways, still is a common occurrence in the genre (Yellowstone spin-off 1883 being a recent example), and while there's a historical basis for those sorts of events, it's also not the full story. Instead of getting stuck on the Apache violence that Broken Arrow doesn't shy away from in the film's opening scenes, the picture also takes a look behind the curtain to better discern and explore the people rather than the simple caricature.
Jeffords is portrayed here as a complex character who, though he sees what "bad Indians" can do, also sees that the Apache are human beings not unlike himself. It's compassion that prompts him to save the young Apache boy's life, and it's that same genuine care that drives him when fighting for peace between their two peoples. Cochise and his people may have ways that are different from the white settlers who have slowly encroached on their ancestral lands, but unlike many Westerns that fail to explore their culture in a positive light, Broken Arrow doesn't shy away from it. Ideas of tolerance and equality flow freely through this Jimmy Stewart Western, and even with the tragic ending, the idea that peace remains despite evil acts of violence is one that felt timely only a few years after World War II. Not to mention, it was a more suitable ending than acknowledging that the Apache Wars started up again after only four years of peace.
Of course, Broken Arrow isn't the first Western to garner a sympathetic portrayal of American Indians. The John Ford / John Wayne collaboration Fort Apache is considered one of the first "pro-Indian" Westerns and was released two years prior to Broken Arrow. Additionally, the 1949 film The Cowboy and the Indians also introduces a white savior character (played by Gene Autry, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself) and his attempts to help the mistreated Indian people. Ironically, Jay Silverheels, who plays Geronimo in Broken Arrow, previously appeared as Lakoma in movie picture and is the only Native actor to appear in a speaking role in Broken Arrow.
'Broken Arrow' Unites Its White Hero With Native Americans Before the "White Savior" Trope
Tom Jeffords, played by James Stewart, and Geronimo, played by Jay Silverheels, in Broken Arrow.
Image via 20th Century Fox
Speaking of the white savior trope, that idea has been around for a long time. The difference, of course, with Broken Arrow is that Thomas Jeffords was a real-life person who actually did fight for a treaty between the United States and the Apache people. The real Jeffords became friends with the real Cochise, and the latter even called Jeffords "Chickasaw," which means "brother" in Apache. When a peace treaty was eventually signed in 1872, Jeffords became the Indian agent to the Chiricahua Apache tribe, a title he undertook until the U.S. government removed him from his position a few years later.
Though Broken Arrow is a highly fictionalized version of the account (Jeffords never married an Apache woman, for instance), it still maintains a basis in history that cannot be ignored. Nowadays, the "white savior" trope is one that is highly criticized by many lovers and haters of the Western genre alike, and rightly so in many cases. Regardless, it's a popular cliché that likely won't go away any time soon... at least, not as long as the Western is still around. Still, Broken Arrow does a fine job at making Jeffords as respectful of Apache's ways and customs as possible, despite many of them (such as the "Apache Wedding Prayer") being created solely for the film. In many ways, Jeffords is not just the liaison between the Apache people and the U.S. government, but between the audience and the sensitive subject matter as well, urging viewers to pursue peace, tolerance, and understanding with one another.
Believe it or not, Broken Arrow was somehow popular enough to warrant a television continuation in 1956, with John Lupton taking over as Indian Agent Tom Jeffords and Michael Ansara as Chief Cochise. While the show only lasted two seasons (and 72 episodes), it re-treaded a lot of the same ground as the feature film, albeit without characters like Sonseeahray. Unsurprisingly, the show centered more around Jeffords and his exploits in keeping the peace rather than Cochise and his people's point of view (tragically giving Ansara little to do), which speaks to only some of the issues with the "white savior" model and its poor usage in the genre. Nevertheless, the original film handles the whole thing surprisingly well and fights to make every voice heard. It's no wonder then that the screenplay was penned by "Hollywood Ten" writer Albert Maltz, whose communist sympathies led to his eventual blacklisting.
'Killers of the Flower Moon' & 'Reservation Dogs' Have Modern Native American Representation
It's important to note that the primary Apache characters in Broken Arrow are not played by Apache actors. In fact, they're not even played by Native American actors from any tribe. With the aforementioned exception of Jay Silverheels' portrayal of Geronimo, Broken Arrow cast primarily white actors in the roles of Apache characters. While this was commonplace at the time (and Broken Arrow was by no means the first or last Western to do this) it reminds us that while this was a clear step in the right direction, promoting progressive ideals with a traditional flare, it was still an imperfect attempt.
Jeff Chandler, for example, received a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of Cochise, despite being of Jewish descent. Debra Paget, who went on to appear in pictures such as The Ten Commandments and Love Me Tender opposite Elvis Presley, played Sonseeahray despite her Caucasian heritage. This has been a trend in the Western genre that has continued even into the 21st century, with actor Johnny Depp (who admittedly claims to have Native ancestry of his own) cast as Tonto in Disney's The Lone Ranger remake in 2013. Thankfully, recent years have pushed filmmakers to listen better to and properly cast Native artists, which has certainly been to the Western genre's advantage. There are more diverse Westerns and authentic stories being told nowadays than there ever have been, such as Dark Winds, Reservation Dogs, and Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. While a clear product of its time, Broken Arrow's honorable ideals outshine this oversight and leave audiences with the hope of peace and tolerance.
Broken Arrow is available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.