'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' remains for many viewers their favorite Ford film, and it is certainly the most striking visually... Winton C. Hoch won an Oscar for his Technicolor photography...
The compositions and photography around Ford's new stamping ground of Monument valley are great to look at as always... The Monument Valley goes from bright sunlight to hail and sleet...
There is a melancholy mixed together in those incredible vistas, with a certain sense of dreamlike contemplation... A backdrop so complex but so significant as the human characters...
Ford has superbly achieved a huge and composite demonstration of all the legends of the frontier cavalryman... Never have the legendary troops been through the silent 'Indian country' and across the magnificent Western plains so brilliant, vivid, exciting and romantic...
Ford has surely done better himself, unquestionably with 'My Darling Clementine,' and 'The Searchers,' yet one has to admit the undisputed merits of 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.' Even the usual criticism launched against it-that it is a Western influenced by feeling rather by reasoncan be dismissed at the start... Certainly Ford can be sentimental but only when the springs of honest feeling run dry and lose their inspiration, and this never really happens in 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.'
The story is that of an older cavalry officer (John Wayne) who is six days from retirement at Fort Stark when he's sent out, in a last mission, to escort the Major's wife (Mildred Natwick) and her niece, an attractive single lady (Joanne Dru) out of the danger area... Wayne tries to fulfill his military role protecting his female charges against the uprising of the Sioux, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche and Apaches...
Wayne possibly more than any other Western star has re-created and heightened the mythology of the West-one has only to watch again his absolute and ideal image in 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,' or his avenging Ethan in 'The Searchers,' to be reminded of how irresistible the Duke has been on the cinema screen...
'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' is above all a sentimental movie, with irresistible scenes, full of Ford's best touches:
- The cavalry engaged in its everyday work... Wayne simply can't picture himself in a world far from the army...
- The comic interaction between Wayne and Victor McLaglen, two hardcore professional officers...
- The bravery of Sgt. Tyree (Ben Johnson), chased by hostile Indians, who must finish his mission by reporting to the captain what he saw...
- The rivalry of two young cavalry lieutenants (John Agar and Harry Carey Jr.) in love with the same woman, each competing to have her wear a yellow ribbon as a token of his love...
- The 'beloved brute,' the tough-soft cavalry sergeant sharing his saddle with a little orphan rescued from a devastated stage station...
- Ford celebrating McLaglen's lachrymose in self-indulgent fisticuffs in an epic saloon fight...
- The last inspection of the C. troops almost bringing tears to Wayne's and the audience's eyes, as he reads the inscription that means so much to him...
- Wayne riding into the war camp of the Indians to stop a war...
- The U. S. cavalry at full gallop descending upon the encampment, firing wildly and stampeding hundred of Indian ponies...
- The evocative use of music, notably the gay and spirited theme song of the yellow ribbon, played countless times...
'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon ' is an exciting story with strong characters and sentiment, highly enjoyable, and beautiful...