February 17 . . .
“I cannot think we are useless or God would not have created us. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.”
- Geronimo
He became famous and feared as an Apache warrior and leader, and to this day his name evokes passion, strength and respect. Born in what is now western New Mexico in 1829, he acquired a reputation as a fearless warrior after he returned home from a trading excursion into Mexico in 1858 and found his wife and three children murdered by white soldiers. He vowed to kill as many white men as he could, and from that day he was driven and guided by a series of visions. He believed he was impervious to bullets. For fifty years he fought brilliantly against the white man; at one point over one-quarter of the entire U.S. army was assigned to track him down, but he avoided capture for years. He was the last Native American leader to effectively defy the government’s attempts to take the Indians from their rightful land.
He spent his final days as a lion in winter – an old fighter tamed and subjugated by the government that he had so effectively battled years before, charging a dollar to pose for photographs with visitors, tourists, and dignitaries, until he died this day at the ripe old age of 80.
He was right all along. He had indeed been immune to bullets.
Relive his glory days as the most revered and feared Apache warrior of all time in ‘Geronimo: An American Legend’ (1993). In one of his most restrained and cohesive films, director Walter hill paints a vivid and haunting portrait of the fighter and his tempestuous times. Wes Studi, as Geronimo, delivers a solid, layered performance, but the real star of the film is Jason Patric as the cavaryman who is used as a liason between Geronimo and the whites. Far from your typical cavary vs. Indians shoot-‘em-up, Hill’s memorable movie is a mournful keen, and sad and instructive history lesson. Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall lend stellar supporting turns.
“I cannot think we are useless or God would not have created us. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.”
- Geronimo
He became famous and feared as an Apache warrior and leader, and to this day his name evokes passion, strength and respect. Born in what is now western New Mexico in 1829, he acquired a reputation as a fearless warrior after he returned home from a trading excursion into Mexico in 1858 and found his wife and three children murdered by white soldiers. He vowed to kill as many white men as he could, and from that day he was driven and guided by a series of visions. He believed he was impervious to bullets. For fifty years he fought brilliantly against the white man; at one point over one-quarter of the entire U.S. army was assigned to track him down, but he avoided capture for years. He was the last Native American leader to effectively defy the government’s attempts to take the Indians from their rightful land.
He spent his final days as a lion in winter – an old fighter tamed and subjugated by the government that he had so effectively battled years before, charging a dollar to pose for photographs with visitors, tourists, and dignitaries, until he died this day at the ripe old age of 80.
He was right all along. He had indeed been immune to bullets.
Relive his glory days as the most revered and feared Apache warrior of all time in ‘Geronimo: An American Legend’ (1993). In one of his most restrained and cohesive films, director Walter hill paints a vivid and haunting portrait of the fighter and his tempestuous times. Wes Studi, as Geronimo, delivers a solid, layered performance, but the real star of the film is Jason Patric as the cavaryman who is used as a liason between Geronimo and the whites. Far from your typical cavary vs. Indians shoot-‘em-up, Hill’s memorable movie is a mournful keen, and sad and instructive history lesson. Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall lend stellar supporting turns.
Click here to see a clip . . .
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