"Arguably Ford's most extraordinary use of color, arguably John Wayne's best performance, inarguably one of Ford's greatest masterworks," says critic Michael Goodwin. "Wayne plays an aging Cavalry officer on his last mission before retirement-and the fact that he seeks to make peace with the Apaches instead of fighting them shows how far Ford had come from the conventional westerns with which he had made his reputation. As in Fort Apache, the emphasis here is not on shoot-em-up action, but on tradition, textural detail, and nuance of character. One remembers Wayne's touching conversations at his wife's grave, his retirement speech to the troops and his meeting with Chief Pony That Walks. And of course one remembers the stunning set piece in which an emergency operation takes place in a covered wagon under the ultimate Fordian storm clouds, during which the Major's wife gets drunk with the wounded trooper and ends up singing off-color verses to 'Yellow Ribbon'." Ford returned to the majestic Monument Valley, shooting most of the outdoor scenes at dawn and dusk. The result is a striking array of natural vistas in golds, reds and browns, reminiscent of the great paintings of Frederic Remington. Winston C. Hoch won an Academy Award for his Technicolor photography. Tonight's print was made from the original camera negatives and finally does justice to the subtle color effects that Ford and Hoch tried to achieve.