ironhorse_iv
Captain Apache also known as Deathwork & the Guns of April Morning wasn't a good movie! Directed by Alexander Singer, Captain Apache, tells the story of a Native American US army officer, Cullah "Apache" Burnett (Lee Van Cleef), trying to solve the murder of a military commissioner who was investing an assassination plot. The only clue, he got to go on, is the last words of a dead Commissioner, "April morning". Each time he nears discovering the meaning of the phrase, a suspect dies, throwing him off the trail. Can Captain Apache find what April Morning is, or will the assassins get the last laugh? Watch the movie to find out! Without spoiling too much of the film, I really found this movie plot to be made, over complex. Loosely based off, Carlos Castaneda's 1968's novel, Teaching of Don Juan. The book narrates about Castaneda's experiences with a Yaqui shaman, which might have influence and led to the decision to turn Van Cleef's character into an Indian. Both Philip Yordan and Milton Sperling were experienced screenwriters, but you have wonder if they did a few acid trips before writing the script when they thought of that. While, the murder assassination plot seem pretty simple, the movie writers really try to stretch it out themes like social commentary, and government paranoia, that it comes across as way too vague, repetitive and messy. By the end, of the film, you'll really will hate the words, 'Red-ass'. Not, because it's racism, but how annoying, that word, often comes up in the script. It didn't help, that run-time for this movie is very wide, while the script is small and thin. The movie pacing moves in very slow pace. If that wasn't enough; this political thriller was very dull at times. It lacks action. The action scenes, we did see, were just plain awkward. The tavern filled with dead and blind guitarist didn't match, with the audio. It's weird, to see the guitarist's music still playing, while he's clearly not, playing anymore, toward the end. Then you got the outside shots of the tavern, where the upper right corner of the screen, you can see some sort modern day, flashing neon sign or billboard in the distance. Talk about a big anachronism mistake. Another problem with this film is the location, where it's shot. The movie fails to use the beautiful Spanish landscapes. Instead, it felt like, shooting at night, or in a dim-lit set. The train shootout is a good example of this. It was so badly shot, that you couldn't tell, what's going on, due to how pitch dark, that screen is. The movie is also nearly often impossible to follow, due to awful temporary editing, jumps. One minute, you're in a romantic settling, and then it cuts awkwardly to a suicide. There is no rhyme or rhythm to the flow of these scene. Clearly, you don't need any more smoke signals to know that this film is horrible. If you need, another point; just look at who is the actor playing Captain Apache! Lee Van Cleef! While, Cleef is great, at playing a beloved villain or hero, within movies westerns. I felt that, he was grossly miscast, here as a Native American. While, the movie is very pro-Native American and anti-racist. Lee Van Cleef's portray a Native American understandably raise concern within some viewers, when seeing this movie. Most of them, found the role, he was playing, still kinda offensive. Yes, I know that such practices, was a normal part of the Euro-Western genre at the time, with dark Spanish playing the Native-Americans, type roles, but Lee Van Cleef, clearly doesn't have to the skills or looks to pull this, off. Lines, like 'Teach me, the ways of the white man!" to his lady-lead, really got under my skin in how stupid, they were delivered. I found his performance to be very cringe worthy, because how dumb, his character was. For a case, that seems, pretty simple to solve. It takes him, forever to solve it. It was very laughable, seeing his character go on an acid trip, half way, through the movie, just to help him, solve the mystery. Its way more laugh out loud when Lee Van Cleef get down to his undies just to talk to his tribe-men. I know, that most of those scenes, he was in, are supposed to be taken seriously, but clearly, there was something, not right, about his performance. It came across, as funny unintentional, most of the time. It didn't help that Lee Van Cleef wore a fake weird looking wig, and a funky looking coat, during most of the film. The rest of the casting is as offbeat as the main actor, with Stuart Whitman, Elisa Montes & Carroll Baker making surprise appearances as the shady business man, Griffin, the teasing Rosita, and the seductive saloon lady, Maude. Stuart Whitman was alright as the man with a plan, while Carol Baker and Elisa Montes were beautiful, but tempting in their roles. I just wish, their characters weren't negatively viewed. My favorite bad actor, had to go to Jose Bodalo as a Mexican General. His over the top dramatic death scene, was a chuckle. Not only was the acting, pretty mediocre, but the music. Lee Van Cleef perform no less than two songs, 'April Morning' and 'Captain Apache'. He only tries singing only one, while the second, the title song, is a sort of slow rap, with him reading the words. It was so-off-key. The acid rock trip music between those two songs, was so bad and out of place. You would wish to be tomahawk to death, so you can't heard it. Overall: This movie was a misfire. Besides the opening credits prologue that was kinda funny. This movie was mostly unintentional funny. Don't expect too much. It's watchable, but surely no enjoyable.
Coventry
At first when accidentally stumbling upon "Captain Apache" on late night TV and knowing absolutely nothing about it, I derived it would be a story similar to the one told in "A Man Called Horse" (and thus also a predecessor to "Dances with Wolves") and revolving on a white man fighting alongside the oppressed Indians. What else do you expect from a film with a title like that? It quickly becomes obvious this isn't the case, and the titular Captain (the almighty Lee Van Cleef), is simply an eccentric loner but a genuine Indian. He works as an Army officer, but none of the white cowboy-machos respect him because he's a "Redass" and the Indians don't trust him because he does a white man's job. He even has to remove his uniform whilst talking to the Indians, resulting in a shameless and gratuitous naked Van Cleef scene. The whole movie searches for the meaning of the words "April Morning", and the dialogs in the script make damn sure you don't forget them as they're repeated approximately every 7,5 seconds. April and Morning were the last words of a dying officer and they are believed to have an important significance. Captain Apache investigates and quickly becomes entangled in a large-scaled conspiracy of Mexican gun smugglers, quality prostitutes, corrupt army commanders and … genuine witches! The plot is often needlessly convoluted and I easily admit I didn't bother to comprehend everything, especially because the basic premise is rudimentary simple and actually gets revealed already in the two-line plot synopsis here on this site. How absurd is that? Throughout the whole film the words "April Morning" bathes in an aura of mystery and their meaning is successfully kept secret until five minutes before the ending, yet around here the whole film is bluntly summarized in two sentences. "Captain Apache" is overall very forgettable, but it does feature a couple of brilliantly comical moments (Van Cleef's drinking contest with the freaky twin bodyguards or his acid trip inside the witches' cavern), some decent shootouts and – not to forget – two songs sung by no less than Lee Van Cleef himself. This is the only time Lee was ever credited as a singer and that trivia aspect alone makes "Captain Apache" a curious must-see for fans of Euro-westerns. The presence of cult-siren Carroll Baker ("Baba Yaga", "Knife of Ice", "Bad", "Cyclone"…) as every male character's love interest is another good reason for avid cult fanatics to track down this nonetheless mediocre film.
marc-366
"Ah aha aha ahaaaa - they call him Captain Apache"."Well any film that provides you with an opportunity to hear Lee Van Cleef singing not just once, but twice has got to be worth a viewing" I thought to myself. "I'm sure it can't be as bad as I've been told". Well in truth it IS that bad. But it doesn't make it unwatchable! Lee Van Cleef plays an Apache Captain within the Army that is sent to investigate the murder of a Commissioner, and discover the meaning of the dying man's last words "April Morning".It plays like a murder mystery in a western setting, with numerous characters introduced throughout that appear to have heard the phrase "April Morning", but are either attempting to solve the riddle themselves, or are shot before they can speak. These include gunrunner Griffin (Stuart Whitman), the blonde temptress Maude (Caroll Baker) and the equally teasing Rosita (Elisa Montes). And from a plot perspective, that is pretty much it (well, without solving the mystery that is!). Yes, it sounds very simple, but in actual fact the story is quite convoluted.The soundtrack is hysterical - the title track in particular being so bad that you just love it - with Lee Van Cleef narrating to a tune so catchy that it would put professional purveyors of pop to shame! And you still get his rendition "April Morning" at the end of the film to look forward to. Whilst it is quite poor Spaghetti Western fare, and a perfect example of the deterioration of the genre during the seventies, it does have three main factors that make it quite watchable : 1 - Lee Van Cleef himself - although this is a real LVC by numbers effort, the man has a screen presence that can rescue even the worst of films.2 - The afore-mentioned theme tune.3 - Caroll Baker and Elisa Montes (thats just the male hormones working! And anyway ladies, you get the bonus of a near naked Lee Van Cleef, so no accusing me of gawping!).Aside from this, there are some really good moments (Captain Apache insulting the two twins, the death of the Mexican General (played by Jose Bodalo) and a handful of other scenes that I chuckled at at the time but have since left my mind). At times the editing between scenes was quite poor (at one point jumping from Captain Apache in bed with Maude, to them discovering the hanging body of the key witness). Well hung! Don't let me put you off watching it, because it is an example of a film being so bad its good. I would never have imagined however that Lee Van Cleef crooning would be the highlight of a film!
