Geronimo (1993)

In 1905, an aging Geronimo (Jimmy Herman) visits Washington, D.C., and makes a plea for his people’s return to their homeland.

Meanwhile, he shares the history of his people with a young Apache who has learned the white man’s ways in the white man’s school.

It’s a story of perseverance against the brutality of the Mexicans first, then the whites.

It’s the story of how he (Joseph Runningfox) gained acclaim as a warrior at an early age, lost two wives and a child to surprise attacks on his camps, then avenged their deaths.

He comes to the conclusion that all whites must die — including women and children — if the Apache are to survive.

But he promises a dying Cochise that he will live in peace.

And it’s the story of how he went on the warpath one last time when he found reservation life at San Carlos unbearable for a once-proud people.

Review:

A TNT original worth a watch, though individual scenes will likely stick with you longer than the film as a whole.

In one of those scenes, a Mexican soldier slings a papoose around like a toy while Geronimo’s first wife desperately tries to retrieve it.

Another features brutal hand-to-hand combat between the Mexican forces and Apaches led by Geronimo.

And the third shows an aging and drunken Geronimo berating a young boy who’s proud of his garden about the inhumanity of life on the reservation for a true Apache.

This was one of a number of biographical films of Indian leaders, told from the Indian viewpoint, that TNT was producing at the time.

It’s also one of two Geronimo films released in a two-week period in 1993. This film premiered on TNT Dec. 5. A week later, “Geronimo: An American Legend,” starring Wes Studi in the title role, hit theaters.

That said, the two films aren’t all that duplicative. The latter focuses on the efforts to entice Geronimo back to the reservation after he left. This film skips that part of the Geronimo saga.

Directed by:
Roger Young

Cast:
Joseph Runningfox … Geronimo
Michael Greyeyes … Juh
Tailinh Forest Flower … Alope
Jimmy Herman … Old Geronimo
August Schellenberg … Cochise
Geno Silva … Gen. Carbinsco
Harrison Lowe … Nana
Lusheia Lenaburg … Nandile
Ray Geer … Teddy Roosevelt
Nick Ramus …
Michelle St. John … Geronimo’s sister
Kimberly Norris … Geronimo’s 2nd wife

Runtime: 100 min.

Memorable lines:

Geronimo, explaining a nearby explosion: “The white eyes. They’re searching for yellow metal.”
Child: “Don’t they know they’re hurting Earth Mother. She’ll be angry at them.”
Geronimo: “The white eyes go crazy for the yellow metal. It makes them do ugly things.”

Geronimo, of the whites: “If we are to live, they must die. Their women. Their children. All.”

Geronimo: “If we are in the mountains of Mexico, even a few of us, then there is hope for all those here. But if we are here (on the reservation), there is no hope, for any of us.”

Geronimo: “It is easier to die in a world you understand than to live on in one that makes no sense.”