re: Watched "Fort Apache" on Encore and realized...

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Oh, I know...he was just so good at it

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That's the thing - Hank was an ideal "everyman" and is the "liberal" counterpart to one of his best friends, the "conservative" Jimmy Stewart.

Film fans were just unaccustomed to seeing him in an antagonistic role - he was very good as Thursday (I believe a take on Custer, overall, although more spit and polish, Custer was also a West Pointer that went to his doom at the hands of plains indians) - and the only other prominent bad guy he played - at least that I recall - was Once Upon a Time in the West. He was brilliant in that.

And - while Leone "unretired" from making westerns in order to direct Fonda - Fonda initially passed. Eli Wallach had to talk him into it.

They made that entire movie to show Hank Fonda killing a child...



ETA: Fort Apache is probably my least favorite of Ford's "Cavalry" trilogy. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon is more fun (although Fort Apache has its moment) - and Rio Grande has Maureen O'Hara.