Absolute rubbish!
This movie is so filled with historical errors that it is nearly impossible to list them all. Granted, Hollywood takes "literary license" but this is beyond pale. From the beginning scenes of "chief" Geronimo riding up carrying a peace pipe (Geronimo was never a chief and the Chiricahua Apache never used smoking pipes)to the end scenes of Massai going off to live a peaceful life. In fact, there was a Chiricahua named Massai who did escape from the prison train but but the rest of the movie is pure 100% unadultrated BS. And in the end, the real Massai was tracked down and killed after he broke out of the Mescalero reservation and his body burned to bone and ashes. For a true account read INDEH by Eve Ball. In Chapter 10 Massai's daughter, Alberta Begay, recounts her father's life and death. Too bad there isn't a -star system for this film would need to be rated there.

Well-intentioned but not entirely successful
Despite fond childhood memories, Apache has dated badly. One of the vogue for pro-Native American westerns during the mid-50s (Broken Arrow, Devil's Doorway, etc), this is definitely one of the lesser offerings despite the promising pairing of a painfully miscast Burt Lancaster and Robert Aldrich, who would make amends some 20 years later with the remarkable Ulzana's Raid. The script is a prime offender here, both simplistic and patronising, offering little for either man to really get their teeth into. There are a few good moments, but the sight of Lancaster and Morris Ankrum in brownface remains the film's lasting image.

MGM/UA's transfer is acceptable, although the colour system used to shoot the film originally has not held up well and leads to a variable look to the film. The original theatrical trailer - bizarrely played as a breaking news report - is included.

Hollywood and History Collide
Great movie that shows how the Native Americans were treated and is based somewhat on history itself. There was an Indian named Massai, and a Mr. Wettle, along with Seiber. It is not a history movie, but more of a movie based on the degredation of the Native Americans and one Indians war with them and himself. The ending is one of compromise, but in reality, this was never to be for most of the Apaches.
Burt Lancaster is at his ever popular, ripped body, and makes you believe that he could do all that the true Native American Massai did do.
For some reason this movie has just struck me as one I like to watch when I get tired of everyone else complaining that they have it so hard in life today. Especially some minority groups who did not have it so, or still are, as the Native American.

Thoughtful Lancaster Western
Apache finds Burt Lancaster not only in his element, as he was a fantastic Western (and a great all-around) movie actor, but finding space to create great sympathy and pathos in this film, one of the earlier films to show Native Americans in a more humane light.

Lancaster plays Massai, who refuses to surrender with Geronimo, and escapes to plan a one-man revolution against the Army and settlers. Along the way, he finds love with Jean Peters and gains the respect of chief Army scout Al Sieber, played by John McIntire.

Lancaster infuses Massai with great dignity and honor, and even though we already know that his cause is bound to fail, we celebrate his triumphs and bemoan his defeats. His character has the kind of nobility that may seem Hollywood inspired, but at the end of the day, he's a man who wants to live as he chooses.

Apache is an excellent film, and a wonderful showcase for Burt Lancaster.

Good Story but Needs More Context
I certainly appreciate that Apache was trying to tell a Native American story from the point of view of the Native Americans. The Apache had happy lives before the government came along and tried to squish them onto reservations. Masai, a member of the Apache tribe, is rightfully indignant when they unceremoniously toss him into a boxcar and ship him off to Florida with Geronimo.

True to the famed Apache long distance running talent, Masai escapes and manages the long, arduous trek back to his homeland. He even has a right to be cynical about his native american friends, when he is sometimes helped and sometime hindered by them. It gets to the point that he wages a one man feud against everyone around him.

That all being said, it was hard for me to setle into a mindset where I could really relate to Masai *being* a Native American. He's played by Burt Lancaster. He always looked like Burt Lancaster with red paint on him. His sweetheart in the film is Jean Peters, who looks like a white woman with red paint on her. Masai is really foul to her throughout the movie. You would think, if he really wanted to perpetuate the Apache way, that he'd want to have a female around to do this with. Instead, he actively torments the only ally he has in his fight.

When he finally does weaken enough to allow her to stay with him, the movie becomes unbelievable. The ending sequence does not make a lot of sense.

Most of the movie focusses on the towns of the old west. You get to see very little of the culture that Masai was trying to preserve. You get much more of what the natives had been assimilated into. If we are going to see hours of Masai fighting for what he believes in, I would have loved to have seen that ground laying time, to really appreciate what the Apache culture was all about. Still, I suppose for the 50s this was a step in the right direction.