Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring original poster artwork [2000 copies]
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on Apache by Western scholar Jenny Barrett and film writer Richard Combs [2000 copies]
1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray
Uncompressed original mono audio
Optional English subtitles (SDH)
The Story of Massai – new interview with Austin Fisher, author of Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western
The Last Sunset in Vera Cruz – new interview with film historian Sheldon Hall on Robert Aldrich and the Western
Original theatrical trailer
SYNOPSIS
Perhaps best known for his iconic film noir effort Kiss Me Deadly, his unsettling psychological horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and his action-packed war movie The Dirty Dozen, the celebrated American auteur Robert Aldrich was also an accomplished director of Westerns. Amongst his best are Vera Cruz, The Last Sunset and his very first foray into the genre: the Burt Lancaster vehicle Apache.
Following the surrender of Geronimo (Monte Blue) to the United States Cavalry, Massai (Lancaster) becomes the last remaining Apache warrior. After he is captured by the American military and put on a prison train to be forcibly resettled on a reservation in Florida, all seems lost. But Massai manages to escape his captors and sets out to return home, where he hopes to settle down with Nalinle (Jean Peters) and farm the land. But as the frontier shrinks rapidly by the day, returning to his homeland will not be so easy.
One of the earliest Westerns to feature a sympathetic Native American protagonist fighting back against the white settlers who swept across the United States throughout the nineteenth century, Aldrich’s first Western is a landmark film in the history of the genre. The Masters of Cinema series is proud to present Apache for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK.
I guess I was wrong when I predicted no other boutique label would release this. It’s an excellent film, much better than you might expect from its component parts
One of Aldrich's best. Kino's blu is lackluster so this is a very welcome surprise. Hoping this MoC edition doesn't have the waxiness of some of their other releases (their release of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a travesty).
tolbs1010 wrote: Thu Sep 25, 2025 2:57 pm
One of Aldrich's best. Kino's blu is lackluster so this is a very welcome surprise. Hoping this MoC edition doesn't have the waxiness of some of their other releases (their release of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is a travesty).
Always very happy to see Burt Lancaster and Aldrich in HD. I wish someone could license his incomplete/test film The Greatest Mother of ‘em All, which has been preserved by UCLA and screened on rare occasions
