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32-665: Built on land purchased by Corrigan in 1937, the ranch provided scenery as well as man-made structures and sets, and served as the background scenery for movies and television programs such as Fort Apache , Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory , The Robe , The Lone Ranger , The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin , Sky King , Circus Boy , and Star Trek . In 2018, the park’s filmmaking roots were revived when transformed into Spahn Ranch for Quentin Tarantino’s 9th film, Once Upon

64-455: A gentleman worthy of her. When Thursday is forced to deal with unrest among the Apache, led by Cochise , he ignores York's advice to treat the tribes with honor and to remedy problems on the reservation of malnutrition, alcoholism and decay caused by corrupt Apache agent Silas Meacham. Thursday's by-the-book rigidity prevents him from dealing with Meacham effectively, protecting him as an agent of

96-582: A Time in Hollywood . Corriganville’s terrain replicates the Manson hideout perfectly as it is located a few miles from the actual Spahn Ranch location. Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie all play key roles in this critically acclaimed film. The visual environment was that of a picturesque California oak woodland . The ranch provided terrain such as lakes, mountains, caves, rock outcroppings and overhangs, and large boulders. The small man-made lake featured

128-546: A charge would be suicidal. Thursday relieves York and orders him to stay back with Lt. O'Rourke and protect the supply train, replacing him with Captain Sam Collingwood. There is both charity and sage behind Thursday's seeming sleights, as he knows his command will wiped out...including Captain Collingwood and Sgt. O'Rourke. He cannot savage his beloved Philadelphia by killing off her intended husband too, and knows that of all

160-463: A cliff waterfall, as well as an underwater bunker with thick-glassed windows that would allow underwater scenes to be shot, while keeping the camera and crew dry. Other sets included Silvertown, a western street with saloon, hotel, jail, livery stable, corral, blacksmith, shops, and a bank. There was also an outlaw shack and a church that doubled as a schoolhouse. Some of these structures had small living quarters while others had showers and restrooms for

192-527: A little Revolutionary War in the recipe. I've always tried to include something subversive, not hidden from anyone, just for my own interests. The production designer was Jack Fisk . "We had absolutely no money, no budget, but Jack did extraordinary things—and Sissy Spacek was our assistant art director on that," said Armitage. Armitage says that once Kris Kristofferson agreed to do the film "everybody else followed. Bernadette [Peters] wanted to work with him, Victoria [Principal], and Jan-Michael came over ... It

224-474: A member of Mexico's Golden Age of Movies. The film recorded a profit of $ 445,000 (equivalent to $ 4,510,000 in 2023 ). The film is recognized by American Film Institute in its 2008 AFI's 10 Top 10 : Nominated Western film. Fort Apache is commonly ranked among the most significant films of the "cowboy/western" genre, including: Additionally, the principal actors were ranked (for this and their other films): Vigilante Force Vigilante Force

256-400: A regional park. Now named Corriganville Park, the site of Corriganville Movie Ranch is a public park operated by Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. The park has various concrete and brick foundations, the remains of movie and theme park buildings. Several signs present photographs and descriptions of filming locations. Hiking trails provide views from dramatic rock formations that made

288-487: A room full of Eastern correspondents. When asked if he has seen the famous painting depicting "Thursday's Charge", with the Apache massed brazenly in rows in war paint and feather bonnets awaiting Cavalry lances, he hews strictly to the fable crafted to cover Thursday's vainglorious and suicidal destruction of his command. Lying through his teeth (but not to himself) he says it is completely accurate. He then waxes on how those who died that day will never be forgotten as long as

320-490: A valiant charge. A West Point graduate with unconcealed ambition, he regards the assignment as distasteful, unwarranted, and a serious derailment of his career. His arrogance and overbearing egocentrism not only pervades his command but extends to his attitude towards the native Indians, whom he treats with condescension and complete disregard. Accompanying widower Thursday is his daughter, Philadelphia. She becomes attracted to newly minted Second Lieutenant Michael O'Rourke,

352-455: Is a 1948 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda . The film was the first of the director's "Cavalry Trilogy" and was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950), both also starring Wayne. The screenplay was inspired by James Warner Bellah 's short story "Massacre" (1947). The historical sources for "Massacre" have been attributed both to George Armstrong Custer and

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384-434: Is a 1976 American action film directed by George Armitage and starring Kris Kristofferson and Jan-Michael Vincent . The plot concerns a Vietnam War veteran and his buddies, who are hired by his brother and others in a small California town for protection from rowdy oil-field workers. When a small California town is overrun with unruly and rowdy behavior from oil-field workers, Ben Arnold ( Jan-Michael Vincent ), one of

416-411: Is adjacent to the east. Several historic photos and pieces of memorabilia from Corriganville are on display at the nearby Santa Susana Depot . Schneider, Jerry L. Corriganville Movie Ranch Lulu.com, 01/08/2007 ISBN   9781430312246 34°16′0″N 118°38′57″W  /  34.26667°N 118.64917°W  / 34.26667; -118.64917 Fort Apache (film) Fort Apache

448-406: Is common on many studio backlots. Other weekend attractions included live western music, Indian crafts, stagecoach rides, pony rides, and boating on the ranch's artificial lake. In 1965 Ray Corrigan sold the property, which was acquired by comedian and property speculator Bob Hope . A housing subdivision called Hopetown was developed and built on a parcel near the park entrance in the mid 1990s. In

480-514: Is the acting commander at Fort Apache , an isolated U.S. cavalry post on the Arizona frontier. York commanded his own regiment during the Civil War and had learned the ways of the Apache. To universal surprise and disappointment, the regiment is given instead to Lieutenant Colonel Owen Thursday, a highly arrogant, acidic and abrasive martinet who had been brevetted a general during the Civil War for

512-589: The Battle of Little Bighorn and to the Fetterman Fight . The film was one of the first to present an authentic and sympathetic view of Native Americans . In his review of the DVD release of Fort Apache in 2012, The New York Times movie critic Dave Kehr called it "one of the great achievements of classical American cinema, a film of immense complexity that never fails to reveal new shadings with each viewing" and "among

544-649: The HBO series Westworld were filmed at Corriganville Park in 2016. Estimates of the number of movies and television shows filmed there range from the hundreds to the thousands. The ranch was open to the public on weekends and holidays from 1949 to 1965. For an admission price of one dollar, visitors could experience a variety of stuntman shows, movie and TV actors (often Crash himself) signing autographs and posing for pictures, western street movie sets ("Silvertown"), frontier Army fort ("Fort Apache"), and Mexican village, many made up of real working buildings and not just set fronts as

576-524: The Revolutionary War ... [although] What I was really doing there was Vietnam. What would it be like if people took over your town, as we had been doing to the hamlets of Vietnam? What if we brought Vietnam back to America, what would that be like? That's kind of what we were going after, but since the Bicentennial year was coming on and bringing a lot of revisionist history with it, I thought I'd include

608-540: The United States government despite his personal contempt for the man and his ways. Thursday then squanders an opportunity for peace with high-handed belligerence, and is openly disrespectful of Cochise to his face. Using York, who has an honorable friendship with Cochise, as a cat's paw, Thursday tricks the Apache warriors back from Mexico into U.S. territory. Eager for glory and recognition, he plunges headlong into an obvious ambush despite York's urgent warnings that such

640-446: The cast and crew. It's unclear if any had interior sets that were used onscreen, although there was a soundstage in the hotel building where interior sets may have been constructed for the movie companies' use (jail cell, bunkhouse, etc.). Many of the interior shots may have been made at various studios around Hollywood—Republic Studios, Monogram Studios, etc. in order to match the outdoor scenes shot at Corriganville. Corrigan's own home on

672-425: The final shootout we blew up a blue van that was parked over an oil pipeline, so after the initial explosion the oil pipeline caught fire. Armitage says Jan Michael Vincent's character Ben Arnold was named after Benedict Arnold , Kris Kristofferson's character Aaron was named after Aaron Burr and Judson Prett's Harry Lee was Lighthorse Harry Lee : The entire movie is full of these very slightly coded reference to

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704-727: The first 'pro-Indian' Westerns" in its portrayal of indigenous Americans with "sympathy and respect". The film was awarded the Best Director and Best Cinematography awards by the Locarno International Film Festival of Locarno, Switzerland . Screenwriter Frank S. Nugent was nominated for best screenplay by the Writers Guild of America . After the American Civil War , highly respected veteran Captain Kirby York

736-521: The fort itself and the renegade Apache agent's trading post were filmed at the Corriganville Movie Ranch , a former Simi Hills movie ranch that is now a regional park in the Simi Valley of Southern California . At the time of filming, Shirley Temple and John Agar were married in real life. Dick Foran sang the 1869 song "Sweet Genevieve" written by Henry Tucker. Pedro Armendariz was

768-477: The late 1960s and early 1970s part of the site was used for motorcycle racing. In 1970 the ranch was swept by fire. One of the last movies filmed there was Vigilante Force (1976). In 1979 another fire destroyed virtually all of the remaining structures. In 1988, 190 acres (0.77 km) of land comprising the principal working areas of the original Corriganville Ranch were purchased by the City of Simi Valley for use as

800-404: The locals, and the brother of Aaron ( Kris Kristofferson ), a Vietnam War veteran, is hired to assist the police in restoring the peace. Aaron hires mercenaries trained in combat to help. After controlling the oil field workers, the veterans take over the town for their own not-always-legal purposes. Confrontation between the town police and locals and the mercenaries ends in violence. The film

832-454: The officers York is best qualified to lead upon his death. Wounded and separated from his men, he borrows York's horse to return to the doomed survivors and lead them to their last. Cochise spares York and soldiers who did not participate in the battle, in respect for York and to send a message to all who witnessed the slaughter, and the gesture, should understand. Several years later, regimental commander Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York entertains

864-727: The park a popular filming location from the 1930s to 1960s. The park and the entire Santa Susana Pass area has many sites and vistas seen in movies and especially 1950s television westerns. The park's eastern area is part of the Santa Susana Pass wildlife corridor connecting the Simi Hills (and the Santa Monica Mountains ) with the Santa Susana Mountains (and Tehachapi Mountains and San Gabriel Mountains ). Hiking trails provide exploration and views. Rocky Peak Park

896-839: The property was used for ranch-house exterior shots. His house was one of the first structures erected at the ranch in 1938-1939. A non-Western set built in 1946 for Howard Hughes ' Vendetta (released in 1950) was called Vendetta Village. It was later renamed the Corsican Village. A Cavalry fort built for John Ford's 1948 film Fort Apache was subsequently rented to many other film productions by Corrigan. Cowboy stars who filmed there include: Gene Autry , Roy Rogers , Buster Crabbe , John Wayne , Randolph Scott , Smiley Burnette , Clayton Moore , Jay Silverheels , Charles Starrett , Ken Maynard , Kermit Maynard , Hoot Gibson , Bob Steele , Tex Ritter , Robert Taylor and of course Crash Corrigan himself. Scenes from Season 1, Episode 3 of

928-608: The regiment lives, and that he has an arduous campaign ahead to bring in Geronimo. After briefly introducing his adjutant, Lt. O'Rourke, now married to Philadelphia, and calling their young son - Michael Thursday York O'Rourke - the "best soldier in the outfit", he mounts his horse and leads the regiment off after the Apaches. Some exteriors for the film's location shooting were shot in Monument Valley , Utah . The exteriors involving

960-505: The son of highly regarded Sergeant Major Michael O'Rourke, the post's ranking non-commissioned officer . The elder O'Rourke had been a major in the Irish Brigade during the Civil War and won the Medal of Honor , entitling his son to enter West Point and be commissioned an officer. However, the class-conscious Thursday forbids his daughter to see someone whom he does not consider an equal and

992-583: Was a good shoot, but it was rough. It was 30 days, it was 108 degrees in the Simi Valley, so a lot of it was tough to do. But we worked through it, finished on time and under budget." The Timeout review noted that the film was an "awkward combination of cheapo war and cowboy comics ...", but that "Kristofferson ... shuffles through quite convincingly ..." and "... Bernadette Peters plays an ill-treated, down-at-heel, after-hours singer with real style." According to Contemporary North American Film Directors ,

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1024-428: Was directed by George Armitage, who says producer Gene Corman came to him with just the title. Armitage credits the quality of the stunts to Buddy Joe Hooker, stuntman. That was a 30-day film, but it would be 60 days today because of the stunts and the pyrotechnics. We had Roger George, who was quite a well-known special effects man. It went really well, though we had one little mishap that wasn't really our fault—in

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