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 the first 'pro-Indian' Westerns" in its portrayal of indigenous Americans with "sympathy and respect".

After the American Civil War, highly respected veteran Captain Kirby York is the acting commander at Fort Apache, an isolated U.S. cavalry post on the Arizona frontier.

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 a valiant charge.

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.

The elder O'Rourke had been a major in the Irish Brigade during the Civil War and earned the Medal of Honor, entitling his son to enter West Point and be commissioned an officer.

Wounded and separated from his men, Thursday refuses a rescue from York and instead returns to the remnants of the cavalry before being wiped out by Cochise.

He gives a speech on how those who died that day will never be forgotten as long as the regiment lives, and that he has an arduous campaign ahead to bring in Geronimo.