The film was shot on location in Monument Valley utilizing large areas of the Navajo reservation along the Arizona-Utah state border.

On the verge of his retirement in August, 1876 at Fort Starke, a small Frontier Army post, aging cavalry veteran Nathan Cutting Brittles is given one last mission: to deal with a breakout by the Cheyenne and Arapaho from their reservation following the defeat of George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and prevent a new frontier war.

[5] Brittles' task is complicated by a second order: to deliver his commanding officer's wife and niece, Abby Allshard and Olivia Dandridge, to an eastbound stage.

His troop officers, 1st Lt. Flint Cohill and 2nd Lt. Ross Pennell, vie for the affections of Olivia while uneasily anticipating the retirement of their captain and mentor.

Tyree, a one-time Confederate captain of cavalry; his first sergeant, Quincannon; and Maj. Allshard, Brittles's long-time friend and commanding officer.

When that too fails, he devises a risky stratagem to avoid a bloody war by stampeding the renegades' horses out of their camp, forcing them to return to their reservation ... on foot, trailed at a discreet distance by Lt. Cohill's troop of cavalry.

[7]: 294  Among Rynders' associates is veteran character actor Paul Fix (Harry Carey, Jr.'s father-in-law) in a small uncredited role.

Reportedly, Wayne's 1948 performance in Red River changed Ford's mind, causing him to exclaim, "I didn't know the big son of a bitch could act!

[9] Wayne himself felt that his Academy Award nomination for Best Actor of 1949 should have been for She Wore a Yellow Ribbon instead of Sands of Iwo Jima.

Hoch argued that there was not enough natural light for the scene and, more importantly, the cameras could become potential lightning rods if the storm swept over them.

A 1958 unsuccessful television pilot written by James Warner Bellah titled Command starred Everett Sloane as Captain Brittles and Ben Cooper as Lt Cohill.