John Ford's 'Calvary Trilogy' - Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950) - remains after more than half a century among Ford's most popular films. Despite their continuing appeal, the films have had to weather severe criticism from critics who have accused the director of everything from wallowing in dishonest sentimentality to being an apologist for militarism and imperialism. A closer look at the trilogy, however, reveals a more complex, a more ambiguous view of the role of the 'frontier Regulars' in American expansion. The three films, designed to show, in Ford's words, 'what it was like at a Calvary post…' reflect an honest portrayal of military life based on historical documents and authentic visual representations of frontier life. Adapted from the short stories of James Warner Bellah, the films are about hard-pressed soldiers on the American southwest frontier in the 1870s and 1880s that Ford connects through theme and imagery to his earlier movies about Britain's imperial army. Devoid of imperial boosterism, they are stories of bitter defeats and hard-won, often indecisive victories over Indian insurgents