She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a 1949 Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. The academy award winning film was the second of Ford's Cavalry trilogy films (the other two being Fort Apache (1948) and Rio Grande (1950)). With a budget of $1.6 million, the color film was one of the most expensive Westerns made up to that time. It was a major hit for RKO.
The film was shot on location in Monument Valley utilizing large areas of the Navajo reservation along the Arizona-Utah state border. Cinematographer Winton Hoch won an academy award for Best Color Cinematography in 1949. Ford and Hoch based much of the film's imagery on the paintings and sculptures of Frederic Remington.
The film takes its name from the popular US military song, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" is used to keep marching cadence.
Famous quotes containing the words wore, yellow and/or ribbon:
“They wore the expression men always wore when they watched you dance, staring real hard but locked up inside themselves at the same time, so their eyes told you nothing at all and their faces, in spite of the sweat, might have been carved from something that only looked like flesh.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,—
Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“For this your mother sweated in the cold,
For this you bled upon the bitter tree:
A yard of tinsel ribbon bought and sold;
A paper wreath; a day at home for me.”
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)