John Ford

[MissGoddess]

John Huston will be the third to get a stamp.

[ChiO]

I bet the stamp will display a lack of style.

[JackFavell]

hahaha!

[RedRiver]

What's the last Ford film you watched? (This is addressed to everybody.) For me it was probably HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY. I watched it for, maybe, the third time. Cinematic poetry. A movie that grew on me. Prior to this viewing, it wasn't one of my favorites.

I also watched YOUNG MR. LINCOLN a few months ago. I always like a Lincoln story, though there are no vampires in this one. And THE LAST HURRAH, a second tier Ford film, perhaps, but certainly worth watching.

If there's one thing we almost all agree on, it's that John Ford is our great filmmaker. You can compare the others. This one stands alone.

[ChiO]

Count me among the "almost."

[Dewey1960]

Red sed (of Ford): This one stands alone.
And he's in good company!

[pvitari]

The last Ford movie I watched was Wagon Master, with a friend who had never seen it before. She really liked it, but her 10 year old daughter who was watching with us was very disturbed by the whipping scene and began to cry. The Clegg family and the final shoot-out also unnerved her. This little girl has a very tender heart and has trouble watching any kind of violence, even the bloodless kind in older films. Her favorite type of "grown-up" movie is romantic comedy. We also watched My Best Girl with Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers and she LOVED that one.

[JackFavell]

I think most Ford films benefit by multiple viewings.... so your reaction to HGWMV is not surprising to me. There are many Ford films that I watched the first time and thought, "Well, that's OK." or even did not like, but then on second, third or fifth viewing (and I did feel a need to come back to them), I suddenly felt like I understood.... as if a veil had lifted. I saw a whole new world inside that framework, a horizon opening to me that was sometimes deeply moving. Sometimes I saw a totally opposite theme than I had originally thought was there.

THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE

was the last Ford film I saw. I always see something different in this movie, no matter how many times I watch it. I find layer upon layer of depth. There are a few Ford films that I loved right from the minute I saw them, and this was one of them. Before I was into westerns, I loved this movie, and I have heard this over so many times from people that it's almost a joke.... "I don't like westerns, but I like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ...."

This time I found it fascinating that so many of the main characters lie about the way events actually happen in the film. Not in an evil way, but as a basic human need to recreate events in our favor. Many of the men in this film cannot admit even to themselves that they were less than heroic under difficult circumstances. A kind of delusion takes over several characters, a need to be more than they are. After his tremendous beating by Valance, Mr. Peabody looks up at Ranse and says, "I ...sure told that Liberty Valance.... about the freedom.... of the PRESS." The truth is he was not able to fight back at all or tell off Liberty Valance. That he valiantly withstood a severe beating is enough, but because he feels helpless, he must make up the lie in his own mind.

After Liberty is killed, Link Appleyard, who has been visibly terrified of Liberty and his henchmen all through the movie, steps forward through the doors of the saloon and yells out something like, "If they ever come back, you tell em that LINK APPLEYARD will be waiting for em." Well, Link has not ever stood up to them before, and has quaked in his boots at the mere mention of the gang. Once Doniphon has kicked the henchman's butts, Link acts like he is the force behind their demise. It's meant as a joke, but I found a deeper connection to the overall theme this time.

[Rita Hayworth]

My last Ford film that I saw was:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051198/
The Wings of Eagles 1957 film starring John Wayne and Company.

This is one of my favorite John Ford's movies about Naval Flyer by a name of Frank "Spig" Wead ... that's loves to fly ... I find this movie that has a charm of its own!

[Gary J.]

It's a very episodic film, to the point where time seems to almost evaporate at times concerning the Wead's marriage (they're courting, they're raising a family, they've separated....) but you're right Kingme, it is a very charming movie.

[JackFavell]

I think MissG likened The Wings of Eagles to a scrapbook of memory, like pictures in a photo album.

What I found exceptionally interesting about The Wings of Eagles is that Ford knew Spig Wead well, and admired him GREATLY. So the movie is filmed with a lot of love for the man. And yet, this is also the story of a marriage that is foundering, not for a lack of love, but because temperaments got in the way, and of course the military. Both Min and Spig have their demons, or character flaws. I find this to be a rather sad realistic portrayal, rather than idealized, as you would think a great friend would paint them in a film. While Spig is convalescing, Min is not there, leaving Spig in the capable hands of Jughead Carson, played flawlessly by Dan Dailey... I defy you not to like him in this movie, or to deny that he had any acting talent after watching it. it makes me wish he did more serious films.

[Gary J.]

When Ford was offered to make a movie on his friend Spig he turned it down. It was too close to him. Then he decided he didn't want anyone else to make a movie on his friend. You can tell Ford threw himself into this film by the way he allows Ward Bond to ape himself onscreen - to the point of loaning his hat, dark glasses and a handkerchief to chew on as props for Ward to use.

[RedRiver]

Chio
Count me among the "almost."

You should meet my brother. He claims Ford was THE ONLY great director! Hitchcock did some good work. He likes John Huston. But a truly great movie? A John Ford movie!

Jack Favell
Dan Dailey... I defy you not to like him in this movie

I tried. It can't be done. When my family watched this on TV, my mom said, "I didn't know Dan Dailey could act!" He's likeable. He's tough when he needs to be. And he steals the show from Big John Wayne. Only a very talented performer could pull that off.

This fine Ford film should come up in discussion more often. Call my brother!

[JackFavell]

I felt the same way your mom did the first time I saw it!

[charliechaplinfan]

I've just watched a documentary about John Ford in which Peter Bogdanovich interview him and other celebrities about his films. I'm not as much as an afficiando as many others on this board but he has made some films that I really enjoyed, particularly his Cavalry trilogy, The Grapes of Wrath and The Quiet Man. The documentary ran for nearly two hours, yet there wasn't a wasted moment. Big names came forward to be interviewed, John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda and a tape recording of Katharine Hepburn, delightful when Ford and Kate didn't realise they were being recorded. The best description for me is as an artist, some of his scenes are iconic, he painted the canvas of American history on film. Perhaps it was necessary for him to be a bully to get some performances, heck he was a curmudgeon with Bogdanovich. I've decided that I must revisit How Green Is My Valley a film I couldn't appreciate on first viewing. I like the Print the Legend analogy, hr of course had printed the truth about Who Shot Liberty Valance and Fort Apache.

One thing puzzles me, when they showed a clip of Young Mr Lincoln I was unsure of who was playing him until he spoke, then it was unmistakeable. So what did they do with Henry Fonda to make him unrecogniseable?

Also, is Thursday in Fort Apache meant to be a veiled account of Custer?