The Silver Screen Oasis

John Ford has been getting quite a few postings at the other site , so I felt that I should post something over here.
Fort Apache, Rio Grande, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is my ranking.

"Rio Grande" is the least of the three but that is not meant as any disrespect to it. Many fine scenes but it's just not as strong as the others.

I've been posting here the last few days about Pappy.

As for the Cavalry trilogy:

Yellow Ribbon, Fort Apache and Rio Grande but each movie on merits on its own. I just happen to love Yellow Ribbon the most.

Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, Fort Apache.
Henry Fonda (who delights me practically everywhere else I've seen him) absolutely ruins Apache for me; it feels to me like he's impatiently waiting to get off the set, and not in a character way, either!

Admission: It has been years since I last watched FORT APACHE; however, I revisited SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON and RIO GRANDE recently due to the SSO Western poll.

RIO GRANDE
FORT APACHE
SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (it is so beautiful to look at, but I just cannot connect with it)

1. Rio Grande
2. Yellow Ribbon,
3. Fort Apache.
When John Wayne 'sweeps' Maureen O'Hara into his arms....whew!
And the "Lest We Forget" scene in YR moves me to tears every time.
Fort Apache just makes me yell at the screen every time.

I put "Fort Apache" first, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" second, and "Rio Grande" third.

To me, everything in "fort Apache" works, whereas the romantic subplot in "She Wore" sets my teeth on edge. "Rio Grande" is good but perhaps needs more action.

I would always put Fort Apache first because there is so much going on in it, the only regret I have for it, is that it is not in color. I love Shirley Temple, Ward Bond, and all the wonderful strong wives.

Second would have to be Rio Grande, the three young fellows bonding, Maureen looking beautiful, the music, especially the serenading, and Sarge with all those adoring kids.

Finally, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Joanne Dru nearly ruins this for me. I can never tell if she's trying to be cute, sexy, miss purity or what. She's a tease, and really doesn't have any character at all.

Anne

[quote="mrsl"

Finally, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Joanne Dru nearly ruins this for me. I can never tell if she's trying to be cute, sexy, miss purity or what. She's a tease, and really doesn't have any character at all.

Anne[/quote]

She is all those things.

Fort Apache is the best for me

it shows not only a bigoted Colonel, but a man who trys to use the excuse of class barriers to prevent his daughter marrying the son of an inlisted man

i'm not sure about the end though. did Wayne's York really have to protect Thursdays reputation. it was bit like Custer's widow building up her man into a hero. it took years for the truth to come out about him

Definitely would rank "Fort Apache" at my top of the list. While short on action, I found the story much more interesting than the other two Ford cavalry movies. And I personally liked Henry Fonda's character turn as a quasi-villain.

"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" is beautifully photographed in breathtaking color, but what annoyed me about the film was that it seemed to have too many climaxes.

I'm currently reading "John Ford Interviews" edited by Gerald Peary. It has interviews with Ford from 1920 to 1973.

It's interesting in that up until the Fifties, the Ford film most people are interested in is "The Informer."

Most of the interviews are short and to the point, although I'm now in the middle of a very interesting one on the Western in general that Ford gave (to Cosmopolitan of all places) in the early Sixties.

I don't know what I was doing last February when the last two posts were put up, but somehow I missed them entirely.

Regarding York and his loyalty to Thursday, I quite agree with Stuart. I'm not saying York should have dissed him to the reporters, but instead of agreeing with the one guy that the painting was true to life, he should have instead said what he did about the men and ignored the part about Thursday, because to me, Thursday had no right to be honored as a hero, he simply led his whole regiment to their deaths. Ignorance cannot be accepted here either, because he was told by the men who had lived there for a much longer time. In my mind, he was just a murderer.

Anne

i'm not sure about the end though. did Wayne's York really have to protect Thursdays reputation. it was bit like Custer's widow building up her man into a hero. it took years for the truth to come out about him

Stuart,

I think York went along with the myth, not to save Thursday's reputation, but for his many friends who died because of Thursday's tunnel vision. York was good friends with many of the men and would have been there had circumstances been different. There is no way, in that time and place, for York to honor his friends without mentioning Thursday in the same heroic tone.

It is the Ford film where legend vs. truth really comes to the forefront but the story ends with York looking out the window and the image of his friends riding off into battle in the reflection.

In Liberty Valance, Ford will show us the other side of the coin and what happens when you have to live with the legend you created.