John Ford: The Westerns -part one

Ford
Originally uploaded by livingfilm.

John Ford is one of My favorite Directors, and I thought I should start By saying a few words about him. Well, it didn't take to long to realize this would be a Huge task. Then I decided to break things up and focus on different fazes of his life and career. I decided to start with a short bio, of his early years. From time to time I will write more, and focus on many of his films individually, and what they mean to me.

John Ford has often been compared to Shakespeare, and at times been called "America's Homer". The problem with these comparisons I feel is, Who reads Homer? I think this sounds like Finding something fasicinating on an anthropological level, and that's hardly the way I want to spend the afternoon! I think that statements like these though well intended, and partly true, really obscure the fact that he was also a great popular artist. I think that is sad that very few people appreciate, or even watch his films. Take for example, it would be unheard of for a film critic for a major magazine to say that they had never bothered watching Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Understandably, few readers would consider such a critic worthy of the position, and would proptly drag them into the street to be shot! Yet, not long ago, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman admited to never having bothered to watch John Ford's Stagecoach! I wouldn't normally find this a sin if it weren't for fact that HE'S A FILM CRITIC FOR A MAJOR MAGAZINE, and as of writing this He has yet to be shot!! I think the following Quote from Steve Silver sums it up better that I can.

A PRAYER FOR OWEN GLEIBERMAN: (I)n the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, Schwarzbaum's co-critic Owen Gleiberman admits, in a reader Q&A, that he has never seen John Ford's "Stagecoach." What-what-WHAT? Shouldn't he have his NYFCC membership revoked, just for that?

And it's not just Mr. Gleiberman, and that's what really concerns me. I feel it reflects the general disregard of Ford's work in America. I think this has a large part to do with the bad reputation that the Western genre has had in recent years, a genre that John Ford is very closely related to. Yet, when even published critics don't watch these films isn't it time to ask why? I feel Ford's reputation also suffers from his close proximity to John Wayne, and Wayne's staunch conservatism -a view often considered to be shared with Ford. While, a closer look at Ford's films reveal an often startling look at America's dark history. The fact is, Ford's films tend to have a very ambiguous nature, and rarely are his films as Black and White as they are often accused of being. I will talk more about this in the future when I can focus on the films themselves.

John Ford's films (mostly his Westerns) have been widely influential (and popular!) throughout Europe and Asia, admirers ranging from Jean Luc Godard and Ingmar Bergman to Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone , yet in his own country he is largely dismissed. With the exception of a few critics and filmmakers such as Andrew Sarris, Peter Bogdonavitch, and Martin Scorsese, Ford's work would be given little respect from American audiences by the end of his life. I also feel Ford's reputation of possibly being the greatest of the Classical Hollywood directors, has not helped many viewers , who dismiss him as being Victorian, to recognize his great ability to change with his times and continue to be a great modern director up to and including his final feature film 7 Women.

Arriving in Hollywood in 1914, 19 year old Jack Feeney would spend the next three years learning the ins and outs of the Movie business from his older brother, director Francis Ford. Jack would later adopt the last name Ford from his older brother, who named himself after the car, Jack would later start using the name John in the mid 1920s after he began directing more 'important' films. Jack spent much of these early years in Hollywood collecting Props, and thanklessly performing dangerous Stunts for Francis's films (he would later get even with Francis by constantly casting him as a drunk in several of his later films). Three years after arriving in Hollywood Jack would direct his first feature film Straight Shooting in 1917 with film star Harry Carey. Over the next four years Ford and Carey would make 25 silent westerns for Universal, most of which are now believed to be lost. Much of Ford's style would be developed during these early years, such as his preference for a still camera, with the objects moving within the frame (Jean Renoir would later claim that he learned how to not move his camera, after watching Ford's The Informer). It was 1924 with The Iron Horse,that Ford (nowJohn) would have the chance to make an 'A' List Hollywood epic, and his first truly classic film. The Iron Horse was Fox's answer to the Paramount's blockbuster ,The Covered Wagon directed the year earlier by James Cruze,note how even the name The Iron Horse is meant to sound newer and better than a Covered Wagon! It is curious that after the coming of sound it would be 13 years before Ford would make another Western (3 Bad Men -1926 would be his final silent Western). It would be Stagecoach -1939 that would forever change the Western, and make a major star of B-movie actor John Wayne.