The Legend of John Ford
Generally while discussing about great directors, while i have seen many take the name of Hitchcock, Kubrick, Scorcese, Goddard, Kurosawa, commonly, i find it surprising, that many people rarely mention the name of John Ford, or even his movies. It just beats me, because having seen some of his movies, for me he would be one of the greatest movie makers of all time. Not just that Ford’s work has influenced a legion of directors ranging from Orson Welles, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, to non American directors like Goddard, Kurosawa, Truffaut, Bergman. Also to date John Ford, has won the Best Director Oscar a record 4 times, a feat which has not been bettered, the only others close to him, have been William Wyler and Frank Capra, with 3 wins each. But Ford’s iconic status goes beyond movies and awards, he was a person, who was a legend in all ways. Not just a movie maker, he has also been a pioneer in shooting techniques, and also served in the US army during WW2.
But the best indicator of this man’s greatness, was the way he stood up to Mc Carthy’s bullying tactics. During the Mc Carthy era, a section of the directors led by Cecil B De Mille, were pressurizing directors to sign the loyalty oath. De Mille’s rightist tendencies, and his open support for Mc Carthy were well known. De Mille was pressurizing Ford, to testify against Joseph Mankiewicz, alleging his communist sympathies. At a marathon session of the Director’s Guild, De Mille went on and on against Mankiewicz, before John Ford finally stood up against De Mille, this is what he had to say.
My name’s John Ford. I make Westerns. I don’t think there’s anyone in this room who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. DeMille €” and he certainly knows how to give it to them…. But I don’t like you, C.B. I don’t like what you stand for and I don’t like what you’ve been saying here tonight.
That itself indicated what John Ford, a man who believed in his values and principles, but at the same time respected his opponents. Ford himself was a Democrat and Liberal, yet he had a long association with John Wayne and Maureen O Hara, both of them staunch Republicans and Conservatives. And ironically Wayne himself was a supporter of Mc Carthy’s tactics. But that was Ford, whatever his political position, he never let that come in the way of his professional and personal life. In fact many assumed that Ford was a Republican due to his decades long association with John Wayne. But ironies has been a hall mark of Ford’s career, though famous for his Western genre, the 4 Oscars he received were all for movies, that did not have a Western theme. In fact all of them were social dramas, The Informer was about Irish independence, The Grapes of Wrath was about the Depression, How Green Was My Valley was about a Welsh mining family, and The Quiet Man was an Irish version of the Taming of the Shrew.
Ford’s movie history however would go much beyond his Westerns and social dramas. He was associated with movie making right from the silent film days. From 1917-1927, he directed around 62 silent movies, many of whose prints have been lost. Both Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart made their debut under John Ford in Up The River. It was 1935’s The Informer, that actually bought John Ford to center stage. The first of the 4 movies for which he won an Oscar, this was set in his native Ireland, against an IRA backdrop. The movie was a searing emotional drama of a poor Irish peasant, Gypo Nolan(Victor McLaglen), who betrays his closest friend Frankie, an IRA member to the British Army, so that he could collect the reward and sail away to the US with his love, Katie. However his conscience begins to weigh on him, and the movie is about his emotional struggle.
John Wayne in Stagecoach
1939’s Stage Coach was another landmark movie that would mark a very long collaboration between Ford and John Wayne. The movie was about a group of travellers on a stage coach, who have to undertake a risky journey through an Apache infested territory. The movie marked John Wayne’s ascent to stardom, with his role as Ringo Kid, a fugitive and a sharp shooter. The scene where Indians attack the Stage Coach, is rated as one of the greatest movie scenes in history. What really makes the movie so interesting, is not just the action scenes, but also the way Ford gets together a motley set of characters, each with their own motivation. This was the movie that influenced Orson Welles so much, during making of Citizen Kane.
- john ford point in Monument Valley
When one speaks of Westerns and Ford, he is the person who pioneered two techniques. One was shooting on location, in contrast to the usual studio bound settings, and the second was his long tracking shots. This was also the movie that marked Ford’s life long affair with Monument Valley, Utah. In fact so legendary was Ford’s association with this place, that a particular point here has been named after him. Sergio Leone, another director who was influenced by John Ford, especially his long tracking shots, in fact picturized part of Once Upon a Time in the West here.
Henry Fonda in Grapes of Wrath
Ford again won back to back Oscars in 1940 and 1941 for his two social movies, Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley. The Grapes of Wrath starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, was based on John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, and is the story of an Oklahoma family, the Joads, who lose their farm during the Great Depression and travel to California to find work. The movie was about the suffering of thousands of people, belong to the Dust Bowl, many of whom migrated to California. However the migration was a traumatic affair, with many staying in shanty towns, and being contemptously treated by local residents. Ford however had to make changes from the novel’s more darker and bleak tone, to a more upbeat ending. Though the movie was stark and grimy, it had an optimistic ending, i guess maybe more in deference to the American Dream of family and prosperity. If Ford made Monument Valley famous with his Westerns, in Grapes of Wrath it was the famous Highway 66, along which the family travels.
How Green was My Valley, is quite often remembered as the movie which won in the year, that Citizen Kane did not. In fact to date this has been the only John Ford movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. Based on Welsh writer Richard Llewyn’s novel of the same name, the movie chronicles the life and times of a Welsh miners family. The movie looks at the family, in a Welsh mining town, amidst the backdrop of unemployment, harsh working conditions, trade unions. As also the rifts within the family and domestic tragedies. Epic in its treatment, and sweeping in its scope, the movie sadly has gained a kind of notoriety with movie lovers and critics, for the fact that it won in the same year, when Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon did not win any. But though not as great as the two, the movie is still worth a watch if only to see how a certain lifestyle dies out slowly, and is a reflection of the death of the famous Welsh mining towns. In fact both Grapes of Wrath and How Green take a look at the passing away of a lifestyle, in the case of America, its farmlands and in case of Wales, its mining towns.
Writing about Ford and the Western genre is a separate article in itself. Because its not just the techniques involved, but also the context, the background which is significant in itself. In the next post, i would be concentrating mostly on John Ford and the Western genre in detail.
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Wah!! I didn’t know about ‘John Ford point Monument Valley’.
But always remember the scene from “Once upon a Time in a West”, where Jill’s couch passing through.
‘Grapes of Wrath’ and ‘How green was my valley’: I was so overwhelmed by these 2 movies when I watched it on TNT(TCM) channel.
If John Ford is reading this article from above, he would say “Mogambo khush hua!!!”,
He He,
I enjoy watching his movie “Mogambo”, Romantic Adventure set in Africa.
One of the creators of cinema, first director to actually experiment with juxtaposition of different kinds of shots from different direction. A legend we actually dont talk much of……nice article.
Kurosawa idolized ford big time and admitted his influence on his craft. Ford also loved Kurosawa’s films. When they meet,Ford said, “You really like rain.” Kurosawa responded, “You’ve really been paying attention to my films.”
(source:wiki) somehow i missed his films (or not able to find yet) except Stagecoach
Shekar, even myself came to know of Ford point, while working on this article. Grapes of Wrath is a really emotionally overwhelming movie, but nothing compared to the novel, which can just leave you shattered, especially the ending. Miss good ole TNT channel, what classics they used to show.
@Shashank, yeah one of the finest directors, and just beats me how he never really gets that much mention, considering he has pioneered some really path breaking techniques.
@Njudo, most of Kurosawa’s samurai movies were influenced by Ford. Comming to the rain aspect, My Darling Clementine has that wonderful shot, where the Warps and Clantons face off each other in the rain. The same kinda shot was also attempted in Tombstone years later.