John Ford

Started by modage, March 10, 2004, 06:08:49 PM

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modage


re-direct me if i'm wrong but i searched twice and didnt find a topic on him, (although i could swear there was one.)    i had previously seen The Searchers, The Grapes of Wrath and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  the searchers was my first ford film and my first john wayne film, so it was difficult to see how different it was and how it was different, darker, than their previous westerns.  i thought it was okay at the time, but i would like to revisit it now, and bet i would enjoy it a lot more.  grapes of wrath i liked, boy is that sad.  and man who shot liberty valance i also enjoyed, but like the searchers, when i watched it i didnt have any historical perspective of how that was sort of the end of the era of that kind western.  did love seeing stewart and wayne together though.  lee marvin was great.  
so, with so much catching up to do March is John Ford month for me.  i'm going to watch Stagecoach, How Green Was My Valley, My Darling Clementine, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and The Quiet Man.


sunday i watched Stagecoach which i loved.  john waynes introduction was INCREDIBLE.  it was just a giant push in on his face, but seemed so grand and like a PTA moment almost.  i read this was his first major role (after being in 70 odd movies in smaller roles), and it was really great.  the stagecoach chase and the way they staged the gunfight at the end were also great.  i loved this movie.


also, How Green Was My Valley which i didnt care for.  movie seemed too episodic, chapters in a book.  didnt move in any sort of plot/structured way, and i just didnt find it interesting enough to really hold my attention.  cant believe THIS was the film that beat Citizen Kane.  the academy was on the nose with that one huh?  :roll:


also, My Darling Clementine, which was only the 2nd telling i've seen (i think) of the famous Wyatt Earp story, (the other being Tombstone).  so it was interesting to see the differences in the telling.  while this had its moments, overall i thought it could've been better.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Ravi

I liked Stagecoach too.  The only other Ford film I've seen is Grapes of Wrath.

Henry Hill

How Green Was My Valley you hit it right on the nose. just like a damn book. plus i had to watch it on a crappy VHS tape from the library. ugh! i was bored throughout. Stagecoach and The Searchers are tops.

modage


finished up my John Ford month tonite with She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and The Quiet Man. yellow ribbon, i couldnt really figure out what the hell the point was, and the quiet man's point seemed to be that getting drunk and fighting was the only way to be accepted into irish communities.  neither i would recommend.  so to summarize, my intro to john ford i would rank...

1. Stagecoach
2. The Searchers
3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
4. The Grapes of Wrath
5. My Darling Clementine
6. How Green Was My Valley
7. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
8. The Quiet Man
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

SoNowThen

Inspired by Mod, I too had a little mini-Ford week. Watched Searchers and Stagecoach. I liked Searchers the best. Awesome dolly work. And the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life has gotta be when John Wayne's sidekick donkey-kicks that squaw down the hill. I had to rewind and rewatch that a good ten times. My roommate almost pissed his pants laughing...

Are there any good non-Western Fords?
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

modage

Quote from: SoNowThenAre there any good non-Western Fords?
Grapes of Wrath.  although like i mentioned, prepare to be sad.  macguffin might be able to help you out with some more.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

Directed by John Ford Debuts Tuesday on TCM

One of the highlights of the recent Telluride Film Festival was Peter Bogdanovich's Directed by John Ford. The improved 1971 doc boasts amazing vintage interviews with Jimmy Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Henry Fonda and John Wayne, plus a talk with the eye-patched auteur himself, sitting in all his splendor in Monument Valley. Bogdanovich has spruced up the movie with additional footage with Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, which is fine, but the old material is the money stuff. These were major stars at the height of their fame who were thrilled to be talking about the best director they ever worked with, who tortured them and brought out the best in them, who they loved. Stagecoach (early Wayne), My Darling Clementine (Fonda as Wyatt Earp), Fort Apache (Fonda vs. Wayne), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (aging Wayne), Rio Grande (Wayne and O'Hara in love), The Quiet Man (ditto, the classic Irish romance he made after Rio Grande), The Searchers (Wayne tracks kidnapped Natalie Wood)—all are must-sees. So set your Tivos for Turner Classic Movies' showing of Directed by John Ford on Tuesday, November 7 (8:30 PM PT, check local listings), accompanied by a 22 Ford film festival every Tuesday in November.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Ravi

http://davekehr.com/?p=195

Ford at Fox: 21 Disc Collection for December
Friday June 15th 2007, 3:47 pm

Rumors that 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment was planning a John Ford set have been rumbling through the community for months. I've just received confirmation from a Fox publicist that the rumors are not only true, but the project sounds bigger and better than I'd dared to hope.

Now set for release for December, 2007, the collection, to be titled "Ford at Fox," will consists of 25 features that Ford made for Fox, including five silents, 18 of which will be new to DVD.

The box will list for $299.98 and also contain a new documentary on Ford by Nick Redman, a book of photographs featuring an essay by Joseph McBride and a reproduction of the program book for "The Iron Horse."

The specific titles haven't yet been released, but I'll get them up here as soon as I have them.

Although the Fox promotional material says that the collection will include all of Ford's extant Fox productions, this can't be the case if only five silent films are included. The surviving silent Fox-Fords are, to the best of my knowledge, "Just Pals" (1920), "Action" (1921), "Cameo Kirby" (1923), 40 minutes of "North of Hudson Bay" (1923), "The Iron Horse" (1924), "Lightnin'" (1925), "Kentucky Pride" (1925), "The Shamrock Handicap" (1926), "3 Bad Men" (1926), most of "The Blue Eagle" (1926), three reels of "Mother Machree" (1928), "Four Sons" (1928), "Hangman's House" (1928), and "Riley the Cop" (1928). Perhaps some of the Ford scholars who occasionally pass this way (that's you, Scott Eyman) will know better.

But I'm hardly in a mood to complain if this means, at the very least, getting "3 Bad Men," "Four Sons," "Men without Women, "The Seas Beneath" and "Pilgrimage" back in circulation, there to claim their rightful places among the masterworks of Ford's career.

Fox deserves the gratitude and, more to the point, the financial support of every cinephile for taking a chance on such artistically important but little known material. Who knows? If this one works, we might someday see "Murnau at Fox," "Walsh at Fox," "Dwan at Fox," "Hawks at Fox," and — who knows? — even the Holy Grail, "Borzage at Fox."

MacGuffin

John Ford package takes DVD boxes to new level

Filmmaker John Ford will be honored in the fall with a lavish DVD collection of his early films made for 20th Century Fox.

The collection, which spans 1920-52, includes such classics as "The Grapes of Wrath," best picture Oscar winner "How Green Was My Valley," "My Darling Clementine" and "Drums Along the Mohawk." Twenty other films also will be included in the "Ford at Fox" set, 18 of which have never before been available on DVD.

The $300 set, which Fox is preparing for a December 4 release, is believed to be the largest collection of films by a single director ever released in one shot. It's a far cry from typical DVD boxed sets devoted to a single director or actor, which generally include no more than four or five movies.

Many of the films have been painstakingly restored and remastered, said Steve Feldstein, senior vp marketing communications at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, with the oldest films, the silents, featuring new orchestral scores.

Ford's work influenced such contemporaries as Ingmar Bergman and Orson Welles as well as such latter-day filmmakers as George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.

"Ford at Fox" includes several of the director's early silent films, including 1920's "Just Pals," his first film for Fox, and "The Iron Horse," which in 1924 grossed more than $4 million to become the top-grossing film of its day. "Just Pals" is a rustic comedy set in rural America that stars cowboy actor Buck Jones; "The Iron Horse," about the 1860s construction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways, is the first film to feature legendary cowboy star George O'Brien.

The set also includes three films with cowboy hero Will Rogers (1933's "Doctor Bull," 1934's "Judge Priest" and 1935's "Steamboat Round the Bend"); 1937's "Wee Willie Winkie," which star Shirley Temple has said was her favorite early movie; and the James Cagney classic "What Price Glory" (1952).

Exclusive to the DVD release is a new documentary from Ford historian Nick Redman. The set also comes with a hardcover coffee table book that includes rare, unpublished photographs from Ford's career, lobby card reproductions, production stills and an in-depth look at Ford's work.

Fox is getting some unsolicited promotional help from film festivals nationwide eager to screen the restored Ford classics. "The Iron Horse" will be one of the final films shown at the Venice International Film Festival, while the New York Film Festival will host the premiere of the newly restored "Drums Along the Mohawk," Ford's first Technicolor film. Scorsese will introduce the film.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Ravi