Reviews of movies directed by John Ford.
Tuesday, August 12th 2008
Grade: B
Synopsis: An aging Irish-American political boss (Spencer Tracy) endures a final bid for reelection as mayor of a New England town.
The Last Hurrah is, in many ways, the spiritual forerunner of director John Ford’s later film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), as it also deals with the end of a storied era in American history, and the larger than life characters that inhabited it.
Spencer Tracy is perfect as Frank Skeffington, an aging, old-school political boss facing an uphill reelection. Tracy manages the perfect blend of charm and cool calculation that makes him absolutely believable as the head of the town’s political machine. MORE »
Posted at 11:43 AM in Movie Reviews and John Ford.
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Thursday, August 7th 2008
Grade: C
Synopsis: A fictionalized account of the early life of playwright Sean O’Casey (Rod Taylor).
Due to director John Ford falling ill during production, Young Cassidy has some interesting on-screen credits. The film is introduced as “a film by John Ford” but the direction credit goes to Jack Cardiff, the notable cinematographer of films such as John Huston’s The African Queen (1951).
Though Ford reportedly only directed two scenes, the bar fight and the funeral, this feels very much like a Ford picture, with the lived-in, yet vibrant, working-class world that Ford always seemed so comfortable in. Rod Taylor’s great in the lead. Physically large and rugged, yet emotionally frustrated and raging, Taylor looks and feels like the collision of working man and artist that character embodies. MORE »
Posted at 12:31 PM in Movie Reviews and John Ford.
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Friday, August 1st 2008
Grade: B
Synopsis: An epic look at one family’s trials and tribulations over the course of four generations as they seek their fortune in the American west through the middle of the 19th century.
How the West Was Won is an ambitious, mostly well-executed adventure film that elevates many of the B-movie western plots to grand status. You’ve got bandits, mountain men, gamblers, civil war soldier, marshals, outlaws, railroad tycoons, and, of course, Indians, all rolled into one sprawling narrative that manages to encompass an epic, if fantastical, look at American expansion into the west through the eyes of a single family, from generation to generation. MORE »
Posted at 4:29 PM in Movie Reviews, James Stewart, John Ford and John Wayne.
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Monday, July 21st 2008
Grade: B-
Synopsis: PT boat captains (Robert Montgomery and John Wayne) defend the Philippines against the Japanese in World War II, despite little initial support from Navy brass.
They Were Expendable is a different kind of war film, in that it feels more like a “slice of life” war picture rather than a traditional story. While the dangling plot threads and non-ending will no doubt be off-putting for some, the film is better because of them. Director John Ford handles the scope of the picture well, framing the character’s individual struggles against the greater battle for the Philippines, and the lack of a traditional plot allows him to capture the uncertain nature of life during wartime. MORE »
Posted at 3:22 PM in Movie Reviews, John Ford and John Wayne.
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Friday, July 18th 2008
Grade: B
Synopsis: A cavalry captain (John Wayne) nearing retirement, leads a final patrol to stop a pending Indian attack.
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a beautifully photographed and solidly built western that marks the second part of director John Ford’s informal “Cavalry Trilogy.”
Perhaps inspired by John Wayne’s performance in Howard Hawks’ Red River one year earlier, Ford has the Duke in age makeup, playing an old Cavalry officer on the verge of retirement. Wayne’s fun in the role, but lacks the gravitas he would acquire with age and use to great effect in later films like The Searchers (1956) and Rio Bravo (1959). That said, Wayne still works because the film as a whole is fairly lighthearted. It’s stagy, but in a familiar, comforting way, like a bedtime story that substitutes soldiers for knights and marauding Arapaho Indians for dragons. MORE »
Posted at 4:38 PM in Movie Reviews, John Ford and John Wayne.
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