STRAIGHT SHOOTER: JOHN FORD, AMERICAN MASTER

Orson Welles once declared his admiration for the “old masters” of American cinema, “by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford”. The son of Irish immigrants, Ford (1894–1973) was undoubtedly one of the great poets and pioneers of American cinema and the key figure in the pantheon of the Western. But his characteristically blunt assessment of his own work – “My name is John Ford and I make Westerns” – only accounts for less than a third of his output of over 130 features. The director’s  career dates back to the very start of Hollywood in the 1910s, beginning with stints as a labourer, stuntman, assistant director and bit part actor before getting his first job directing two-reel Westerns in 1917, before quickly moving onto features later the same year. Over the following decades, Ford worked across multiple genres, making a vast array of commercially successful and critically lauded films, many now regarded as iconic works of American cinema and the popular representation of its history. Although he is most commonly remembered for his extraordinarily influential Westerns such as Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), he is almost as important as a director of war films, period films, historical “epics”, roustabout comedies and adaptations of literary works by writers like Eugene O’Neill, John Steinbeck and Graham Greene. In fact, three of his four Best Director Oscars (winning more than any other director) were for adaptations of significant novels. Tough yet sentimental, gruff yet surprisingly lyrical, Ford’s films display a deceptively simple personal vision and visual style that helped establish him as the archetypal auteur (along with Alfred Hitchcock) and the most characteristic of American directors. This season centres on the key middle period of Ford’s career. It includes the two extraordinary literary adaptations for which he won back-to-back Oscars – The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and How Green Was My Valley (1941, beating Welles for Citizen Kane) – his profound meditation on the early life of the most mythologised of American presidents, Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), and two of the most incisive and critically revisionist works that characterise the fascinating last phase of his career, Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and 7 Women (1965). Rounding out the season – and year – is what many consider the best of his surviving silent films, the wonderfully entertaining 3 Bad Men (1926).

Wednesday 2 December

7:00pm 7 WOMEN

John Ford (1965) 87 mins – Unclassified 15+

Abandoned by MGM at the time of its release, and mostly relegated to the second half of double bills, Ford’s last feature is one of the great “final” films and a significant departure. Based on Norah Lofts’ story about a Christian mission on the China-Mongolia border in the 1930s during a time of murderous conflict, Ford’s deeply interior, proto-feminist, radical and reactionary treatment caps the last phase of his career and its conscious revisioning of the themes of gender, race, colonialism, and American exceptionalism and myth. Its remarkable multi-generational cast features Anne Bancroft, Margaret Leighton, Sue Lyon, Flora Robson, Eddie Albert and Woody Strode.

8:45pm SERGEANT RUTLEDGE

John Ford (1960) 111 mins – PG

Woody Strode stars as the NCO of a Black cavalry troop fighting against a false charge of the rape and murder of a white woman. A dark, enclosed, pent-up courtroom Western verging on chamber drama, this candidly provocative film marked the beginning of Ford’s last great period, characterised by a potent self-revisionism of his previous five decades of filmmaking. Taking advantage of the relative relaxation of censorship at the time, Ford’s film is remarkable for its sexual frankness and sympathetic focus on African-American experience. With Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers, Juano Hernandez and Billie Burke.

35mm print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
Sergeant Rutledge
by Andrew Tracy

Wednesday 9 December

7:00pm YOUNG MR. LINCOLN

John Ford (1939) 100 mins – G

Ford’s poetic, leisurely and Americana-infused account of Lincoln’s early years in Illinois as a young lawyer is a profound meditation on the nature of myth. The middle of three key films Ford released in 1939 (between Stagecoach and Drums Along the Mohawk), which ushered in the richest period of his career, it features an extraordinary central performance by Henry Fonda as the storied future President. Exquisitely shot by frequent collaborator Bert Glennon and scored by Alfred Newman, it also features a rich supporting cast including Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver, Donald Meek and Ward Bond.

8:55pm HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY

John Ford (1941) 118 mins – PG

Lauded by Kristin Thompson as “one of the very greatest American films”, Ford and screenwriter Philip Dunne’s adaptation of Richard Llewellyn’s 1939 novel chronicles a Welsh mining family whose way of life is slowly fading with the turn of the 20th century. Told in flashback by the youngest son (Roddy McDowall), this tender, deeply felt and nostalgic fable of working-class life makes impressive use of recent stylistic breakthroughs including Arthur Miller’s brilliant deep-focus photography. With Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, Donald Crisp and Anna Lee. Oscar winner for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography and two other awards in the same year as Citizen Kane.

Wednesday 16 December

7:00pm THE GRAPES OF WRATH

John Ford (1940) 129 mins – PG

Filmed just months after the publication of John Steinbeck’s now-classic 1939 novel, Ford’s essential rendering of Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) and his Oklahoman family’s struggle to survive in 1930s rural America is buoyed by cinematographer Gregg Toland’s innovative low-key lighting and a refreshingly open attitude to leftist politics. An Oscar winner for Best Director and one of the initial 25 films selected for preservation by the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, it is amongst Ford’s most nuanced works. Despite some inevitable changes from the novel, it remains Hollywood’s most unflinching portrayal of the Great Depression. With Jane Darwell and John Carradine.

35mm print courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive, Australia.

9:25pm 3 BAD MEN

John Ford (1926) 91 mins – Unclassified 15+

One of the undeniable high points of Ford’s silent-era career, this epic set amongst the 1870s gold rush on Sioux land shows just how early the great master’s characteristic style had formed, featuring the intricate framing of actors, an overwhelming sense of grandeur and location, a keen interest in how communities are built, and graceful storytelling largely expressed through action and movement. Starring Olive Borden as a woman saved from horse thieves by the three “bad” outlaws of the title, it features George O’Brien (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans) as a chipper cowboy also heading towards the goldfields.

4K DCP.