Once the cinema of John Ford is in your blood, it never leaves.
JC
November 08, 2006 8:42 AM
[Image]This has nothing to do with animation, but I'm indulging myself.
As much as I love animation, my favorite filmmaker, bar none, is John Ford. While there are many movies I like and watch repeatedly, I return to Ford's films more than those of any other director.
TCM (which I unfortunately can't get in Toronto) is having a 22 film retrospective of Ford's work. I think that these days Ford is an acquired taste; he's terribly different from contemporary directors and his films are now at least 40 years old and suffer from changes in social attitudes (many of which needed changing). But if you can respond emotionally to Ford's work, you enter a universe where everything is an expression of his personality and every film echoes and reverberates against every other.
If you're not familiar with Ford, try the Bogdanovich documentary Directed by John Ford airing Tuesday evening. After that, dip into Stagecoach, They Were Expendable, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, The Long Voyage Home, Wagon Master, The Last Hurrah and Judge Priest.
posted by Mark Mayerson at 10:04 PM on Nov 6, 2006
"John Ford"
4 Comments -
Ford was a genius. The documentary is excellent. My recorders will be going full time.
Thanks for calling attention to it.
November 07, 2006 8:26 AM
I would also recommend Joseph McBride's excellent biography 'Searching For John Ford'. I read it recently and thought it was great.
November 07, 2006 1:33 PM
I have to confess that the only John Ford film that I've seen is Stagecoach.
I'll definetly need to rectify this in the future.
November 08, 2006 12:31 AM
You forgot the best quote from the Star review:
Once the cinema of John Ford is in your blood, it never leaves.
JC
November 08, 2006 8:42 AM