Directed by John Ford

Directed By John Ford (2006)

**** (out of 4)

Peter Bogdanovich directs this documentary on the life and career of the legendary director. Vintage interviews with John Wayne, Henry Fonda and James Stewart are mixed with newer interviews with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood (among others). The doc does a great job at showing what made Ford some a great director and I really enjoyed the scenes where they'd show clips from countless films in a row, showing you how Ford liked certain themes in his films. There's one section where they cover 180 years of history shown through Ford's films. I do wish the documentary had spent more time with Ford's career in the late 1910s. There's also another segment, which I felt shouldn't have been included. There's a recorded conversation between Ford and Katharine Hepburn, which was great to hear but the recorder was left on when the two didn't know it was running. This audio recording might show Ford at a softer moment but I really didn't feel comfortable listening to it.

While print quality of the films it shows excerpts from, and some of the interviews is poor, the quality of the documentary itself still shines. It shows us how Ford got started in film, and what films made him a star. It also gives enough of an overview of the man, and enough complete scenes from his films, that a person like me who's only seen a handful of Ford's many many films, can respect the man and know he was one of the best. You also get to know what kind of a man he was through stories told by such Ford film regulars as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda. Some are truly funny and let you know what a character the man himself was. There are also a few spots of interviews with Ford himself behind his famous backdrop of Monument Valley. They tool show you what a unique man Ford was. I was lucky enough to see this on AMC, if you have a chance of seeing it anywhere, I recommend it.

You get to hear why Ford was so great, see him be a cantankerous jerk to a young Peter Bogdonovich, and see loads of clips from classics. If anything, this movie leaves you wanting more, but you will certainly want to go and watch all of these movies again (or for the first time). A great summation.

This film was originally made in 1971 by Peter Bogdonovich. However, Bogdonovich and Turner Classic Movies re-edited and expanded this film for release on 11/6/06.

In general, I enjoyed this film--mostly since I love so many of Ford's films. It tends to focus mostly on actors impressions of the man--with lots of interviews with actors and actresses. Some of these interviews are quite recent and many were made around 1969-1971. They all gave some wonderful insights into the director and with my background in psychology, what WASN'T said explicitly was interesting. While no one said it, Ford seemed like a very controlling and domineering man with some self-esteem issues. And, sadly, his personal life was a mess--probably because these characteristics that helped him be a great director probably made him a lousy family man. I really, really wished the film had gone into this area further, but the focus of the film was not so much on his psychology but on what others superficially saw in him. Too bad it just didn't go deeper.

Also, I had seen a documentary about Ford years ago on American Movie Classics and it had a totally different slant. Instead of interviews, it was more a sequential overview of Ford's films. If this IS what you are looking for, the Bogdonovich documentary is not for you, as it shows clips and talks about most of the famous Ford films but ignores the rest (he did direct something like 150 films).

So overall, it was very interesting and it was nice to see interviews with so many of my dead favorites. But this must be seen as a very narrow and superficial tribute, as it ignores Ford's life story or a sequential or in-depth account of his film career.

"Directed By John Ford" is a moving, thoroughgoing, yet somehow incomplete look at that master of directors, John Ford, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, a hot young director himself when he first made this film, in 1971.

The version of "Directed By John Ford" I saw is not that version, but a retooled one made in 2006 featuring up-to-date commentary from Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, and Bogdanovich himself, among others. There's also surviving footage from the 1971 version, showing John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and Ford himself, all still alive at the time and willing to sit down and talk with Bogdanovich, though barely in the case of Ford himself.

Q: Mr. Ford, I've noticed your view of the West has become increasingly sad...Have you been aware of that change of mood? A: No.

Q: Now that I've pointed it out, is there anything you'd like to say about it? A: I don't know what you're talking about.

The others interviewed are more willing to share their views, not to mention their scars. "He dares you to do it right – do it good," notes Stewart, adding "It's not a relaxed set." Ford was a rank sentimentalist and a bullying manic depressive, pressing every psychological button among his cast, crew, and himself. Wayne and Fonda note how hard-nosed Ford could be with the amused bewilderment of Catholic schoolboys discussing a crazy nun.

The modern-day interviews are interesting, too, though not nearly so. The result here is less a retrospective than an appreciation piece, and something of a disjointed one, with half the interviews discussing Ford in the present tense and half wistfully acknowledging the world Ford left behind.

"He's like Dickens or something," says Walter Hill, the guy behind "Deadwood" and "48 Hrs." "There's a whole frame of reference and horizon-line that's Fordian." The best thing to say about this documentary is that you get some concrete sense of what the adjective "Fordian" means. His films could be messy and emotional, but there was often a economical driving force at their heart, running through them tight as a clothesline.

You also see how Ford influenced directors who came after him. One scene from a 1961 film "Two Rode Together," shows Stewart and Richard Widmark sitting at a stream and having a long conversation about Stewart's love life. It's introduced by Scorsese as an influential scene in his own film-making, but there was nothing recognizably of Scorsese in the clip I see, which is amiable, drawn-out, and too whimsical by half for Scorsese's macho style. But it did remind me a lot of Quentin Tarantino, who it turns out is a huge Scorsese fan. Ford's roots run deep, and often past a lot of people, as with me.

The film loses steam in the second half, though, with a labored reflection on how Ford captured the story of America on a chronological basis. There's some brief audio of Ford talking to Katharine Hepburn that hints at a great romance between the two, but it's thrown up late and not tied in well to anything else.

But this is a fine overview of Ford's fantastic career, however unsettled as to its perspective. Ford himself was a little unsettled, too.