Becoming John Ford

An exercise in form that nearly drowns the content, "Becoming John Ford" should be nominated for "Best Performance by a Designer." There's plenty of keen insight and worthwhile scholarship in this arty documentary but it's undone by a wandering rostrum camera, foolishly obscured film clips, a cavalier attitude toward identifying its speakers, and a paucity of comments from people who actually worked with John Ford. In fact, Ford himself is never heard despite available footage. Yet there are clearly money and integrity behind this well-researched kludge, so the filmmakers' decision to undercut their mission is even more suspect. Not that it shouldn't be seen - just take Dramamine first.

Just a lot of film studies 101 talk from boring professor types who blab and drone on and on and on. They provide us with many useless tidbits on why films are important. I thought this was to be about the director John Ford.

We come out of this knowing next to nothing about John Ford the man – what shaped him, why did he become a film director, his upbringing.

Does not mention the major films of John Ford - Stagecoach or The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance??? Why?? Simply Incomprehensible!!! John Wayne is barely mentioned.

Nothing is said about how the films were made on the location – such as Monument Valley.

Ranks as one of the worst documentaries I have ever seen.

I found this doc very slow. It took 2 minutes into the film before you saw the first photo of Mr. Ford. The intro had nothing to do with Mr. Ford or his work. Plus, they never spoke to one person who worked with Mr. Ford. How about Maureen O'Hara?

The stories have been told. And it looked like a photo shoot for those who talk about Mr. Ford (with stories that have been told before). The only good part of the film was Mr. Fonda. He did try to give a look into Mr. Ford and his Father's work together.

I loved Mr. Redman's doc on the Wild Bunch. But this was boring look at a great Director.

Becoming John Ford (2007)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very good documentary that covers John Ford's years at Fox. Considering we just had a Ford documentary last year I really wasn't expecting this to offer anything new but it actually does. The one negative thing about the film is that I wish it would have spent more time discussing his silent films and talking about some of the ones that are now lost. Outside of that, this film centers on the Fox years and makes some very interesting comments about Ford the person and how this person leaked into his movies. It was somewhat sad to hear how Henry Fonda and Ford had their falling out with the director punching the actor but I guess that's just Ford. There's a lot of style on display here that seems out of place at times but this is still a good introduction to the Fox years.