John Ford Goes to War

John Ford was a great filmmaker--that cannot be denied. He had a knack for creating a very sentimental view of life that was very appealing and he received several Oscars for this work. However, I also know from some documentaries on the guy that although he was talented, he also could be a complete son of a .....well, you know what I mean. At times, he seemed to take delight in bullying some of his actors for kicks and often mistreated actors to get great performances. As a human being, he seemed to be quite lacking at times--yet others have described him as being gruff but sweet. I am not sure who the man really was--I suspect he was indeed a little of each. However, one aspect of his life that is just glossed over is his involvement with the US Naval Reserves--not just during WWII but in the years that followed. This film makes up for that omission and discusses this very interesting part of his life. And, in the process made me respect and appreciate Ford as a human being...at least more than I had.

The film is made up of lots of archival clips, clips of Ford's propaganda documentaries for the Navy and various interviews--most of which seem second-hand since the film was made so many years after Ford's death. In fact, this is the biggest weakness of the film--had it been made decades earlier, it could have featured more interviews with folks who actually knew Ford well. Still, it's well worth seeing.

When the Second World War broke out, the Navy and Wild Bill Donovan, director of the Office of Strategic Services tapped director John Ford as head of their movie-making units. This documentary covers that period.

With a mixture of people who knew him (Peter Bogdanovich), admired him (Leonard Maltin), and who wished he were still alive so they could fight him (Oliver Stone), excerpts from the films he was in charge of, andshots of Ford himself, it offers a firm basis of understanding not only the films, but Ford himself. Other works offer contradictory views of himself: a painter and poet of failure who purported to despise artistry; a celebrator of community who made location shooting a chance to humiliate his cast and crew. I think Ford viewed the making of films as a sissy activity. He wasn't alone in this. Spencer Tracy claimed to despise acting. This documentary left me with the impression that Ford felt that by involving himself in the War, he was doing something of actual value.

On the other hand, one of the cameramen who shot film on the Beaches on D-Day spoke about watching the soldiers fight and die and accomplish something, and all he was doing was crouching behind a bush and taking pictures. So maybe that's wrong.

John Ford was a wonderful director. He made some of the very best films in multiple genres, not simply westerns, though we remember him best for films like "The Searchers", "Stagecoach", The Man who shot Liberty Valance," and the Calvary films. But he also made "The Informer", "The Quiet Man," and best of all "The Grapes of Wrath." He won many awards as did his associates.

For me personally, he stands alongside Orson Welles and Sam Peckinpah as the very best of the directors.

So how could they make such a miserable film about Ford and his work in the war. The talking heads provide almost nothing. The photos are also not educational.

You do get to hear Oliver Stone trash John Ford for being a government shill. That and an overabundance of talking heads who talk and talk but sometimes don't say much slow this down. You finish the film thinking, I didn't really see much of what Ford actually did on film during the war and what you do see leaves you with the impression that if this is the best stuff from those films maybe you don't need to see anymore. It's kind of impressive the people they got to interview but what they chose either to ask or to use from what they said is not impressive--and mostly impersonal.

It's great they made this film but the writing assumes too much in some cases, making a case that John Ford was a drunken bastard wanna be as a personality, but not letting us appreciate the war films or understand just how it (the war) affected him. Though the voice over says it changed him there is no answer as to how.

Most interesting footage is home movie footage of the elusive Ford on his boat and at some vet functions. You get to watch him guzzle a beer and flip off the camera. Kris Kristopherson offers his own, last stool at the end of the bar, style narration that seemed to fit the Sam Peckinpah documentary more than it fits this. Again though the fault may mostly be with the writing here.

Some of the other most interesting footage is that cut out of the December 7th movie, cut by Ford. The long version of the film, Dec 7 that is, looks like a strange curio in deed and I didn't know that Greg Toland the DP really wanted to direct--though it seems the relative failure of this wartime film helped stop that from happening.

Peter Bogdanavich adds a funny and revealing story (and impersonation) about Ford during the end credits. Too little too late.

I saw this on Encore earlier this a.m. I was just channel surfing and had only missed a few minutes.

Oliver Stone was accusing John Ford of what he himself does. Twisting history. John Ford's work is stirring and I agree with the other comment that not enough was shown. They did include some footage of the trivia sort--clips of the sex hygiene film Ford made that was shown to the armed forces.The men who made comments sort of sounded like little boys in the schoolyard telling dirty jokes.

One of the most moving film clips they showed was of a group of men who were going to go out on a mission. Ford had no way of knowing that none of them would return. To see those young men, smiling and so alive is really affecting. It brought a lump to my throat.

They should have shown more of his war films and had fewer "talking heads", especially the ones who had nothing to really contribute.