American Masters: Pappy and the Duke

[markland]

I spotted the above show on PBS last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a documentary about the relationship between John Ford and John Wayne with plenty of archival video and audio recordings from the Duke discussing Ford.

More information may be found at:

www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/ford_wayne.html

Be good,

Billy

P.S. They mentioned Custer one time so I felt that this qualified for inclusion on the board

[bhist]

Yes, that was a wonderful documentary. I watched it on the PBS high definition channel and they did a fantastic job of it in that medium. Seeing scenes from “The Searchers” on a 55inch widescreen just blows me away -- the next best thing to seeing it originally in the theater.

It’s interesting to note that “The Searchers” shows up on most film critics top ten films of all time. Spielberg watches it each time, for inspiration, before he starts a new movie. In my opinion, it was Wayne’s best performance of his entire career.

[Scout]

It was without question Duke's finest performance...True Grit was a giveway award. It was good but nowhere near The Searchers. The show was well done.

[markland]

scout2 said:

It was without question Duke's finest performance...True Grit was a giveway award. It was good but nowhere near The Searchers. The show was well done.

Scout, without turning this into a John Ford/John Wayne-centric message board, I have to disagree. Red River was his best with The Searchers in second, followed by The Shootist, then Three Godfathers and finally, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.

BTW, Red River is available on DVD.

Be good all!

Billy

P.S. And I have two copies of The Quiet Man...and still religiously watch it even though not in my top 5 list! A boy can turn into a man; but no matter what, you can't take the boy out of the man!

[El Crab]

I watched The Searchers the other night. I was actually a bit let down. I think because I've read so many directors (Spielberg and Tarantino, among others) have it in their "best" lists and since it was supposedly a bit controversial, I was expecting more.

For the time, I could see why people would think it was thought of that way. And it certainly was a departure from Wayne's normal characters. But I thought there should have been a lot more internal strife. I expected that we'd find it harder to root for Wayne's character. And I certainly expected more in regards to the violence. Obviously it was much different than your average western, and certainly different than Wayne's normal westerns.

In Unforgiven, they make someone we would hate into the one we root for, and dispel the mythical Old West. We find out that English Bob was probably just a dishonest braggart with a penchant for shooting people in the back and hunting Chinamen. We have old men and a young boy killing a cowboy, and feeling remorse over it. We have that cowboy crying out and dying a slow death, causing that remorse. We have a sure shot unable to even do it anymore. We have so many things that just rip apart the Western genre, and yet its so engrossing.

Now, I'm not saying The Searchers should have been Unforgiven, or that we should even compare them as a whole. What I am getting at is that I just didn't feel like The Searchers broke ground. Of course, I already admitted that the build-up is likely the culprit. And I will also mention again that seeing this movie when it was new and comparing it to works of that time would probably change my outlook.

[crzhrs]

The SEARCHERS was more of a psychological movie rather than the typical Cowboys and Indians. It definately had more of a racial overtone than many other movies up to that time. The plot centers on a man wanting to kill the captured white girl who undoubtedly has now become "Indian" and has been "used" by the Indians thus making her unpure. In the end he realizes that she is still his niece and overlooks the "Indianness" and possibly sees that being an Indian is not much different than being White.

[El Crab]

Yeah, I got all of that. I just had loftier expectations. As another example, I had picked up Chinatown on DVD a while back, and kept putting off watching it. It came highly rated by the aspiring screenwriters I converse with on occasion. So I had expected great things (and certain things, like EXCEPTIONAL dialogue and story), and it delivered it and then some.

When I watched The Searchers, it was built-up about the same amount. That's not to say I didn't like it, of course. I expected more psychological turmoil, more inner strife, more of a struggle for John Wayne's character.

[bubbabod]

El Crab, my young friend, I don't know what you expected in The Searchers, but it was and is one of the best ever. It had enough action in it to satisfy me, and I think it showed the hatred the Texians and the Comanch had for each other. The white Texans could in no way get along with the Comanche. The Texas Hill Country was largely settled by German immigrants, and they found a way to live fairly peacefully in Comanche country. They treated the Comanche with more respect, gave them a cow now and then and generally weren't bothered by them, at least not to the extent as the Texans. Now, I've got to say I'm just drawing this from reading Michener's "Texas." I trust his research.
The movie was filmed in Monument Valley and in color, which many of Ford's movies filmed there were in black and white.
The Searchers had a great story with lots of action and a good amount of fear factor built in. I thought Ford gave us one of the most fearful of feelings early in the movie when Wayne's brother goes outside, catches site of the quail being scared off, the glint of metal, and returns to his house and starts closing it up, and the screams of Lucy when she realizes what's about to happen. And then little Debby sitting in the cemetary as Scar's shadow covers her? About crapped my pants as a kid when I saw it.
I don't know what more a person could want in a movie. It'll always go down as my favorite movie.
I also loved The Shootist. It showed a different, aged Wayne character, and I loved the transition of the old gunfighter's time into the beginnings of modern-day Carson City with cable cars.
It's a frickin shame Wayne didn't get an academy award for The Searchers. His best flick ever.


Fear

[bhist]

Ironically, I discovered the long awaited and overdue collector’s edition of “The Searchers” two disc set is finally coming to DVD. The current DVD I have of the film is outstanding, but believe it or not, this new release promises to out perform the old one. Warner Brothers has been very generous. Instead of just reissuing a copy of the old DVD, this issue has completely new stuff on it.

Finally, “Ft. Apache” comes to DVD for the first time as well. I discovered this while trying to find a copy of the American Master’s program we talk about in this thread. Turns out it will be included in the new 2 disc set of “Stagecoach” as an extra feature.

One can buy the complete set of all the films (more are included than I mention here) at –

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F0UUI2/qid=1147543555/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-4116222-9196056?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130 -- release date is June 6.

[El Crab]

Warner Bros. is releasing a huge amount of their older movies from their vaults, and generally in a 2 disc Special Edition. So that's why all these old films are finally showing up, and in bunches this summer.

Personally, I'm giddy that I can finally own Grand Prix on DVD. Being a huge Formula One fan, its a must-have that wasn't even available. I like to think I had a part in it, since I made my girlfriend, a new product buyer for Hollywood Video, pester her Warner rep about Grand Prix weekly.

[jjm]

Universal brought out a great set of Hitchcock DVDs with incredible extras. The same NEEDS to be done for Ford. I hope this set goes some way towards this. I love the Searchers, although Clementine is my personal favourite Western and I'd rate Rio Bravo ahead of Red River as far as the Wayne-Hawks stuff goes. Interesting that most of the non-Ford or non-Hawks Wayne stuff is poor - The Shootist being the notable and very fine exception.


BTW, I hope the Alan Whicker documentary is one of the extras on Grand Prix. Great stuff.

[d o harris]

I hope the Ft. Apache DVD is widescreen. I'll get it for one reason if it is. Some months past I learned that John Wayne was in the last stand scene. Even though he played Capt. York, who was back on the ridge with the wagons, for that scene he picked up a carbine and sat in. Actually, knelt in. He can't be seen on the tape version, but on widescreen should be visible kneeling in the lower right of the picture as Thursday and the survivors are silently staring in the direction from which the last charge will come.
A couple of decades ago I was listening to a book about John Ford being read on the radio. It seems the movie, "The Gunfighter" in which Gregory Peck starred, was originally a John Ford project, but that he had a falling out with Daryl Zanuck, the head of 20th Century. One of the issues was that Ford wanted John Wayne to play the lead. Zanuck said no with these words. "Nobody will ever believe John Wayne ran from three cowboys."
Zanuck was right. After "Stagecoach" regardless of whether he was playing Tom Dunson, Ethan Edwards, John Bernard Books, Captain York, Sgt. Stryker or whoever else, the audience expected to see John Wayne.