(no subject)
John Wayne is one of my least favorite Americans, a horse’s ass of a man. And yet, having stated that, I'm readying myself for the flames.
I was comforted to find - after watching that PBS special last week - that John Ford, perhaps the greatest American director and politically a liberal, felt the same way and treated him like a moron on the set. But, he was friends with the ultra conservative Wayne, off and on, for more than 40 years. I think he saw in him something that takes some effort to admit to - especially for a liberal/communist like me: Wayne is actually a great film actor, in a subtle and quiet way.
For years, I just sort of wrote him off, mostly because of the war pictures and the dumb westerns (early and late), but watching the Ford movies when I live in London changed that. Maybe it was the distance from home?
If you put Capt. Brittles from “Yellow Ribbon” next to Ethan from “The Searchers” and both of those next to his role in “The Quiet Man” and the Ringo Kid in “Stagecoach,” they’re four very different people - and when I saw how different, I suddenly realized how really good Wayne could be. He can play characters that embody real contradiction: the pacifist soldier; the killer who tries to save people's lives; the boxer who won't fight; the rescuer who wants to kill the rescued.
That said, sometimes, he’s just Wayne, and other times, he’s a parody of himself. He’s very uneven, but at his best, he’s surprisingly moving and real.
Kathy believes that Wayne may be that good, but she can’t watch him for long, and I can understand that: a lot of people who grew up during Vietnam won’t watch John Ford's movies because Wayne is in them. But, when “How Green Was My Valley” comes on, which Wayne isn't in, we’re both sitting in front of the set, weeping like idiots.
That movie beat Citizen Kane at the Academy Awards in 1941. For years, I figured the fix was in, that there was no way it was a better film than “Citizen Kane”. But, thinking about the year, and what people liked then, and how cold “Citizen Kane” leaves you, and how extraordinarily well done “Valley” is and how deeply you feel it, I changed my mind. It’s a lot more traditional and less challenging that Kane, but so what? Personally, if both were on at the same time, I have to admit, I’d watch “Valley”.
I know this makes me a rank sentimentalist, but I realized that’s what I prize in a movie more than anything else.
Anyway, there are better directors than Ford. I love Powell and Pressburger, Passolini, Fellini, Rossellini, Carol Reed, David Lean, are as good or “better” if that can be applied to art. But Ford holds a special place for me, as he latched onto what being American meant in those westerns - all the good and a whole, whole lot of the bad. Ford's work is about taking the clear, good picture of America and forcing ambiguity into it.
Watch "Fort Apache" in light of Iraq, and you'll see what I mean. Ford loved the army, but the arrogance of the generals with the people they're supposed to be policing is in full display, and Ford is unafraid of attacking it with both barrels.
We could use someone like him right now...someone who plunges the dagger in and removes it before anyone knows what happened. You know - a real satirist, subtle and dark whose work is masquerading as patriotism.
So flame away. I know both of their records on Vietnam, and I know how rotten Wayne was during HUAC. I really do hate him, but I have to defend the point that his work under Ford was perhaps the best ever done on, and in, America.
(he types as he puts on his flame-retardant suit...)
I was comforted to find - after watching that PBS special last week - that John Ford, perhaps the greatest American director and politically a liberal, felt the same way and treated him like a moron on the set. But, he was friends with the ultra conservative Wayne, off and on, for more than 40 years. I think he saw in him something that takes some effort to admit to - especially for a liberal/communist like me: Wayne is actually a great film actor, in a subtle and quiet way.
For years, I just sort of wrote him off, mostly because of the war pictures and the dumb westerns (early and late), but watching the Ford movies when I live in London changed that. Maybe it was the distance from home?
If you put Capt. Brittles from “Yellow Ribbon” next to Ethan from “The Searchers” and both of those next to his role in “The Quiet Man” and the Ringo Kid in “Stagecoach,” they’re four very different people - and when I saw how different, I suddenly realized how really good Wayne could be. He can play characters that embody real contradiction: the pacifist soldier; the killer who tries to save people's lives; the boxer who won't fight; the rescuer who wants to kill the rescued.
That said, sometimes, he’s just Wayne, and other times, he’s a parody of himself. He’s very uneven, but at his best, he’s surprisingly moving and real.
Kathy believes that Wayne may be that good, but she can’t watch him for long, and I can understand that: a lot of people who grew up during Vietnam won’t watch John Ford's movies because Wayne is in them. But, when “How Green Was My Valley” comes on, which Wayne isn't in, we’re both sitting in front of the set, weeping like idiots.
That movie beat Citizen Kane at the Academy Awards in 1941. For years, I figured the fix was in, that there was no way it was a better film than “Citizen Kane”. But, thinking about the year, and what people liked then, and how cold “Citizen Kane” leaves you, and how extraordinarily well done “Valley” is and how deeply you feel it, I changed my mind. It’s a lot more traditional and less challenging that Kane, but so what? Personally, if both were on at the same time, I have to admit, I’d watch “Valley”.
I know this makes me a rank sentimentalist, but I realized that’s what I prize in a movie more than anything else.
Anyway, there are better directors than Ford. I love Powell and Pressburger, Passolini, Fellini, Rossellini, Carol Reed, David Lean, are as good or “better” if that can be applied to art. But Ford holds a special place for me, as he latched onto what being American meant in those westerns - all the good and a whole, whole lot of the bad. Ford's work is about taking the clear, good picture of America and forcing ambiguity into it.
Watch "Fort Apache" in light of Iraq, and you'll see what I mean. Ford loved the army, but the arrogance of the generals with the people they're supposed to be policing is in full display, and Ford is unafraid of attacking it with both barrels.
We could use someone like him right now...someone who plunges the dagger in and removes it before anyone knows what happened. You know - a real satirist, subtle and dark whose work is masquerading as patriotism.
So flame away. I know both of their records on Vietnam, and I know how rotten Wayne was during HUAC. I really do hate him, but I have to defend the point that his work under Ford was perhaps the best ever done on, and in, America.
(he types as he puts on his flame-retardant suit...)