They Were Expendable

John Ford, 1945, bw (8.5*)
Memorial Day WAR-a-thon Film #12
(Robert Montgomery, co-dir, uncredited, who took over for Ford when he was injured in a fall)
This unglamorous story of average sailors doing their job at war is actually a touching and memorable war film. It's about the men in PT boats defending the Philippines. The film is written around the real life escape of General Douglas McArthur from Corregidor around the beginning of the Pacific War. Remaining historically accurate, the film documents the collapse of American-Filipino resistance in 1942.

John Wayne plays Rusty, a cynical officer unhappy being on PT boats, he wants a bigger, more important station, so in this film Wayne is not the big hero in a famous battle at all, making it more realistic than most of his roles, and quite a satisfying performance as a result. Robert Montgomery as the squadron commander is understated and moving, one of his best performances as well.

The film is full of memorable war images: a Japanese air strike at Subic Bay, the scenes of McArthur's escape, the defeated American army retreating on Mindanao. This is not a heavy action war film, but has a tranquil pace with time for other real life moments. Perhaps the finest of John Ford's war films.

Excellent supporting cast includes Ward Bond, Donna Reed, Jack Holt, Leon Ames. The sound and special effects received Oscar® nominations.

Read more...

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

John Ford, 1949 (8.4*)
Despite the terrible title, this is one of the best of the John Ford westerns, my favorite of his 'cavalry' films with John Wayne. In this more believable story, Wayne plays a retiring colonel, who is sucked into one last Indian war, something he hoped was all in his past by this point.

The title comes from a young lady, Joanne Dru, at the local fort who's playing one young lieutenant vs another (John Agar and Harry Carey Jr.), and doesn't appear to care which one wins the game. This provides an unnecessary distraction to the real story; unfortunately they chose this particular plotline for the film's title.

I think what I liked about this film vs. the other Ford-Wayne collaberations is that Wayne is finally human, he's simply old and worn out from decades of warring with no end in sight. He's no longer the superhuman ass-kicking American, he's ready to retire in his armchair in front of the tv or radio or perhaps drowsily fishing on a lake somewhere with his dog.

Beautifully photographed, winner of a cinematography Oscar® for Winton C. Hoch

Read more...

The Informer

John Ford, 1935, bw (8.8*)
Possibly the best John Ford film, this one is not a western but a political film in which Victor McLaglen plays an alcoholic member of the IRA in the 20's, in an Oscar®-winning performance for best actor (the best of his long career), who can't decide if he's fighting a revolution or looking for his next drink. Intelligence personnel know his weakness for alcohol and he becomes a target of those seeking information for the British side.

Winner of four Oscars, for best actor, director, music score, and screenplay - it lost best picture to Mutiny on the Bounty. This is still a riveting, politically-charged story 75 years later.

Read more...

The Grapes of Wrath

John Ford, 1940, bw (9.0*)
Perhaps Ford's finest film, for which he won the directing Oscar® is this one of John Steinbeck's famous novel, both branded "communist" at the time for their favoritism shown to the common working man thrown into the great migration westward to California in search of orchard picking work during the Great Depression.

This is a very humane and touching story of the Joad family's attempt at survival from a parched dust bowl beginning in Oklahoma, their travels west, and trials in seeking out a new life elsewhere. The entire cast is perfect, especially the performances by Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, and Oscar®-winning Jane Darwell as Ma Joad.

Steinbeck grew up around Salinas, California, the "lettuce capital" of the U.S., so he witnessed firsthand the plight of migrant farm workers. For his part, Ford has been mostly true to the novel, while filming the story with beautiful lighting and b&w cinematography. A classic.

Read more...

How the West Was Won

John Ford, George Marshall, Henry Hathaway, 1962 (7.4*)
This panaromic epic attempts to tell the story of the American western frontier as it advanced historically by using separate family stories connected to one family, the Prescotts, fathered in the beginning by Karl Malden.

Earlier versions had these awful vertical lines from a extreme widescreen process using three cameras and overlapping images, but they finally remastered this digitally and removed the lines, so its now worth watching again. However, the different sections and stories don't really mesh and the film lacks pace, perhaps from having 5 segments by three directors, actually tries to use lots of narration by Spencer Tracy to tie it together, so it seems like a History Channel special at times.

Many major stars are in this: James Stewart as a trapper, Debbie Reynolds as Malden's daughter who heads west, Gregory Peck as a gambler who romances her, Walter Brennan as a river pirate, John Wayne as a union general, Henry Fonda as a buffalo hunter. However, many of these talented actors are basically wasted without much to do; Fonda was the best to me. An ambitious attempt, worth watching for the sound, scope, and color cinematography, and the best buffalo stampede in cinema history.

Quote: I'm a God-fearin' man and I tell the truth as I see it (Malden)
Quote2: I settled down for a year once and it took 10 years off my life (Fonda)

Read more...

Mister Roberts

John Ford, 1955 (8.8*)
Western directing legend Ford breaks the mold in perhaps his most accessible film, with a terrific cast and a perfect comedy play that required little transformation to become a comedy classic film. James Cagney is the skipper of a tiny naval vessal used for training, while the real heroes are off killing our WW2 enemies, so he takes his frustrations out on his crew. Henry Fonda is perfect as Cagney's foil, Mister Roberts, second-in-command, who has the crew's respect and affection as they all hate the skipper. He has the perfect well-mannered demeanor with Cagney, which further drives him batty. William Powell, in his last film role, is the ship's doctor, and a young Jack Lemmon won a supporting actor Oscar as a junior officer, always stymied by, and fearful of Cagney and with whom he's always at silent war.

Read more...