On 3 Godfathers, Mr Ford and Mr Peckinpah… July 13, 2006
Posted by John Hodson in : Film & DVD Reviews, About John Ford, Westerns , 3 commentsPike Bishop: It’s his word.
Dutch Engstrom: That ain’t what counts! It’s who you give it to!Don Jose: We all dream of being a child again, even the worst of us. Perhaps the worst most of all.
It’s very nearly a record for me; shedding a tear before the film’s started. But the dedication at the start of John Ford’s 3 Godfathers (1948) does it to me every time - ‘To Harry Carey; Bright Star of the Early Western Sky’.
In long shot, a cowboy pulls his horse up and for a moment, in post-war movie houses across the world, millions of silent western fans rub their eyes in disbelief as the rider strikes three familiar trademark poses; clutching his arm, lifting his stetson before resting it high on his forehead, settling back on his horse in an easy fashion. John Ford is saying his farewells to the man who he helped to stardom and in return made him a much sought after director. Harry Carey, a huge star of silent westerns, had died the previous year.
Isn’t 3 Godfathers a peach? It’s a remake of Ford’s Marked Men, made nearly three decades previously (just think on that for a moment), and while Ford brought all the virtues of his silent cinema career to the sound era, this is possibly the perfect example of ’silent’ sound film. I’ll explain. Well, I’ll try.
3 Godfathers is gorgeous to look at, the combination of Winton Hoch’s cinematography, Ford’s unique genius for composition and that spectral Mojave Desert locale make for a film that is just full of beautiful images - lots of shots into the sun, the eponymous ‘godfathers’ silhouetted against honeyed sand dunes. On the current R1 DVD (part of the recently released John Ford / John Wayne Collection) it’s not a perfect transfer from Warners, but it’s damn near.
I don’t quite know what it is, but I can almost ’see’ the intertitles. Maybe it’s because I know the film’s back story, possibly - and I think this more likely - it’s a deliberate stylistic decision by Ford. That opening dedication is not just mere words, this whole production, script, cinematography, score, the whole darned shooting match, is Carey’s epitaph. This is a genuine heartfelt homage to Harry Carey and an era of movies that have passed into the maw of history. Joe McBride, author of the epic, essential Searching For John Ford, says 3 Godfathers has been ‘…brushed aside by most critics as minor Ford… (but) the simplicity of the film’s sentiment is balanced by the sophistication of its visual style.’
I’ll go a few steps further - I think it’s nigh on a bloody masterpiece, a stylistic triumph with a deliberate childlike simplicity to the narrative, an unashamed love letter - as can also be argued about the very different The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - to a cinema that had long gone, but a cinema that nurtured and formed one of the great, perhaps the greatest of, American directors.
McBride adds that he watched The Searchers with Hoch and ‘…the cameraman called attention to a group composition of the family moving onto the porch in the opening scene, taking their places with effortlessly fluid and beautiful movement. He exclaimed: “There’s Ford’s genius - right there.”‘
It’s almost balletic isn’t it? Makes me want to ’stand up and cheer…’
Those quotes at the beginning of this post? Well, for a while, I’ve been resisting the notion, postulated by some, that Peckinpah was a sort of anti-Ford, the antithesis of all the old man stood for and created. I think that’s pure nonsense. I reckon Sam is Ford’s natural successor in many ways - those lines, from The Wild Bunch, kind of sum up 3 Godfathers, and the richness, the depth of Peckinpah’s work emulates Fords (I may be struggling, but I also think there’s a link with the repeated use of ‘Let’s go!’ in the ‘Bunch’ with The Searchers; go on, mark me as a fool).
Mr Ford a true giant of American Cinema? I reckon…
Just what the world needs…
Posted by John Hodson in : General , add a comment…another blog. Okay; when I have the time and / or the inclination, I’ll post a few ramblings on films that move me, that improve my life and my outlook on the world and that I’d like others to share. Yes, it’s all about me (well, what’s the point of blogging otherwise?)
Quick caveat; most likely the films under discussion will be older than, well, some of my ties, possibly be filmed in black and white and may even fail to blow the dust off your sub-woofer. But they still may have the power to blow your mind.