"Searching for John Ford", Joseph McBride
John Ford (1894-1973) was, as François Truffaut wrote, "an artist who never said the word 'art,' a poet who never mentioned 'poetry.'" [1] His work is constructed on a personal and singularly lyrical vision, particularly incisive on the mythology of the Old West. His films, based on ideals of tradition, homeland, family and community, are mostly filmed in long and medium long shots, with a remarkable pictorial composition where the camera is essentially immobile. Films as My Darling Clementine (1946), Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956) have acquired the classic status and served as references for acclaimed filmmakers like Orson Welles (who saw Stagecoah forty times, while in preparation for Citizen Kane ), Ingmar Bergman or Pedro Costa. His westerns, with cavalry figures in line, solitary heroes riding across Monument Valley, female characters waiting inside their homes for the return of their loved ones, and stretched-legged sheriffs sitting o...