History Creator / JohnFord

In TheSixties and TheSeventies, Ford's films fell under scrutiny on issues of representation of Native Americans and African Americans in his Westerns and dramas. The fact that many of them featured Creator/JohnWayne, a prominent supporter of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and other conservative causes didn't help. In matter of fact, for most of his life, Ford was a liberal. A supporter of Franklin Roosevelt and Kennedy, who personally opposed the RedScare, publicly denounced pro-blacklist filmmaker Creator/CecilBDeMille at a meeting of the Director's Guild and helped blacklisted actors and writers find work. Later in life however, Ford identified himself as a "Maine Republican" and supported both Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon though even then, both men were relatively moderate Republicans and Ford's views were still not nearly as right-wing as Wayne or other actors. He was also highly intelligent, speaking several languages including the Navajo language.

In TheSixties and TheSeventies, Ford's films fell under scrutiny on issues of representation of Native Americans and African Americans in his Westerns and dramas. The fact that many of them featured Creator/JohnWayne, a prominent supporter of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and other conservative causes didn't help. In matter of fact, for most of his life, Ford was a liberal. A supporter of Franklin Roosevelt and Kennedy, who personally opposed the RedScare, publicly denounced pro-blacklist filmmaker Creator/CecilBDeMille at a meeting of the Director's Guild and helped blacklisted actors and writers find work. Later in life however, Ford identified himself as a "Maine Republican" and supported both Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was also highly intelligent, speaking several languages including the Navajo language.

Born in Maine to a large Irish family, he traveled with his older brother Francis to Hollywood during the early years of film-making. Changing their last names to Ford, Francis went to work as an actor while John found himself finding work behind the camera. By the 1920s and 1930s, John Ford was working on small-time, quickly made Westerners but was moving on to bigger and better projects. He won his first Best Director Oscar for ''The Informer'', a political thriller about the [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles IRA]] which cemented his reputation as a great director. Then in 1939 he directed ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', considered for decades to be the greatest Western ever made. He went on to win three more Best Director Oscars, more than any other film-maker. (Although, ironically, none of them were for the westerns he was so well-known for. This is understandable since it would take 'till the '90s for Westerns to get OutOfTheGhetto and be taken seriously as dramatic works.)

* ''Sergeant Rutledge'' (1960)

* ''Literature/MisterRoberts'' (1955) - Replaced by Creator/MervynLeRoy for punching Henry Fonda

* ''Literature/MisterRoberts'' (1955) - Replaced by Mervyn [=LeRoy=] for punching Henry Fonda

* ''Film/YoungCassidy'' (1965, uncredited, left the production due to ill health and was replaced by Jack Cardiff)

** In Peter Bogdanovich's ''Directed by John Ford'', Creator/MaureenOHara discussed how the wedding scene in Film/HowGreenWasMyValley was often believed to contain an accident (where a gust of wind suddenly lifted her character's veil as she stepped down). She insisted that Ford entirley staged this scene, timing the wind machine just right to get this effect, and noted that Ford had a gift of making scenes look "natural" and "accidental" even when they were staged and planned to LudicrousPrecision.

--> '''John Ford:''' People are incorrect to compare a director to an author. If he's a creator, he's more like an architect. And an architect conceives his plans according to precise circumstances.

* ''The Horse Soldiers'' (1959)

-> ''"Remember this. When the horizon's at the top, it's interesting. When the horizon's at the bottom, it's interesting. When it's in the middle, it's boring as ''[[PrecisionFStrike shit]]''."''
-->-- '''John Ford''' (played by '''Creator/DavidLynch'''), ''Film/TheFabelmans''

-> ''"Remember this. When the horizon's at the top, it's interesting. When the horizon's at the bottom, it's interesting. When it's in the middle, it's boring as ''[[PrecisionFStrike shit]]''."

-> ''"Remember this. When the horizon's at the top, it's interesting. When the horizon's at the bottom, it's interesting. When it's in the middle, it's boring as ''[[PrecisionFStrike shit]]''.
-->-- '''John Ford''' (played by '''Creator/DavidLynch'''), Film/TheFabelmans.

** His final western, ''Cheyenne Autumn'' doesn't really have main central characters. Most of the actions concerns a group of Cheyennes forced off their reservation and most of the action follows their exodus across harsh terrain. Parallel plots concern a Quaker woman (Carroll Baker) who helps them, and a US Cavalry led by Richard Widmark who tracks them, other sections concern real life senator Carl Schurz (played by Edward G. Robinson). The most famous part of the film is an interlude featuring Creator/JimmyStewart as an anti-heroic Wyatt Earp that is absolutely unconnected to the main plot.

In his lifetime, Ford was regarded almost unanimously as America's greatest film-maker, with all his contemporaries having nothing but respect and admiration for him. He also had an international following such respectable film-makers as Creator/AkiraKurosawa, Creator/IngmarBergman, Creator/JeanRenoir and even outsider film-makers like Creator/JeanLucGodard admitting to his importance and influence. As one of the founders of the DGA, Ford also encouraged young film-makers, serving as TheMentor to the likes of Creator/OrsonWelles, Creator/EliaKazan, Creator/SamuelFuller and many others. A 13-year-old aspiring filmmaker named Creator/StevenSpielberg briefly met Ford, who gave him some advice on the value of good shot composition.