History Creator / JohnFord

-> ''"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."''
-->-- '''John Ford'''

* AuteurLicense: Like most "journeymen" directors who were not producers of their films in the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood Golden Age]], Ford did not have contractual AuteurLicense on the vast majority of the films he directed. However research has shown that Ford evolved a strategy to exert autonomy and control while working in the system. He was economical to the point of mathematical precision, refusing to shoot extra shots and "cutting on camera" to prevent extra footage available to editors(who worked with producers), which forced the editors to arrange the film as [[BatmanGambit a jigsaw puzzle]] with the pieces scattered to form Ford's pre-determined vision.

** Stagecoach is another example. The Ringo Kid (John Wayne) doesn't show up for the film's early section, the various subplots concerning the other travellers are given attention while Thomas Mitchell's literary-minded and alcoholic doctor gets most of the lines. ''Fort Apache'' likewise is more about the customs and lives of the titular military fort, with the film's hero-villain Owen Thursday being mostly a FlatCharacter.

* LongRunners: John Ford first started making films in the 1910s with his earliest surviving film being ''Straight Shooting'', also a Western. His last film comes from the year 1966, a span of more than 50 years, covering the first half of the 20th Century. This leads to ArchivePanic since he made a lot of films and was highly consistent moreover.

Born John Feeney in 1894 (or 1895) 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.)

* TheLadette: Normally, this character type is more typical of Creator/HowardHawks films, but Ford's films occassionally provide examples: Ava Gardner's performance in ''Mogambo'' (where Ford is more or less channelling Hawks anyway) and most notably, Anne Bancroft in ''7 Women'' with Dr. Cartwright, an atheist doctor alcoholic who is also a BoisterousBruiser and is presented as Creator/JohnWayne's DistaffCounterpart.

* ''The Whole Town's Talking'' (1935)

-->-- '''Creator/OrsonWelles''' when asked who the three greatest American directors of all time were.

'''John Ford''' is an American director whose lengthy career was one of the most honored in Hollywood history. Four Oscars for Best Director, which is still the record. Filmed some of the most iconic [[TheWestern Wild West]] and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII war movies]] of the age.

** 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 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 a totally amoral Wyatt Earp that is absolutely unconnected to the main plot.

* ''The Informer'' (1935) - Won him a Best Director Oscar

-> ''"We used to call him the meanest S.O.B. that ever was. But he was our S.O.B. We adored him. A difficult old devil, but the greatest director that the picture business has ever known."''
-->-- '''Creator/MaureenOHara'''

-> ''John Ford, John Ford and 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.''

-> ""We used to call him the meanest S.O.B. that ever was. But he was our S.O.B. We adored him. A difficult old devil, but the greatest director that the picture business has ever known."

-->-- '''Creator/MaureenOHara''

* SceneryPorn: Ford's films are remarkable for its visual beauty, in both colour and black-and-white. The exterior photography, be it the West in Monument Valley Utah or [[Film/TheQuietMan Ireland in County Mayo]], or the African Savanna[[note]]which was mostly shot by Second Unit but under his guidelines anyway[[/note]], will provide you with some of the most ''gorgeous shots'' in film history. Many cinematographers who worked with him recieved Oscars for their work. Ford who was inspired by painting[[note]]Western painters Charles Schreyvogel and Remington, and also fellow Maine artist, Winslow Homer[[/note]] are admired by film-makers for its eye for composition and framing that pays attention to character movement, lighting and narrative and provides characterization by camera placement and blocking. An anecdote by Creator/StevenSpielberg[[note]]As retold in the documentary, ''Directed by John Ford'', the young Creator/StevenSpielberg got a rare chance to meet John Ford in an office with a lot of Western paintings. Ford noted that the young Spielberg wanted to be a director and in a bit of SecretTestOfCharacter asked him to look at the paintings and tell him where the horizon was in each picture, at the top or the bottom of the frame. Spielberg noted that the horizon was never in the middle[[/note]], Ford once said said:

* AuthorAvatar: Ward Bond plays director [[CaptainErsatz John Dodge]] in ''The Wings of Eagles'', a biopic of Frank "Spig" Wead, played by Creator/JohnWayne. Wead was an aviation pioneer who after an accident which crippled him and left him invalid became a screenwriter on many Ford films (including ''Film/TheyWereExpendable'').

---> '''John Ford''': If you come to the conclusion, that it's more interesting to put the horizon at the top or the bottom of the frame, and ''never in the middle'' you might become a good picture maker.

--> "It just so happens we be Texicans. Texican is nothin' but a human man way out on a limb, this year and next. Maybe for a hundred more. But I don't think it'll be forever. Some day, this country's gonna be a fine good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come."

* AmbiguouslyGay:
** Margaret Leighton in ''7 Women'' is a, well, not terribly ambiguous but heavily repressed lesbian, with a giant crush on Sue Lyon (Film/{{Lolita}} herself).
** There is considerable speculation that Ford occassionally swung the other way. Creator/MaureenOHara stated in her autobiography that she once caught Ford kissing a male co-star (implied to be Tyrone Power, who was bisexual at the very least), and biographers such as Joseph [=McBride=] have speculated that Ford had a crush on Woody Strode.

* TheLadette: Normally, Creator/HowardHawks would give this, but Ford's films occassionally featured this character in Creator/AvaGardner's performance in ''Mogambo'' (where Ford is more or less channelling Hawks anyway). The most notable one is Anne Bancroft in ''7 Women'' with Dr. Cartwright, an atheist doctor alcoholic who is also a BoisterousBruiser and is essentially presented as Creator/JohnWayne's DistaffCounterpart.

* SceneryPorn: If the film is based outdoors, be it the West in Monument Valley Utah or [[Film/TheQuietMan Ireland in County Mayo]], you are looking at some of the most ''gorgeous shots'' in film history. Cinematographers who worked with him - and would argue about what they were doing - tended to get Oscars for how beautiful the films turned out. As a young man, Ford initially considered being a painter and was influenced by Western painters Charles Schreyvogel and Remington, and also fellow Maine artist, Winslow Homer. His movies are studied by all film-makers for its eye for composition and framing, the painterly values he brought to the movies but in a subtle manner that pays attention to character movement, lighting and narrative, how to suggest characterization by placement of camera and positioning of actors. ''Film/{{Mogambo}}'' was set in Africa, but Ford still got in Scenery Porn of the African savanna.'
** As retold in the documentary, ''Directed by John Ford'', the young Creator/StevenSpielberg got a rare chance to meet John Ford in an office with a lot of Western paintings. Ford noted that the young Spielberg wanted to be a director and in a bit of SecretTestOfCharacter asked him to look at the paintings and tell him where the horizon was in each picture, at the top or the bottom of the frame. Spielberg noted that the horizon was never in the middle, at which Ford said,

* CreatorBreakdown: Two examples from the '50s:
** ''Film/MisterRoberts'': he fell out with Creator/HenryFonda early in production, culminating in Ford punching Fonda in the face. Then he took to drinking, had emergency gallbladder surgery in the midst of filming and was ultimately forced off the project.
** While filming ''Film/TheHorseSoldiers'', stuntman Fred Kennedy died while performing a horse fall. Ford was devastated by Kennedy's death that he all but refused to film the scripted finale, leading to the movie's rushed conclusion.
* HeAlsoDid: Ford made a number of documentaries for the United States Navy, including the acclaimed ''December 7th: The Movie'' and ''The Battle of Midway'', and the infamous ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Sex Hygiene]]''. He also did uncredited second unit work on a variety of films, including ''The Adventures of Marco Polo'' and John Wayne's ''Film/TheAlamo'' (exactly how much of that movie he shot remains controversial).

* ArtistDisillusionment: Ford often claimed that he considered movies strictly "a job of work" and dismissed critics who considered them art. If his films themselves didn't belie this, Ford's own writings (namely his correspondence with critic/director Lindsay Anderson), detailing the thought and effort he put into his work, show this attitude to be a pose. Biographer Joseph [=McBride=] suggests that Ford [[MenAreUncultured somehow felt ashamed of being labeled an artist]] and refused to consider himself one.
** Tag Gallagher notes that this was entirely an act. Ford was in fact extremely intelligent, capable of speaking six languages. A significant portion of his daily life was allotted to reading books in private. Years later, at a party he held forth on how Creator/JamesJoyce and Creator/JonathanSwift are the greatest writers of the English language. In Hollywood, when cultural AntiIntellectualism was at its height, it was common for directors with such interests (unless they were European or from New York, then it became a credit) to hide their pursuits.

* MagnumOpusDissonance:
** His famous films in his lifetime was ''The Quiet Man'', ''How Green Was My Valley'', ''The Grapes of Wrath'', ''The Informer'', ''Stagecoach''. Critics would cite ''[[Film/YoungMrLincoln Young Mr. Lincoln]]''. Later generations of film-makers and audiences cited ''The Searchers'' and ''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance''. What were Ford's favorites?
** ''Wagon Master'' which he described as "the purest, simplest Western I ever made." A rare title that Lindsay Anderson called "the first avant-garde Western" citing its unconventional use of music, gorgeous composition and minimalist storyline and its plot of multiple characters with no real central figure.
** ''The Sun Shines Bright'' which despite its ExecutiveMeddling, he felt was a film he achieved what he wanted to. Another obscure title.
** Even more extreme is ''The Fugitive'', his 1947 adaptation of Graham Greene's novel ''Literature/ThePowerAndTheGlory''. Ford once called it the most perfect movie he'd ever made. Critics (and Graham Greene himself) hated it, and still do.
* OldShame: Ford hated ''The Plough and the Stars'' (1936), which started as a passion project (Ford received the blessing of playwright Sean O'Casey and even cast several of the stage version's stars) but soon fell victim to studio politics and ExecutiveMeddling. Things got so bad that Ford walked off the project, leaving assistant directors to finish filming. Not surprisingly, critics generally rank ''Plough'' among Ford's worst movies.
** Ford also strongly disliked ''Film/TwoRodeTogether'' (1961), a [[MoneyDearBoy paycheck film]] he called "the worst piece of crap I've made in 20 years" (presumably referring either to ''Plough'' or ''Tobacco Road''). That film has a more positive, though still mixed critical reputation.

* ProductionPosse: Ford used the same actors across all his films - what became known as the "John Ford Stock Company" - because he could count on them to perform as he needed. They included Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/JimmyStewart, Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/MaureenOHara, and Ward Bond, as well as Harry Carey, Victor [=McLaglen=], Creator/BarryFitzgerald, and his brother Francis Ford. Towards the end in TheSixties there were Woody Strode, Patrick Wayne (John's son), and Jeffrey Hunter. The most frequent is Jack Pennick, who appeared in a staggering ''forty-one'' Ford movies.

* ''The Lost Patrol'' (1934)

* ProductionPosse: Ford used the same actors across all his films - what became known as the "John Ford Stock Company" - because he could count on them to perform as he needed. They included Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/JimmyStewart, Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/MaureenOHara, and Ward Bond, as well as Harry Carey, Victor [=McLaglen=], Barry Fitzgerald, and his brother Francis Ford. Towards the end in TheSixties there were Woody Strode, Patrick Wayne (John's son), and Jeffrey Hunter. The most frequent is Jack Pennick, who appeared in a staggering ''forty-one'' Ford movies.

* TheWestern: What Ford is best known for. His classics - ''Film/TheIronHorse'', ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'', ''Film/SheWoreAYellowRibbon'', ''FortApache'', ''Rio Grande'', even ''Film/TheSearchers'' - was the TropeCodifier for the "Classic Western", defining Creator/JohnWayne's screen persona. They also featured UnbuiltTrope that would later typify the revisionist westerns, with even ''Film/{{Stagecoach}}'' subverting the black-and-white morality of many Westerns and ''FortApache'', ''Film/TheManWhoShotLibertyValance'', and ''Film/TheSearchers'' already blurring the BlackAndWhiteMorality to [[GreyAndGrayMorality grey]] areas.

John Ford is an American director whose lengthy career was one of the most honored in Hollywood history. Four Oscars for Best Director, which is still the record. Filmed some of the most iconic [[TheWestern Wild West]] and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII war movies]] of the age.

* ''{{Film/Stagecoach}}'' (1939)