• 4 months ago
THE AMERICAN WEST OF JOHN FORD
| Biography, Documentary, Western | 1971 |

Plot:
The Western films of iconic director John Ford are fondly remembered by stars James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and John Wayne, with whom he shoots a scene in Monument Valley.

Crew:

• Directed by: Denis Sanders
• Written by: David H. Vowell
• Starring: John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, John Ford, Andy Devine
• Produced by: Britt Lomond
• Music by:
• Cinematography: Robert E. Collins
• Edited by: Keith Olson

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Transcript
00:00The following footage is from our vault of classics, taken ten years before.
00:03Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, is coincidental and unintentional.
00:15Action!
00:16Hyah, doller!
00:26Throw it in there, right by that bush.
00:28That's good, that's good. Do that.
00:32The lines don't mean anything.
00:35I'll get some out here that'll help.
00:37Okay, there you go.
00:38Okay, quiet!
00:39What do you want, coach? You want me to say the other line or just the things?
00:42Say the other line, let's look at that one more.
00:44No, when you get up, I mean, you know.
00:46Okay, first thing.
00:47And rub your butt.
00:48I hear you.
00:50Chuck out.
00:51Yes, sir.
00:52All right, we're rolling.
00:55Dust.
00:56Dust.
01:06Thanks.
01:07I like that, he just sticks that word and just says thanks.
01:11They want action pictures, dammit.
01:13That's what we're getting paid for.
01:16Try it again.
01:18Print the other two takes.
01:26© BF-WATCH TV 2021
01:56© BF-WATCH TV 2021
02:26© BF-WATCH TV 2021
02:56They bend or they break or hold their ground
02:59depending on the kind of people that they are.
03:02Of course, when westerns were first being made,
03:05it was a different story.
03:11Shoot-em-ups, they called them.
03:13The hero wore a white hat, wasn't afraid of anything,
03:16always got the girl.
03:18They were short, simple, and except for a few stars
03:21like Harry Carey, easily forgotten.
03:25In 1924, the Iron Horse broke the pattern.
03:30It wasn't short or simple.
03:32It was an epic, an action spectacle
03:35that ran two hours and 40 minutes.
03:37The plot wasn't just good guys versus bad guys.
03:41The Iron Horse was the story of a nation's determination
03:45to unite itself with a continent-spanning railroad.
03:55This was no horse opera.
03:58This was a whole new way of looking at the American West.
04:01No one before or since has been able to get on film
04:05the vitality and sheer beauty of the West.
04:10When Pepe found Monument Valley,
04:12he found a subject equal to his talent.
04:16He came here for the first time in 1938,
04:19brought me with him.
04:21The picture? Stagecoach.
04:25Hold it!
04:29I was 30 years old then,
04:31been around pictures for about 10 years.
04:34I'd made dozens of Westerns with other directors,
04:38but except for a good part here and there,
04:41I hadn't worked with Pepe.
04:43Stagecoach was not only the first film
04:46he shot in Monument Valley,
04:48it was also the first Western he'd made with sound.
04:51And the first time he'd ever worked with me.
04:55You may need me in this Winchester, Curley.
04:58Saw a ranch house burning last night.
05:01You don't understand, kid.
05:03You're under arrest.
05:05The End
05:24Took us about
05:26six weeks to make that picture.
05:29It was fun all the way.
05:31Pepe always knew how to keep what
05:34what we call a happy set.
05:37And I was usually the butt of the jokes on that happy set.
05:41I remember once I was a new boy then
05:44and I was working with a lot of wonderful actors
05:48and after we'd been on the picture for about three weeks,
05:52Jack said, would you like to go see some of the picture?
05:55I said, gosh, I should say.
05:57He says, well, go take a look at it
05:59and see if you can come up with any ideas.
06:03Well, I went in to see the picture
06:04and the only thing that I could see wrong
06:07was I had asked the prop man to bring along
06:09one of those arm stretchers
06:11because if you put that on the other end of the lines
06:13then where I was driving the stagecoach,
06:15it looks more natural.
06:17Well, he forgot to bring that.
06:19So this fella that was driving the stagecoach
06:22was sitting up there and it was tough on him
06:24because he had to shake the lines this way
06:26rather than have the natural pull.
06:28So when I got back to set, Jack said, what's the matter?
06:31I said, well, the fella driving the stagecoach
06:33is just sitting up there jogging.
06:35He says, hold it.
06:37Everybody come down.
06:38He brought the electricians down out of the flies.
06:40He brought everybody down into the middle of the set
06:42and he says, well, Duke's made it.
06:45He thinks he's great
06:46and that fella driving the stagecoach is horrible.
06:50Well, we all had a good laugh about it later
06:52but right then I felt about that big.
06:54Well, are you still mad at me, Duke?
06:56Oh, it'd take a special kind of a man
07:02to still be mad after 30 years, coach.
07:05You're talking about the fella that,
07:06the fat fella, the ex-cowboy that drove the stagecoach.
07:10Yeah, what was his name?
07:12Oh, I don't know what his name was.
07:14We couldn't get Ward Bourne
07:15because he couldn't drive a six up
07:17and we got this ex-stuntman.
07:22I don't know what ever happened
07:23and the last thing I knew of, me.
07:26I can't believe it.
07:28Is that any divine?
07:31Hey, Andy, you still mad?
07:34You're doing all the fat parts.
07:38You mean that literally, I suppose.
07:43I was just telling the audience a little about stagecoach.
07:48First time we worked together, it seemed to me,
07:50right out here was one of your setups.
07:55Are you still trying to impress me with your expertise?
07:58No, I was just thinking about how many pictures
08:02we've made together since then.
08:04How wonderful it is to be back up here again.
08:07Anderson living.
08:09Good living.
08:20Oh, they're engraved, aren't they?
08:23This is good to Jimmy Stewart.
08:25Well, I appreciate it very much, boss.
08:28I, uh, may have told you,
08:31I have wide hips, old wife of upstairs.
08:33Mm-hmm.
08:37I see.
08:40For John Ford, making films has always been
08:43what he calls a job of work.
08:46But the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences
08:49has occasionally considered it more than just a living.
08:53In 1935, they presented an Oscar to John Ford
08:58for his direction of The Informer.
09:01Five years later, The Grapes of Wrath won him a second one.
09:05The next year, How Green Was My Valley
09:08was voted Best Picture of the Year,
09:10and John Ford won an Oscar for directing it.
09:13In 1942, John Ford was in the Navy,
09:17but he won an Oscar as the director and photographer
09:20of the documentary The Battle of Midway.
09:24One year later, Commander Ford
09:27won his fifth Oscar for another documentary, December 7th.
09:31In 1952, The Quiet Man put this one on his mantle.
09:38Six all together, and not one of them for a Western.
09:43Maybe that's because the excellence of a John Ford Western
09:47is something that we all take for granted.
09:50Or maybe it's because he's made so many of them
09:53that even he has lost count.
09:56He made his first one when he was 22 years old.
09:59That was back in 1917.
10:02It was a two-reeler called The Tornado.
10:05And he wrote it and directed it,
10:09and he also worked as an actor in it.
10:13He made eight other pictures that year,
10:16all of them Westerns.
10:18They didn't win any awards,
10:21but they weren't too bad for a young man learning his trade.
10:25And the memories of that year
10:28and of all the years in between,
10:31they're all scattered around the walls of this room.
10:35The deer skin was a gift of the Navajos after stagecoach.
10:41They called him Natani Nez, tall soldier.
10:44The thank you note was written by Shirley Temple
10:47after he directed her in Wee Willie Winky.
10:51The photograph of Lincoln was used in Cheyenne Autumn.
10:55Here's a musical trio that never made it big.
10:59That's Pappy on the drums, I'm in the corner.
11:02The only real musician is the fellow in the middle,
11:05Danny Berzaghi.
11:06Danny was a fixture on almost every Ford picture.
11:10He was in some of them,
11:11but mostly he just played the accordion.
11:14On camera or backstage,
11:17music has always been an important part
11:19of John Ford's Westerns.
11:22And by that, I don't mean background music.
11:25Pappy always told me that he'd rather hear good music
11:29than bad dialogue.
11:31But more than that,
11:33the music in a John Ford Western means something.
11:37It evokes a sense of tradition,
11:40a nostalgia for simpler times
11:44when all hope lay ahead.
11:46When Americans were convinced
11:49that the promise of America lay over the next rise,
11:54that greener pastures did, in fact,
11:57beckon from beyond the next mountain range.
12:01In search of that promise,
12:04pioneers walked across the continent.
12:08And for John Ford, they also danced.
12:12In Wagon Master,
12:15we can chuckle at the comedy romance
12:17between Alan Mowbray and Jane Darwell,
12:20but at the same time,
12:22we learn that there was more to pioneer life
12:24than fighting off Indian attacks.
12:32The music in this scene,
12:34Marina Hara and Rio Grande, plays a different role.
12:41And for John Ford, there was no need for dialogue,
12:46the music said it all.
12:55The character of a strong-willed woman
12:58was a constant element in all his films.
13:02In Stagecoach, Claire Trevor got the job.
13:05She was a woman who had a strong sense of humor,
13:09and in Stagecoach, Claire Trevor got the job.
13:11She played a barroom girl with a heart of gold.
13:17Doc, can they make me leave town when I don't want to go?
13:19Do I have to go?
13:20Now, Dallas, don't you go making no fuss.
13:22Do I have to go, doctors, because they say so?
13:24Now, Dallas, I've got my orders.
13:26Don't blame these ladies, it ain't them.
13:28It is them!
13:30Doc, don't I have any right to live?
13:32What have I done?
13:34We're the victims of a foul disease
13:36called social prejudice, my child.
13:39These dear ladies of the Law and Order League
13:41are scouring out the dregs of the town.
13:44Come on, they are proud, glorified dregs like me.
13:49You get going, Doc, you're drunk.
13:51Two of a kind, just two of a kind.
13:54Take my arm, Madame de Comtesse.
13:56The Cumbriel awaits for the guillotine.
14:00Oh, wait, I get my badge, girls, I'll join you.
14:03Thomas Mitchell won an Academy Award
14:05for his portrayal of the drunken doctor.
14:09The characters are cliches now, but that's because
14:13there have been so many bad imitations of the original.
14:17In the film, The Searchers, Olive Carey sums up
14:20the philosophy of John Ford's pioneer women.
14:23Just so happens we be Texicans.
14:26Texican is nothing but a human man way out on a limb.
14:29This year and next, maybe for a hundred more,
14:34but I don't think it'll be forever.
14:36Someday, this country's gonna be a fine, good place to be.
14:40Maybe it needs our bones in the ground
14:42before that time can come.
14:44Bedtime.
14:46She was a school teacher, you know.
14:49Even disguised in Eastern frills and fragility,
14:53John Ford's women lose none of their strength.
14:56The air is so clean and clear.
14:58What's that?
15:02Scent of the desert flower.
15:05That's me.
15:08Barber.
15:11In My Darling Clementine, Kathy Downs
15:13could even get Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp
15:16to take her to church.
15:18You are going to the services, aren't you?
15:24Yes, ma'am.
15:26I'd admire to take you.
15:33The scene is simple, clear, and to the point.
15:36But to me, what's just as important
15:39as the way John Ford treats the characters?
15:43His admiration for Wyatt Earp
15:45and others who won the West at gunpoint
15:47is almost reluctant.
15:49While for women like Clementine,
15:51the settlers, and the school moms,
15:53he gave his wholehearted respect.
15:56I'd like to hear something from Mr. Stewart.
15:58Is it right?
15:59What'd you say?
16:01They said that.
16:02That they'd like to hear something from Mr. Stewart.
16:04In Cheyenne Autumn, I remember you telling me
16:08that the reason you put me in as Wyatt Earp,
16:11that the whole picture was kind of serious,
16:16and it needed an intermission,
16:18but you didn't want people to get out
16:20and get drinks and go to the bathroom.
16:22So you put me in as Wyatt Earp
16:24to keep them in their seats,
16:26and it actually was an intermission on film.
16:29Is that correct?
16:32Well, I don't know, Jimmy.
16:34I don't know.
16:43Yeah.
16:44That deck feels light.
16:46That's a little light.
16:47Yeah, a little light deck.
16:48Wyatt Earp.
16:50Yeah.
16:52Wyatt.
16:53Wyatt.
16:54Over there are four Texans.
16:55Get rid of that one.
16:56That's right, that's right.
16:57There's a 51 card in that deck.
16:59Every citizen of Dodge stands ready to go out and whip it.
17:01Gentlemen, I swear I didn't vomit.
17:03Major, where's the card?
17:04Wyatt, if we shoot him,
17:07we won't have anyone left to play with.
17:10Gentlemen.
17:11That's a good point.
17:12New deck.
17:14I just wondered if the reason...
17:16Oh, I don't agree.
17:17If the reason you put me in as Wyatt Earp
17:19to keep people from going to the bathroom,
17:21is that...
17:22Well, that's quite a feather in your cap.
17:26But any chance I get to whip with you or Henry,
17:30I would leap at the chance.
17:31I mean, that's why I'm here today.
17:35Yeah, well.
17:36I'm very flattered and pleased.
17:39Well, we love you, boss.
17:40You're a hell of an intermissionist.
17:42An intermissionist.
17:43I'm a hell of an intermissionist.
17:45I'm a hell of an intermissionist.
17:46I'm a hell of an intermissionist.
17:49Don't say that much, Wyatt.
17:50That's the truth.
17:53I'd like to tell a prank
17:54if I have enough film in the camera.
17:57Just tell it.
17:58They're not rolling.
17:59Oh, I want to tell this on film.
18:01Oh, roll them.
18:02Roll them.
18:03Roll them.
18:04The gag that I remember most
18:07was on Mr. Henry Fonda on me.
18:11We're doing young Mr. Lincoln.
18:14And Henry...
18:16I'd never met Henry.
18:18And the first time I saw him, he was in makeup.
18:21This is true, isn't it?
18:23And we were on location up at Sacramento,
18:25working on the river.
18:28So we finished and we got on the plane last night
18:30and this very upstanding young man sat by me
18:35and we start chatting.
18:36I said, would you like a smoke?
18:37And he says, no thanks.
18:39I have some cigarettes and you're smoking cigars.
18:43And I says, we've met before, haven't we?
18:46He says, yes, I believe we have.
18:48I said, well, I mean, my name is John Ford.
18:51He says, fine.
18:52He says, my name is Henry Fonda.
18:54I said, what?
18:56And this is true, isn't it?
18:58I'd never seen him without the makeup
19:00and I didn't even recognize him.
19:03That's a true story.
19:05And that was a prank you pulled on me.
19:07True.
19:08In Fort Apache, Ford created his own version
19:12of the Battle of Little Bighorn
19:14with Henry Fonda in the role model on Custer.
19:17Ford's version may be at variance with history,
19:20but his interest was not in the man, but in the hero.
19:25His concern was not with assignment of blame
19:29or placement of glory.
19:31His interest was in the hero.
19:34To John Ford, Fort Apache was a eulogy to an era
19:39and perhaps his way of saying that heroes are men.
19:44After all.
19:47No man died more gallantly.
19:49No one more honored for his regiment.
19:51He's become almost a hero.
19:53And the country's a better place to live.
19:56The country's a better place to live.
19:58And the country's a better place to live,
20:00the world's a better place to live.
20:02honor for his regiment he's become almost a legend already he's the hero of every school
20:06boy in america but what of the men who died with him what of collingworth and collingwood
20:12oh of course collingwood that's the ironic part of it we always remember the thursdays
20:17but the others are forgotten you're wrong there they aren't forgotten because they haven't died
20:24they're living right out there collingwood and the rest they'll keep on living as long as the
20:31regiment lives pay is 13 a month their diet beans and egg maybe horse meat before this campaign is
20:40over fight over cards or rut gut whiskey but share the last drop in their canteens
20:48their faces may change their names but they're there they're the regiment the regular army
20:57now and 50 years from now
21:01they're better men than they used to be thursday did that he made it a command to be proud of
21:27me
21:47now maybe that's not the way things were but it's the way they should have been
21:52and that's a point of view john ford took in almost every western he ever made
21:57he summed up his approach to history in a film i worked in in 1962 it was called the man who shot
22:03liberty ballots i played a senator lawyer who got elected because the people thought he killed the
22:11bad guy well of course i didn't john wayne
22:19i'd say that was liberty balance there now wouldn't you yes i would we'll be seeing you
22:28mr stoddard get out of that shadow dude
22:34as i recall it lee marvin has never looked meaner than he did then
22:51you got two hands house slinger pick it up
23:04i was obviously no match for lee but duke was he and woody strode were across the street
23:13of course i didn't know that and neither did anybody else in town i did this time right between
23:22the eyes
23:42and in the picture when i told the truth
23:46when you're not going to use the story mr scott no sir
23:54this is the west sir when the legend becomes fact print the legend he's right
24:02and that's what john ford does he prints the legend and that's a fact
24:15so
24:27john ford has said that the best things in film happen by accident and he may be right when i
24:33went out to what used to be the backlot of 20th century fox i didn't expect to find him there
24:38hey
24:43last time we worked together was in mr roberts and the first time was in young mr lincoln
24:48you remember where you are you recognize this no i don't that's a damn displacement
24:55look at this i have no idea where the hell we are well because this is olympic i know that
25:00the western street had to be over there isn't this where the french street was a part of a
25:05french street you mean the bernadette street no no not the bernadette street now where is it
25:12where you did isn't this way over there's where you did the walk in lincoln in talking about those
25:17days i was reminded that i hadn't wanted to play lincoln i was a little scared of the part
25:22in all of lincoln i suppose and i remember jack telling me then in language a little too colorful
25:29to repeat that i wasn't going to play the great emancipator just a backwoods lawyer still wet
25:34behind the ears he convinced me to do it as much by what he said as how he said it you walked up
25:40the road if you remember i do i'll never forget god was looking down on us that day
25:49the tears of the multitude i think you said i think you said the tears of the multitude
25:54when it started to rain i had a kid somebody come out the other day came in fair and trembling
25:59to interview me so i put him right at ease i said i guess when you get right down to it john
26:05ford is as much an actor as he is a director i got the feeling that he enjoyed playing the
26:10cantankerous old man making jokes with the crew having a good time razzing one of the fellows
26:16who'd gone to yale at one point even broke into a course of the whiffenpoof song
26:21told me that a writer had come to see him that week to interview him the result i gathered
26:26satisfied him but didn't give the writer much material to work with i didn't tell him anything
26:34john ford will talk about anything but himself that makes him a great actor
26:39and a great director and a great actor and a great director and a great director
26:44right
26:47john ford will talk about anything but himself that makes him an easy man to like and a hard
26:52man to explain that was the unique thing about working with ford he made you feel
26:59related to each other actors technicians everybody part of his family i'm not saying that he's not the
27:07hard-nosed cantankerous do it my way or not at all director he claims he is
27:13but he's also a sentimentalist and there are several generations of film workers who vouch for
27:18that in 1925 victor mcloughlin made his first film with john ford he played an irish prize
27:27fighter a quarter of a century later he's still just as irish and very much a fighter
27:33the character is sergeant major quincannon a 30-year soldier six days away from an unwelcome
27:39retirement the movie is she wore a yellow ribbon duke played mcloughlin's commander determined to
27:47keep him out of trouble by getting him into trouble sergeant quincannon is improperly
27:51dressed on duty and he's under the influence throw him in a guardhouse
28:02the bartender by the way is francis ford jack's brother you'll find him in a lot of pappy's
28:06pictures when i played that up just drove me out
28:17you're under arrest quincannon by whom's orders by order of captain brittles
28:23are you coming peaceably laddie i've never gone any place peaceably in my life
28:36so
28:52mcloughlin was jack's ideal irish brawler he could lick any man in the house but always showed
28:58proper respect for the ladies who in this case is another ford regular mildred natwick
29:04i'm just telling it to the guardhouse quincannon quick step march
29:11what's the touch ma'am aren't you ashamed eight of you picking on one poor man only seven ma'am
29:22comedy is what john ford claims he does best and i don't want to argue with him but somebody said
29:28i think it was orson wells that john ford is as much a poet as he is a comedian
29:35maybe he's both for sure he's a sentimentalist
29:41to jack victor mcloughlin wasn't just an actor he was a friend they made 11 pictures together
29:47this was the 10th one in the last western rio grande
29:51ah
29:54i feel better now it'll kill you or cure you
29:59doctor with your fine education would you be telling me something yeah what is an arsonist
30:10an arsonist is a person that sets buildings on fire for profit or perverse excitement why
30:20it all started when we rode down the shadow valley doctor
30:25it was because it looked to be ordered to burn the crops in the barns at bridesdale
30:32she said was owned by the same family ever since that grand irishman
30:36sir water riding first smoked a pipe seems like i've heard that story before
30:45and there's the black hand that did the dirty deed
30:49you see a lot of the same faces in jack's pictures harry carey jr. ward bond jane darwell
31:07jane darwell
31:14it was like being part of a large and loyal repertory company
31:18ward made 22 including my first ford western my darling clementine
31:29and as for you when doc finds out you butted him the girl is linda darnell
31:34i'm the fellow pretending to be Wyatt Earp i guess more people have asked me about this balancing act
31:40than almost anything else i've done it wasn't in the script it was just something jack figured
31:45Wyatt Earp would do so i did it you remember the gunfight in the okay crowd in clementine
31:51surely uh i'd seen it a couple of times i mean the other other versions how did you uh come to
31:58stage it the way you did had you heard uh Earp himself tell the story yeah as i've told you you
32:04know as we've reminisced about this many times when Wyatt Earp retired as a lawman henry as you
32:11know he went to some little town north of uh pasadena now his wife was a very devout religious
32:19woman and a couple of times a year she'd go to these religious conventions in utah and eastern
32:26arizona and why'd we get on the streetcar go up to universal city and join us we became quite
32:33friendly and i didn't know anything about the okay corral at the time but harry carried you about it
32:41and he asked Wyatt and Wyatt described the fight fully exactly the way that you did it
32:49oh as a matter of fact he drew it out on paper a sketch of the entire thing and that's a
32:55why i said i was not a good shot i did close to a man and that's exactly what you did the
33:03clantons were in a defensive position at the corral Earp said so he approached the situation
33:09as if it were a small-scale military campaign the only advantage he his brother morgan doc holiday
33:15had was mobility dark holidays with him
33:23the way Earp saw it a frontal attack on the clans wouldn't do anything but get him killed
33:29i remember the uh yeah when we shot it you had a stagecoach or something coming through and
33:34raise a big cloud of dust that's that they used like the present-day uh smoke screen that's right
33:41now that was that in the in his original story yes is that right as a matter of fact he told me
33:47he had time he's falling you know he knew exactly when the stagecoach would come by
33:52and a very dusty road and he weighed this time and when the stagecoach came by you
33:57made your move and the others made their move but that's exactly the way it happened
34:02all right mr clanton
34:16let's talk a while hank
34:21well now
34:24you go right ahead and talk i got a warrant here for you and your son
34:29i got a warrant here for you and your son charging the murder of james and virgil earp
34:36there's also a charge of cattle rustling i'm giving you a chance to submit to proper authority
34:44will you come on right in here marshal and serve your warrant which one of you killed james
34:51i did and the other one too
35:02i'm gonna kill you
35:09so
35:18now colliday's silk handkerchief isn't documented
35:22but then as i said jack used history he didn't feel he was married to it
35:39so
35:49the ending was pure ford sentiment but it had the ring of truth in it
35:53throw your gun down and come on out old man
35:56so
36:02my boys ike sam finn billy they're dead i ain't gonna kill you
36:11i hope you live a hundred years feel just a little what my paw is gonna feel
36:17now get out of town start wandering
36:20now
36:25the okay corral in the town of tombstone were built from the ground up in the corner of monument
36:29valley but the interiors were done here the same place where we made young mr lincoln
36:37drums along the mohawk and the grapes of wrath
36:40they were good years very good years when this was the back lot of 20th century fox
36:52back that's gone now
36:57it's been homesteaded
36:59it
37:08monument valley is so identified with john ford it's been said that if anybody else made a picture
37:15here they'd be accused of plagiarism a shot like this a man on a horse riding against the background
37:23of harshness and beauty that's a john ford trademark
37:30he doesn't just tell you a story he writes a poem about it he doesn't just point the camera
37:37he paints a picture with it i guess what john ford has been doing for close to half a century
37:43is showing his love for the west by putting in motion the moods of remington and russell
37:49he's shown us a big country and people who seem big because they were part of it he gave us
37:55something to look up to like jimmy stewart says when it comes to a choice between what really
38:02happened and what should have happened john ford prints the legend the legend has become our
38:08folklore and the western the most colorful part of our american heritage it's the way we keep in
38:14touch with our past but the western has become something that we sadly take for granted can you
38:21imagine how it'd be without them be no cowboys or indians or homesteaders or gunfighters
38:27no covered wagons or stagecoaches no villains no heroes it'd be like not having a soul
38:35and working with john ford it's pretty hard not to pick up a few facts about making pictures
38:42one of his first rules is not to pack too many ideas in one scene and the second don't talk too
38:50much come on go go
39:01and the third rule is what hurts
39:06a lot of action
39:08this is the land rise scene from the three bad men made in 1926
39:14some directors would have settled for the spectacle a papi wanted drama
39:29he never missed an opportunity for humor or a chance to do what he called busting them up
39:38papi liked contrasts mood and lighting and pacing
39:43he knew how to get everything there was out of a scene and how to put a period on it
40:03when you pull a gun kill a man
40:08so
40:25ah
40:30But the real action to Pappy always happened outside.
40:41To get it started, all I'd have to say was, get to Fort Grant, tell them where we are.
40:47Tell them we may still be alive if they hurry.
40:49Move!
40:50Whenever Ben Johnson showed up in one of Pappy's pictures, you knew you were in for at least
41:07one and maybe two spectacular riding sequences.
41:12Ben liked to ride and Pappy liked to shoot him doing it.
41:16Go ahead, Jim.
41:38Pappy has said that on film he's killed more Indians than Custer.
41:43Fact is, he's never hurt anyone.
41:45Just looks that way.
41:51In all the stunts he's staged, never once was a man or a horse seriously injured.
41:56Oh, I picked up a bruise or two maybe here and so did Hank.
42:00But that was in the line of duty.
42:02It was supposed to look dangerous.
42:06The granddaddy of all the chases Pappy put on film is the one in stagecoach.
42:16The villains were the Indians.
42:18We'd been dodging them for two-thirds of the picture.
42:36Some realist, William S. Hart, I think, once pointed out that if a chase like this had
42:42actually happened, the Indians would have shot the horses and that would have been that.
42:49But Pappy wasn't as interested in facts as he was in heroic tradition.
42:54Besides, it made a better story his way.
42:59One of the most spectacular stunts was performed by Yakama Kanat.
43:04He's really an Irishman, by the way.
43:07His first name is Enos.
43:13This is how Pappy earned the reputation of being a hard-nosed old action director.
43:18He didn't rehearse anything.
43:20He took it any way it happened.
43:35Keep the suspense going, he'd create crisis within crisis, action within action.
43:47I'd like to take credit for this stunt, but it was Yakama again.
43:51One of the best stuntmen I've ever worked with.
43:54It was a dangerous piece of work and I was satisfied to settle for the close-up.
44:05In those days, the cavalry always arrived in the nick of time,
44:09and the Indians always faded into the background
44:12until they were needed as villains again.
44:20To set the record straight, Pappy cast the Indians as heroes in the last western he made,
44:25Cheyenne Autumn.
44:27He did it, he said, in an interview because
44:30In The Searchers, however, Pappy stuck with traditional casting
44:34and, in my opinion, it was one of the finest westerns that he ever made.
44:38Why don't you finish the job?
44:49What good did that do you?
44:51By what you preach, Pappy, I mean what good it did me.
44:56What good did that do you?
44:58By what you preach, none.
45:00But what that Comanche believes,
45:02ain't got no eyes, he can't enter the spirit land,
45:05has to wander forever between the winds.
45:07You get it, Reverend.
45:09I played Ethan Edwards, a man whose niece, a young girl he hardly knew,
45:14had been captured by a band of Comanches.
45:17Two sons killed by white men.
45:22For each son, I take many scouts.
45:28It took him ten years to track down the Comanches who had taken the little girl,
45:33and when he did, his hate was still intact.
45:36The problem was that the girl was now a woman,
45:39and the woman was now a Comanche.
45:43Yo, Ajay.
45:51We must go amongst them!
45:53You go!
46:21You go!
46:29Ethan Edwards was probably the most fascinating character I ever played
46:33in the John Ford Western.
46:36Pappy conceived Ethan as a complicated man,
46:39determined, ruthless, but somehow admirable.
46:44I was so impressed by him that I named one of my sons after him.
46:52Let's go home, Debbie.
47:01The ending of The Searchers has fascinated students of the
47:05John Ford Western world since it was first released.
47:09It's a story of a young man, a young man,
47:12a young man, a young man, a young man,
47:15a young man, a young man, a young man,
47:18John Ford Western world since it was first released
47:21in 1856.
47:23Maybe it does because it's an unhappy happy ending.
47:28The lost girl Natalie Wood is found
47:30and returned to her family,
47:32John Qualen and Olive Kerry,
47:35Jeff Hunter and Vera Miles, the young lovers are reunited,
47:39but Ethan Edwards, the man the story was all about
47:43is left standing outside all alone.
47:45The people have wondered what John Ford meant by that.
47:48He's never answered.
47:50I can't answer for him.
47:52I can only tell you what I had in mind.
47:55When I crossed my arm,
47:57I did it the way Harry Carey used to do it.
48:00Because his widow was on the other side of that door,
48:03and he was the man Pappy said taught him his trade.
48:15Jack Ford made all or part of nine westerns here in Monument Valley.
48:25When we came back in June,
48:27it was the first time we'd been here together in 15 years.
48:31The valley hadn't changed.
48:33It never does.
48:35But we had.
48:36Mostly just getting older, I guess.
48:40I came back to reminisce.
48:42And I got the feeling that maybe Pappy came back to say goodbye.
48:47You're going to take that over again, I said.
48:49I haven't, no.
48:50I said, you came and crossed out in the action.
48:52He said, what in the action?
48:53I, damn horse went down.
48:56Wayne almost rode over me.
48:59I said, oh, I think it looks good.
49:02I did, too.
49:03I just looked right up on it.
49:05Yeah.
49:09Isn't that the road there where the coach came up?
49:12Mm-hmm.
49:14Right around there and right up to the Indians right here.
49:17Yeah.
49:21It's a very funny coincidence.
49:24The fellow we picked out as Geronimo actually is Geronimo's grandson.
49:28Is that right?
49:29No, we didn't find him.
49:30Harry just dug it out.
49:33And told me he was half Apache, half Navi.
49:36That's like Vicky.
49:40What's his name?
49:41Vicky.
49:43The half Irish, half Indian.
49:45Oh, oh, son of a.
49:47Yeah, he's half Irish, half Indian, and a whole son of a.
49:52Vicky, yeah.
49:55Memories come back.
49:57The American West of John Ford.
50:27Motion picture home, of course, company home.
50:39As you always do.
50:41I'm not a career man.
50:42I never was.
50:44I'm just a hard-nosed, hard-working director.
50:48They'd hand me a script.
50:50I said, this ought to make a fair picture.
50:52This will make a good picture.
50:53I think it's going to be a lousy picture.
50:55But you have a schedule, so I'll go ahead and do the best I can with it.
51:01Well, I never felt important or felt anything.
51:04I was a career director, a genius, or any other damn thing.
51:11When you get the cue, just bust them and roll.
51:13Yes, sir.
51:14Okay.
51:16Ready?
51:17Take off.
51:24When I pass on, I want to be remembered as John Ford, a guy that made Westerns.

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