And then I moved to the Four Corners, to where you can stick a hand, a hand, a foot and a foot in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico all at the same time on a large square monument in the Navajo Reservation, not that far from where Ford shot many of his most famous Westerns including his Cavalry Trilogy in Monument Valley...
FORT APACHE (1948)
SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON (1949)
RIO GRANDE (1950)
Ford won four Best Director Oscars, but shockingly none of them were Westerns. He won for...
THE INFORMERS (1935) a film centered on Ford's homeland of Ireland fight for Independence.
YOUNG MR. LINCOLN
He made them that fast, preferring, according to the Ford Wikipedia Page, to "cut in the camera" and keep the control of his projects by handing over very little film to the studio to edit.
Ford won four Best Director Oscars, but shockingly none of them were Westerns. He won for...
For his adaption of the classic Amercian Novel THE GRAPES OF WRATH in 1940. It was Ford and Henry Fonda's third movie together. The other two made in 1939...
DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK
Ford's first film in color
Three years, three movies with Fonda. Ford definitely had an ensemble cast of actors he used a lot..Fonda, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Ward Bond, Ben Johnson and Harry Cary. Up at my mom's this week, I pulled out all her John Ford Westerns and joked that if you put them all together John Wayne would be commanding a regiment, be the commander of a fort and retiring all at the same time.
On the actress side, no one was directed more by Ford then Maureen O'Hara, who starred in his last two Best Director for a Feature Oscars....
HOW GREEN IN MY VALLEY (1941)
which also won best picture the year the US went into the war. For more of that completation, go HERE
Ford used O'Hara again after the war and his work as an Oscar winning director for the Allied cause, to win his fourth Oscar for a Feature in...
THE QUIET MAN (1952)
The only Western Ford made that was even nominated for an Oscar was...
STAGECOACH and that had the misfortune of coming out in 1939, which was a busy year for Ford but also had very bad timing. Why, see HERE and none of John Ford's Westerns earning him an Oscar is pretty good support for my argument.
The man could arguably be called one of Hollywood's greatest directors and I am not the only one who things so, look on his Wikipedia Page, to see all the folk in Hollywood who agree with me, including Capra, Hitchcock, Welles and Spielberg.
But that is not what this post is really about, it is about how John Ford screwed up a lot of peoples understanding of the American West!
I started to go through Ford's Filmography and realized the inaccurate material he beautiful and excitingly played out on the screen for us really could fill a whole book....hummmm, there is an idea, but until then I will just give you a few tidbits.
Two of his films center on the abduction of white women by the Indian Savages....
its the Colorado River and if I had to guess I would say near Moab Utah, right next to the road that still goes up to the Pot Ash pits.
The man could arguably be called one of Hollywood's greatest directors and I am not the only one who things so, look on his Wikipedia Page, to see all the folk in Hollywood who agree with me, including Capra, Hitchcock, Welles and Spielberg.
But that is not what this post is really about, it is about how John Ford screwed up a lot of peoples understanding of the American West!
I started to go through Ford's Filmography and realized the inaccurate material he beautiful and excitingly played out on the screen for us really could fill a whole book....hummmm, there is an idea, but until then I will just give you a few tidbits.
Two of his films center on the abduction of white women by the Indian Savages....
CHEYENNE AUTUMN (1964)
Ford was not all that keen on making the movie, did it more for money and obligation. He had covered the material very well in THE SEARCHERS...
which did not get one major Academy nomination in 1956, even though the film sits on the #12 spot on the AFI list of 100 greatest films ever made....
John Wayne returns late from the Civil War, just in time to witness the destruction of his brother's family and the abduction of his niece, played by Natalie Wood. who he is not certain he should take home or kill when he gets her away from the Comanches...
Problem is, like most of his Westerns, Ford filmed both THE SEARCHERS and CHEYENNE AUTUMN heavily in Utah, which I know well...
Even if in THE SEARCHERS, Olive Carey, wife to Harry Carey and mother to Harry Carey playing Mrs. Jorgensen declares...
"It just happens we are Tex-i-cans"
I hate to break it to you....
that ain't Texas and is not the Rio Grande....
watch the women of the fort in RIO GRANDE...
down by the river washing, it is the Colorado, which flows from the West side of the Colorado Mountains and flows into Utah and Arizona. The Rio Grande starts on the East side of the Colorado Mountains and flows down through New Mexico, becoming the boundary of Texas and Old Mexico.
I have never been to Texas, but I have often been down that south in New Mexico, Arizona and into Old Mexico and Apache country looks like this...
I have never been to Texas, but I have often been down that south in New Mexico, Arizona and into Old Mexico and Apache country looks like this...
full of yucca and many varieties of cactus. What I do not understand about Ford is this is amazing and just as desolate country as what is in Utah. Why not film down here?
Because Harry Goulding, proprietor of Gouldings Trading Post on the Utah Arizona border courted Ford to come film in Monument Valley, where Ford recruited Navajos to play the Indian.
Local story...no cition other then my grizzly cowboy father in law...
The Navajos wouldn't fall of their horses enough in the battle and chase scenes, asked why they simple declared "Navajo's don't fall off." Then they were told they were playing their ancient enemies- the Apache, Comanches and Sioux and they all started falling off and had to be told not to fall off so much.
Because Harry Goulding, proprietor of Gouldings Trading Post on the Utah Arizona border courted Ford to come film in Monument Valley, where Ford recruited Navajos to play the Indian.
Local story...no cition other then my grizzly cowboy father in law...
The Navajos wouldn't fall of their horses enough in the battle and chase scenes, asked why they simple declared "Navajo's don't fall off." Then they were told they were playing their ancient enemies- the Apache, Comanches and Sioux and they all started falling off and had to be told not to fall off so much.
From a good fact website about the Tribes of the Southwest HERE you can see reality does not exactly match up with Ford's Westerns. Which could be argued is fine, cause it is just entertainment. That is until you come here, the Four Corner and both teach Native American Children and realize how little of their culture they even have to hold on to, you don't want to take any of it away from them and then you talk to people like me who has no idea where the Rio Grande or the Colorado actually flows through or what tribe actually lived where and it gets kind of sad.
I will clear up one more disconception and leave the rest for another post. Back to THE SEARCHERS...
You already know that is Utah not Texas, but note the Tepee. Forget Henry Brandon, the actor of Americxan German descent, who played Scarr because they couldn't find a Navajo to play a Commache.....? I'll save that for another post.
I will leave you with the Tepee- which is made of Buffalo and long poles..... There weren't very many buffalo in Utah or Texas for that matter....so the tribes in Texas and the rest of the Southwest really didn't have much need for the iconic Indian dwelling of a tepee. The Plains Indians lived in tepees because they had buffalo and access to long poles from trees.
The Tribes that lived in Utah, the Utes lived in what are called Wickups., made with what they could find...
The Navajo lived in hogans, made of what they had red dirt and rocks...
and the Pueblo tribes, lived in Pueblos....
Today, out on the Rez, they are more apt to live in a double wide, with tires on top to keep the wind from blowing the tin off and complete with a satellite dish, leaving their more traditional dwelling for special time of the year....
And they shop at Walmart but they still don't fall off their horses very much and there are some great stories to tell here, stories that really happened here in the Four Corners and some very fine Native American actors and actress to tell them, if we only gave them a chance. Better devote a whole blog to that one as well.
But for more reading on 31 DAYS OF OSCAR BLOGATHON, go HERE.
I will clear up one more disconception and leave the rest for another post. Back to THE SEARCHERS...
You already know that is Utah not Texas, but note the Tepee. Forget Henry Brandon, the actor of Americxan German descent, who played Scarr because they couldn't find a Navajo to play a Commache.....? I'll save that for another post.
I will leave you with the Tepee- which is made of Buffalo and long poles..... There weren't very many buffalo in Utah or Texas for that matter....so the tribes in Texas and the rest of the Southwest really didn't have much need for the iconic Indian dwelling of a tepee. The Plains Indians lived in tepees because they had buffalo and access to long poles from trees.
The Tribes that lived in Utah, the Utes lived in what are called Wickups., made with what they could find...
and the Pueblo tribes, lived in Pueblos....
Today, out on the Rez, they are more apt to live in a double wide, with tires on top to keep the wind from blowing the tin off and complete with a satellite dish, leaving their more traditional dwelling for special time of the year....
And they shop at Walmart but they still don't fall off their horses very much and there are some great stories to tell here, stories that really happened here in the Four Corners and some very fine Native American actors and actress to tell them, if we only gave them a chance. Better devote a whole blog to that one as well.
But for more reading on 31 DAYS OF OSCAR BLOGATHON, go HERE.
I can allllmost forgive the fudging of locations (in that at least they were a real location and not just a matte painting), but the completely wrong information about the Native tribes is so sad. Not that today's movies/stereotypes are that much better, of course, but I have to think the Westerns of this era perpetuated those ideas and assumptions that still exist today. They are still great films, but it's so hard to ignore once you actually stop and think about them, so thanks for compiling all this info!
ReplyDeleteI'm a big John Ford fan, especially his westerns. But my all-time favorite Ford film is THE QUIET MAN- that's a post in itself, too. But I also enjoyed your perspective on what's geographically accurate, as I was raised in Taos, NM and many of my friends were (and still are) Native American. But I've never been to Monument Valley & I'm looking forward to seeing it someday. Thanks again for contributing to our Blogathon !
ReplyDeleteVery shrewd strategy on Ford's part, to leave very little film for the studio to edit/meddle with. Well played, John; well played.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post!