The Quiet Man

Drunkenness, angry outbursts, violence, squalor: are these how we think about the Irish? It is if John Ford and John Wayne have their way. At least the casting of Maureen O’Hara and her flaming red hair—to say naught of her temper—lend the proceedings a fair amount of verisimilitude. Truth be told, this is a relentlessly silly film, and I can’t say it is particularly to my taste. The visuals are fine to look at, including but not limited to O’Hara, but the rest of the tale comes across as either ridiculous or profoundly cliched, in a way that suggests an outlook that is either too lazy or unsophisticated to try to create something with more nuance. Even the serious background—Wayne’s ex-boxer character is haunted by a death in the ring—does little to temper the story’s more ridiculous excesses. I suppose this isn’t really a bad flick—the execution isn’t incompetent or anything—so I'll spare the flick a HISS, but I couldn’t ever really find a way to appreciate this effort. Irish eyes, it turns out, smile at the weirdest things.

Rio Grande

In a lot of ways, this is a really weird movie, and that’s even considering that it is a western from the olden days (1950) and reflects a philosophy and mores that are ever more alien to today’s society. The plot, such as it is, does a lot of meandering to ultimately make its point, which is ... well, that’s hard to pin down. A conflict with Apaches serves as the milieu for what is actually a family story of estrangement and internal conflict. That’s a clear through line of the film, though it sometimes gets lost in various and sundry other bits of rather superfluous subplots and story aspects. A B-story about a soldier on the lam trying to avoid prosecution for a crime works its way into the story, without being particularly interesting or necessary to driving the main storyline. That soldier is portrayed as a former rebel, a piece of the movie’s overarching element—I’m not sure it qualifies as a theme—that suggests that the U.S. army in the Indian wars days was loaded with unreconstructed Confederates, which would explain a lot. (One might surmise that that continues to be the case down to the present day—and, again, that explains a lot.) And speaking of loaded, Victor McLaglen does yeoman's work as a relentlessly boozing Irish sergeant, a character that might draw some viewer ire in a film made today. Ultimately, the film pays off its efforts at trying the audience’s patience with a typical climactic shoot-'em-up set piece. I guess it’s not a bad movie, but when John Ford and John Wayne are involved, you expect something a bit more impressive. The cavalry does arrive, eventually, but maybe not in time to save this movie’s day.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

A civics lesson masquerading as a western showdown movie. This one is not just well-acted and well-written, but interesting in director John Ford's storytelling technique, employing flashbacks and nonlinear plot the way many more recent movies have. Lead actors John Wayne, James Stewart and Lee Marvin portray complimentary and contrasting archetypes, while a number of excellent supporting players flesh out the cast very well. This flick adds to the growing body of evidence to be found in filmdom -- particularly westerns -- about just how important guns were, and therefore are, to this society; it's become clear to this viewer, at least, that understanding this country's explains continuing mania for firearms is impossible if you don't watch old movies. Nevertheless, the film also makes a strong case that law and a civil society must rest upon something greater than a hail of bullets. Finally, the story's climax satisfies, and then its ultimate end delivers a provocative final scent. Really excellent work, and better than many more revered westerns--it should be on everyone's watch list.

Drums Along the Mohawk

Dumb among the rednecks. It's surprising just how bad this movie is. The director? John Ford. The stars? Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert? That's some pretty heavy duty bloodlines there. So why is this flick so foolish? It barely qualifies as a story; just a pastiche of scenes from colonial New York, culminating in a Revolutionary War victory for the proto-Americans and a few laughable visuals of women and Natives saluting the flag in their joy over a win for the white trash. As an echo of the country that once was, this is a weird piece of historical curiosity--but without the usual dose of fond nostalgia these sorts of movies usually bring. As a movie, it's makes little sense, is not particularly entertaining, and doesn't show its cast and crew in a good light. Quite an unusual--and disappointing--experience.

Fort Apache

Sometimes, a Western moves at a mosey, appropriately enough. Here's an example, a film that takes its time getting to the heart of the story, though an excess of establishing scenes. Eventually, though, you wind up with a pretty good but not great cowboys and Indians flick. The story is basically just a backdrop to collection of character studies. Henry Fonda's colonel is supposed to be the foil, if not the outright villain, of the piece, but, frankly, a modern or dispassionate viewer can see he has a point, both about his perceived exile to a frontier posting and the half-assed nature of the men under his command. It's a decent performance, but not one that can really drive a film. John Wayne comes off somewhat better--his captain is practical, pragmatic, and a decent guy. Among the principals, Shirley Temple shines as the colonel's daughter; she's a luminous screen presence, even here in her post-superstardom teens. When the movie eventually gets around to some actual story, a series of questionable actions ultimately leads to a provocative climax and ending, with some interesting perspective on just how the west came to be considered to have been won--though ultimately without diverging too far from Western convention. All in all, not bad but not really spectacular--basically, it's pretty much standard issue stuff, which means watchable but not really a classic.

The Searchers

John Wayne was once the biggest star in Hollywood--quite a feat if all of his characters were as big a dick as the man hunting for his lost niece in this flick. Wayne is here at his iconic--if dickish--best; he's not the problem. This is almost a really good Western movie, taking in Wayne, the spectacular scenery, some heavy duty cowboys vs. Indians shit...Yet, in the end, there are problems. Both Wayne's character, and his niece, make 180º reversals at the climax which seem all out of step with what has gone before. These inconsistencies seem only to serve the purpose of a (somewhat) happy ending. That weakness pulls down the rest of the movie.

My Darling Clementine

The key takeaway here is the reminder of how good, how versatile Henry Fonda was as an actor. His Wyatt Earp here covers a lot of range, from calm to courtly to hardass, and all of it seems real and natural. The overall movie suffers from misplaced elements--some of the stabs at humor, including recurring jokes, feel out of place in the broad range of the plot--and that pulls the rating down, despite an otherwise satisfying Western adventure.

How the West Was Won

Alternatively entertaining and asinine. Yes, movies were different back in the day, especially westerns, which hardly exist nowadays. Still, you kind of wonder when musical numbers randomly break out in the midst of the story of westward ho! expansion. Anyway, there's a lot of hokum here, some decent action scenes, a hilarious cameo scene with John Wayne as Sherman and Harry Morgan as Grant at Shiloh--visually incongruous barely begins to describe it--and just a little bit of regret about, you know, all that stabbing Indians in the back. And the bad restoration job on the DVD I watched--including distractingly viewable seams between the original Cinerama panels--didn't help. As a time capsule piece, I guess it may be worth a look, once in a while. Otherwise, not the best work of an admittedly all-star cast.

Stagecoach

It's good. Classic good? Maybe. Most of the movie is entertaining, though it suffers through some dead spots. Still, plenty of by the book Western flair, some good characterizations, and the amazing views of Monument Valley make it worth at least a look, if not deep love.