Rate a director: John Ford

[Dry Rot]

Just watching "the Informer" - very good early film. Ditto "The Lost Patrol"

How do you rate him?

"The Searchers" is still one of my favourite films. Don't write off John Wayne till you see this.

I must see "The man who shot Liberty Vallance" one day.

[jacqui9]

Worked with some magnificent actors, and turned out some of film's greatest classics.

I am still waiting for The Quiet Man to get a half decent DVD release :(

I was never really a fan of John Wayne until I saw The Searchers,They Were Expendable, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Stagecoach.

Mary of Scotland is one of my favourite Hepburn films

I am a huge fan of The Prisoner of Shark Island, Mogambo, Mister Roberts,My Darling Clementine and How Green Is My Valley.

Warner Bros put out a wonderful John Ford Collection last year, as well as a JohnFord/John Wayne Collection (which I purchased).

John Ford's early silent films and pre-John Wayne films are essential.

[DEVO]

I only know of John Ford from his westerns, I'm not too sure if he directed anything else. I find it interesting that according to the IMDB, the two 'greatest' westerns are both from Italian director Sergio Leone. Compared to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon A Time in the West", Ford just doesn't stack up. His films are grand epics, but don't have the style or grit that make Leone's films such favourites, especially with the younger generations, which suggests his films date a great deal more than Leone's.

[Contra Mundum]

The Searchers is one of the most nihilst movies ever - it will never date. A guy who made a life out of the American Iconography says in that film "the American Dream is Dead" - amazing

[AndSmithMustScore]

Not a huge fan, though i do enjoy a few of his films once in a while.

[Peninsula Boy]

I consider The Searchers to be the pinnacle of Hollywood continuity editing system [so much so that I refuse to take it out of my Top 10 fillms of all time] but I don't go for too much other Ford, not even Stagecoach.

He's considered exceptionally highly on the American auteur catalogue.

[Mr Magoo]

Worked with some magnificent actors, and turned out some of film's greatest classics.

I am still waiting for The Quiet Man to get a half decent DVD release :(

I was never really a fan of John Wayne until I saw The Searchers,They Were Expendable, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Stagecoach.

Mary of Scotland is one of my favourite Hepburn films

I am a huge fan of The Prisoner of Shark Island, Mogambo, Mister Roberts,My Darling Clementine and How Green Is My Valley.

Warner Bros put out a wonderful John Ford Collection last year, as well as a JohnFord/John Wayne Collection (which I purchased).

John Ford's early silent films and pre-John Wayne films are essential.

I'm pretty sure that Universal/Paramount/Warner Bros studios are releasing updated versions/special editions of a lot of John Wayne movies for his 100th birthday in May.
One of John Wayne's best westerns (although he made quiet a decent westerns) if you can manage to track it down is Hondo, i got it from the UK. Also with regards to the searchers & since you're such a huge fan of the movie, if you're debating on what format to get it on then the blu~ray dvd is the best version that's available.


I only know of John Ford from his westerns, I'm not too sure if he directed anything else. I find it interesting that according to the IMDB, the two 'greatest' westerns are both from Italian director Sergio Leone. Compared to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and "Once Upon A Time in the West", Ford just doesn't stack up. His films are grand epics, but don't have the style or grit that make Leone's films such favourites, especially with the younger generations, which suggests his films date a great deal more than Leone's.

I know that i'm looking forward to whenever Fox releases the good, the bad & the ugly on blu~ray dvd as it's one of my favourite Westerns of all time, the music, the mood, the camera work is excellent. The same can be said for once upon a time in the west although the searchers is a great film in it's own right. I rate John Ford as a director very highly as well & put him in the same league as David Lean as a director/movie maker.