Directed by John Ford airs on TCM (Nov. 7) - narration by Orson Welles

[RayKelly]

Turner Classic Movies to Premiere Updated Version of

DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD

Enhanced Version of 1971 Documentary Includes Newly Remastered Clips and New Interviews with

Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg, Peter Bogdanovich


Month-Long Movie Tribute to John Ford to Air in November

Turner Classic Movies will premiere a new version of DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD, written and directed by Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon and Mask) profiling the life and works of the acclaimed director, on Tuesday, November 7, at 8 p.m. ET. Throughout November, TCM also will pay tribute to Ford, one of the greatest directors of all time, with a month-long film festival.

Entertainment Weekly has ranked Ford No. 3 among Hollywood’s greatest directors behind Orson Welles, who also contributed narration to the original documentary. Of Ford, Welles once said he learned filmmaking from “the old masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.” Best known for such classic favorites as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man, Stagecoach and, widely regarded by critics as the greatest Western ever made, The Searchers, he earned six Oscars®, including four for Best Director - a feat still unmatched. Ford’s vision of the American West established the way this country would view itself for decades to come.

New material assembled for DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD includes two major elements:

· Newly shot interviews with Harry Carey, Jr. (a Ford regular), Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Walter Hill, all of whom have been influenced by Ford; as well as Bogdanovich, who wrote and directed not only the original but also this updated version.

· New sequences featuring clips and interviews outlining Ford’s vision of the family, his use of rituals and the sense of spirituality as portrayed in his work, including scenes from such pictures not previously mentioned such as The Wings of Eagles and How Green Was My Valley, as well as the impact of his complicated relationship with Katharine Hepburn on Ford and his work, using clips from Mary of Scotland and audio recordings.

This restructured version of DIRECTED BY JOHN FORD should be considered an entirely new work. Bogdanovich has said this updated version is more personal than the original. Both the original Orson Welles narration and the interviews with John Ford, John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda have been kept intact but somewhat re-edited and rearranged to give a new sense of understanding to John Ford as a person and director.

“When speaking of John Ford, the question to ask is not who he influenced but, rather, who he didn’t influence. Whether on the work of a Spielberg or a Scorcese, his legacy undeniably still has impact today,” said Karsch. “Turner Classic Movies is honored to give new treatment to this definitive documentary on John Ford’s life and career.”

Turner Classic Movies, currently seen in more than 70 million homes, is a 24-hour cable network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a TimeWarner company. TCM presents the greatest motion pictures of all time from the largest film library in the world, the combined Time Warner and Turner film libraries, from the ‘20s through the ‘90s, commercial-free and without interruption. Expanding TCM’s role as a curator of movie history, the network recently launched TCMdb, one of the Internet’s most media-rich interactive movie database. For more information, please visit tcm.com <outbind://233/www.tcm.com>.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a TimeWarner company, is a major producer of news and entertainment product around the world and the leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry.

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[Skylark]

Turner website

PS - Joseph McBride appears as a commentator on a John Ford feature on the Fort Apache DVD, by the way - I enjoyed the film - superb b & w photography...

PPS - Krazy Kat cartoonist George Herriman was another artist who had a close connection with Monument Valley, which was often part of the strip's setting,...

[Glenn Anders]

Skylark: I have always thought, since I saw it in 1948, that FORT APACHE was the most beautiful and accomplished of what became known as John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy.

I sort of wish that Ford had let it stand by itself.

The film said all that the other two did, SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON in interesting but distracting color, and what I consider the rather indifferent RIO GRANDE.

Glenn

[Skylark]

Cool - I haven't seen the others - although I would imagine it would be hard to compete with the Apache cast - Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple and strong supporting players - the b & w photography in this movie has to be some of my favorite, although I like the colour in The Searchers and Liberty Valance (the only color Ford I've seen) as well... The Searchers is great, I like the stoic, no-nonsense focus of that film...

Interesting all those various cornball humour scenes and various colorful subplots which form an important part of Fort Apache's story fabric (fascinating how the Norman Rockwell americana charm manages to co-exist with grim tragedy).

There's a pretty well-balanced review of it here:

Fort Apache

[Skylark]

John Ford Film Festival
Got me a pile of John Ford DVDs - here are my reviews - before I forget -

Basically I find that Ford just keeps getting better as he goes along - I like his stuff starting from the late 40s on, the stories get deeper, the camera work is wonderfully stylized yet always very economical and efficient. Things I notice - he ALWAYS has a dance scene, look for the obligatory dance scene - the films are mainly character-driven - the stories almost always have plot developments that are unrealistic - things fit into place in the most convenient and dramatic way by remarkable coincidences - pure Hollywood fantasy -I like the whole Norman Rockwell/Hollywood small town sense of goofy decency- it's heartfelt and heartwarming. The theme is usually the conflict between collective duties and personal, family responsibilities - with lots of nostalgia and sentimentality.

Drums along the Mohawk (1939) - Michael Curtiz makes good epic-style films - the ones with Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland. They're quite good.

My Darling Clementine (1946) - Rip-snortin', rootin' tootin', archetypal romantic Hollywood western - good fun.

3 GodFathers (1948) - How unrealistic is 3 bankrobbers carrying a newborn baby across the Arizona desert? Plus it parallels the story of the three wise men and the nativity - if you can wrap your head around that, it's an excellent John Ford Hollywood fantasy fable.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) - This the second of the 'Cavalry' trilogy - my least favorite of the 3 - although wonderfully filmed and an interesting story- basically I feel that the acting isn't as strong - and the very specific historical references to the battle of Little Big Horn is too grim a backdrop for me to sympathize with the US Cavalry. There's a good review of it here - http://girishshambu.com/blog/2009/05/jo ... rrent.html

Rio Grande (1950) - The third 'Cavalry' film - I like it - I like Ben Johnson - good cast - probably the tightest editing of the three - You have to bemoan the simplistic 'White man good, red man bad' context in which native americans are portrayed - although there are subtle efforts at nuance - like the John Wayne character respects the Indians, for example - it's only around the mid-50s that the Indians start to have more substantial, nuanced portrayals, with a little more awareness of historical evidence.

The Searchers ( 1956) - A great film, based on an excellent book - a textbook for handling drama economically with cinematic style - a great role for John Wayne, a complex, hard-boiled character ideally tailored to his strengths. It's fairly long (2 hours), with a lot of scenes, but it holds together remarkably well, there's a cohesiveness, a depth, and an edgy grittyness that makes it the classic that it is...