Many moons ago, our Texas family- Ford fanatics all- made a trip out to Monument Valley to see, for ourselves, the vistas we had viewed on our TCM-tuned TV screens for years. Standing atop “John Ford’s Point”, which felt like a sacred place, looking across that vast familiar landscape, was like coming home to a place we’d never been before…and the emotions were palpable. John Ford, thank you!!! 🙏🏻. (Also- thanks, TCM, for these podcasts…just the best!!)
This series is fantastic. I started last week with thr D-Day footage. Cannot wait for the next on The Searchers. I really appreciate the nuanced, rational approach to the darker side of Ford. How he behaved was complex and contradictory, there's no need for the presenter to tell the audience how to feel, or to frame things as purely negative. Nice to be treated like an adult!
This is a great podcast. Love the detail, and interview recordings of Fonda, Stewart, Wayne and others. As soon as I heard the Max Steiner music from the scene Ben talked about at the beginning of The Searchers, just had to watch it. Love the music in Ford movies.😂
Monument Valley's scenery was something Ford could capture like no one else. For the sake of fairness, I'm glad the Hitchcock story with Tippi Hedren on The Birds was brought up. Some say how cruel Ford could be to actors as if he were the only director in history like that, when Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Sam Peckinpah, James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott, and etc. have also been tyrants throughout the sets of their own classic movies. If anything, this episode just proves there was a method to the madness with Ford when it came to getting great performances out of his actors and he did seem to care about those actors he pushed. At the end of the day, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Woody Strode gave some of their finest performances under John Ford's direction, which was most likely the point. Great series, TCM!
Getting great performances out of the actors has always been a weird excuse for bullying. As if directors like Scorsese, Spielberg or P. T. Anderson didn't achieve the same without being jerks.
Yes, not only those guys, but I’ve heard some funny things that PT Anderson has pulled on his actors, and many others of today. It seems the entire profession of “Film Director” is an invitation to treat people any way you like in order to get what you want from them. It seems like mostly mind-fu***ry to me. Now, I haven’t heard horror stories about, say, Scorsese, but there’s always, it seems, some sort of psychological manipulation between director & star (or just actor). I think the directors who’re known for being SOBs such as Hitchcock are really screwed up in their own way, I mean Hitchcock, as great a director as he was, never seemed to get his weight below “morbidly obese”. So I think Hitch was a case study in hiding insanity from authority figures for decades. I mean, he really didn’t seem to get much satisfaction from making great suspense films. At his AFI Honors in the 70s, he looks as if he’d rather be ANYPLACE else. Blondes & Food were what he really wanted, and at least he could GET food lol. Hitch wasn’t “getting” Grace Kelly 😂. So then he tortured Tippi.
While I absolutely love his movies, if I had known him in real life, Ford sounds like the kind of person I would have hated. I hate bullies. I hate people who hurt others. So, I wouldn't have liked John Ford in person, I think. Yet I love his art.
Woody Strode, no matter how anyone wants to attempt to slice it, LOVED John Ford. He spent months in Ford's room as he was dying and, in fact, was there when Ford finally passed away.
Question: Am I the only one who feels like I'm listening to a radio broadcast. My pic is a drawing of Ford, smoke billowing from his pipe the only movement. Besides that, I say John Ford's best movie is (flawed Earp history, Ok Corral shootout and all, 'Doc" dying in battle ...) is My Darling Clementine. B&W Cinematography is amazing. The older I got the more I liked Clementine and Henry Fonda as Wyatt; and how appropriate (in political hindsight) that Walter Brennan portrays the ruthless Clanton patriarch.
You know, I love Ford's films -- and this series has been terrific. It's just that as I get older, the stories that used to amuse me about Ford--and make me find him quaint and colorful and a character---are making me despise him. He was either a seriously ugly man or a seriously disturbed one. I'm pretty sure it's the latter, but does that (and his artistry) excuse the former?
All due respect to the "cinema studies" professor at the end, but why do we "have to take the good with the bad?" and why do "we have to talk about both?" What does his (deplorable) personality have to do with his art FOR US? I propose: nothing. It doesn't ruin it, nor does it make it better. Even if it did (either or both), we don't have access to his personality, beyond the witnesses' accounts and the selective conjectures and commercial construction of "John Ford" by these story tellers - interesting / entertaining though they may be. All WE have is the art. "Who knows what John Ford was up to or if it was always motivated from a place of artistic expression?" - the dopey professor said it herself. * See the following for more on bad men and great art (one of the commentators also happens to be running for president): th-cam.com/video/SzfPZqf4gcE/w-d-xo.html
I guess I'm the only one who thinks this is a bit of a gossipy podcast? Ford was an alcoholic, alcoholism is a disease, do we need example after example of his bad behavior when he was drinking? And how many examples do we need to hear of someone being mean? Nobody had to work with the guy, they chose to. They were grown people.
We all knew the woke virtue signaling was gonna come at some point during this podcast, no? I mean, c'mon, is there an easier target than the toxic patriarchy of John Ford?
![30 ชั่วโมงคนเดียว บนรถไฟชั้น 3 โซเวียต [Around The World Ep. 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MlE9boAVqDA/mqdefault.jpg)
Many moons ago, our Texas family- Ford fanatics all- made a trip out to Monument Valley to see, for ourselves, the vistas we had viewed on our TCM-tuned TV screens for years. Standing atop “John Ford’s Point”, which felt like a sacred place, looking across that vast familiar landscape, was like coming home to a place we’d never been before…and the emotions were palpable. John Ford, thank you!!! 🙏🏻. (Also- thanks, TCM, for these podcasts…just the best!!)
This series is fantastic. I started last week with thr D-Day footage. Cannot wait for the next on The Searchers. I really appreciate the nuanced, rational approach to the darker side of Ford. How he behaved was complex and contradictory, there's no need for the presenter to tell the audience how to feel, or to frame things as purely negative. Nice to be treated like an adult!
This is a great podcast. Love the detail, and interview recordings of Fonda, Stewart, Wayne and others. As soon as I heard the Max Steiner music from the
scene Ben talked about at the beginning of The Searchers, just had to watch it. Love the music in Ford movies.😂
i am loving this series! thank you for this marvelous work, ford is such a fascinating man
Monument Valley's scenery was something Ford could capture like no one else.
For the sake of fairness, I'm glad the Hitchcock story with Tippi Hedren on The Birds was brought up. Some say how cruel Ford could be to actors as if he were the only director in history like that, when Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Sam Peckinpah, James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott, and etc. have also been tyrants throughout the sets of their own classic movies. If anything, this episode just proves there was a method to the madness with Ford when it came to getting great performances out of his actors and he did seem to care about those actors he pushed. At the end of the day, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Woody Strode gave some of their finest performances under John Ford's direction, which was most likely the point.
Great series, TCM!
Getting great performances out of the actors has always been a weird excuse for bullying. As if directors like Scorsese, Spielberg or P. T. Anderson didn't achieve the same without being jerks.
@@karlkarlos3545 Because those same actors would've given 110% had Mr. Ford been nice every take! Paaaaleeeeezzz!😂
Yes, not only those guys, but I’ve heard some funny things that PT Anderson has pulled on his actors, and many others of today. It seems the entire profession of “Film Director” is an invitation to treat people any way you like in order to get what you want from them. It seems like mostly mind-fu***ry to me. Now, I haven’t heard horror stories about, say, Scorsese, but there’s always, it seems, some sort of psychological manipulation between director & star (or just actor). I think the directors who’re known for being SOBs such as Hitchcock are really screwed up in their own way, I mean Hitchcock, as great a director as he was, never seemed to get his weight below “morbidly obese”. So I think Hitch was a case study in hiding insanity from authority figures for decades. I mean, he really didn’t seem to get much satisfaction from making great suspense films. At his AFI Honors in the 70s, he looks as if he’d rather be ANYPLACE else. Blondes & Food were what he really wanted, and at least he could GET food lol. Hitch wasn’t “getting” Grace Kelly 😂. So then he tortured Tippi.
While I absolutely love his movies, if I had known him in real life, Ford sounds like the kind of person I would have hated. I hate bullies. I hate people who hurt others. So, I wouldn't have liked John Ford in person, I think. Yet I love his art.
A Classic Alcoholic type. Lot of anger and resentments. Some of these people are quite brilliant 😊
Agreed. See my comment, JustanotherGuy
Woody Strode, no matter how anyone wants to attempt to slice it, LOVED John Ford. He spent months in Ford's room as he was dying and, in fact, was there when Ford finally passed away.
Ben -just great! Thanks!
Question: Am I the only one who feels like I'm listening to a radio broadcast. My pic is a drawing of Ford, smoke billowing from his pipe the only movement.
Besides that, I say John Ford's best movie is (flawed Earp history, Ok Corral shootout and all, 'Doc" dying in battle ...) is My Darling Clementine. B&W Cinematography is amazing. The older I got the more I liked Clementine and Henry Fonda as Wyatt; and how appropriate (in political hindsight) that Walter Brennan portrays the ruthless Clanton patriarch.
It's a podcast, not a vidcast, so the similarity to a radio broadcast is natural
You know, I love Ford's films -- and this series has been terrific. It's just that as I get older, the stories that used to amuse me about Ford--and make me find him quaint and colorful and a character---are making me despise him. He was either a seriously ugly man or a seriously disturbed one. I'm pretty sure it's the latter, but does that (and his artistry) excuse the former?
They have nothing to do with his art - FOR US.
All due respect to the "cinema studies" professor at the end, but why do we "have to take the good with the bad?" and why do "we have to talk about both?" What does his (deplorable) personality have to do with his art FOR US? I propose: nothing. It doesn't ruin it, nor does it make it better. Even if it did (either or both), we don't have access to his personality, beyond the witnesses' accounts and the selective conjectures and commercial construction of "John Ford" by these story tellers - interesting / entertaining though they may be. All WE have is the art. "Who knows what John Ford was up to or if it was always motivated from a place of artistic expression?" - the dopey professor said it herself.
* See the following for more on bad men and great art (one of the commentators also happens to be running for president):
th-cam.com/video/SzfPZqf4gcE/w-d-xo.html
I guess I'm the only one who thinks this is a bit of a gossipy podcast? Ford was an alcoholic, alcoholism is a disease, do we need example after example of his bad behavior when he was drinking? And how many examples do we need to hear of someone being mean? Nobody had to work with the guy, they chose to. They were grown people.
We all knew the woke virtue signaling was gonna come at some point during this podcast, no? I mean, c'mon, is there an easier target than the toxic patriarchy of John Ford?
Congrats on being the last brain dead conservative still using ‘virtue signaling’
Weird how they have to talk about all facets of the man during this BIOGRAPHY
Woke! What's that?!