Sunday, September 10, 2006
Today is the one-year anniversary of my best friend Emily's wedding--congrats, Emmy!
To commemorate, I've watched a fantastic movie, John Ford's Fort Apache, the second in my Ford Movie Marathon. I'm running the race slow, somewhere around 1-2 movies a week. I anticipate a gross finish time of a few months, a net finish of a couple weeks, when we take into account the mail delays from Netflix.
First thing up for note is the credit sequence. Fantastic. I've mentioned it before, the opening credit reels of Ford films are a phenomenon in and of themselves. In Fort Apache the titles fade in and out against the black and white stock, the "directed by" credit inches up in anticipation; then, it is upon us: we read "directed by" as it fades into sight but without a name attached below; we wait, and then "John Ford" appears. The title of the credit fades, Ford's name remains for an extra second, and he is superimposed over the landscape of the opening establishing shot.
This is my second time watching Fort Apache, and I love the distinction between the clean edges of Henry Fonda's character and the scruff of John Wayne's. Fonda is Lt. Col. Owen Thursday, a by-the-book leader who is fresh to the untamed West; Wayne is Capt. Kirby York, he is casual and frank, his uniform is loose, and he even talks back to the colonel. Col. Thursday is structured, always clothed in a fresh uniform; he strictly follows regulations, and is not accustomed to the unpredictable nature of the western environment; Thursday tries to keep order in an atmosphere that cannot be tamed.
The Colonel's daughter is Miss Philadelphia Thursday (Shirley Temple), a great name if there ever was one. But the finest thing about this film is the power Ford holds over these major name actors. We recognize each of the players, Wayne, Fonda and Temple immediately, but they don't feel like stars so much as subordinates to the ascetic direction of Ford. The characteristics Ford imposes upon them are slight, subtle; it is a severity or mean curl to their tone, they seem insecure, as if their bold words teased out of them. I think particularly of Henry Fonda's character in this respect. Wayne is a different beast. He might be the most straightforward in his actions.
More complete thoughts on Ford and his players in the weeks to come. It's a work in progress, people!
(And congrats again to Emily!)
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