John Ford was among the most durable creative directors of the American cinema, with some 50 years of continual high quality work to his credit, all of it stamped with his unmistakable signature. Ford's films, particularly the Westerns, express a deep aesthetic sensibility for the American past and the spirit of the frontier. Ford was a folk artist, a master storyteller, and a poet of the moving image. His compositions have a classic strength in which masses of people and their natural surroundings are beautifully juxtaposed, often in breathtaking long shots.
In the making of his films, Ford expressed a similar sentiment for camaraderie through his repeated use of certain actors in the lead and supporting roles of his films. He was particularly close to John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda and a handful of others who over the years formed a sort of Ford stock company. The industry honoured Ford with Academy Awards for the direction of The Informer, The Grapes Of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, and The Quiet Man, as well as for his two wartime documentaries The Battle Of Midway and December 7th.
In this classic documentary, we take an in-depth look into the extraordinary career and life of John Ford, with insights from James Stewart, John Wayne, Henry Fonda and others who experienced the legend of the greatest film director of the Old West.
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