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Ranking No. 21 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films, this 1940 classic is a bit dated in its noble sentimentality, but it remains a luminous example of Hollywood classicism from the peerless director of mythic Americana, John Ford. Adapted by Nunnally Johnson from John Steinbeck's classic novel, the film tells a simple story about Oklahoma farmers leaving the depression-era dustbowl for the promised land of California, but it's the story's emotional resonance and theme of human perseverance that makes the movie so richly and timelessly rewarding. It's all about the humble Joad family's cross-country trek to escape the economic devastation of their ruined farmland, beginning when Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) returns from a four-year prison term to discover that his family home is empty. He's reunited with his family just as they're setting out for the westbound journey, and thus begins an odyssey of saddening losses and strengthening hopes. As Ma Joad, Oscar-winner Jane Darwell is the embodiment of one of America's greatest social tragedies and the "Okie" spirit of pressing forward against all odds (as she says, "because we're the people"). A documentary-styled production for which Ford and cinematographer Gregg Toland demanded painstaking authenticity, The Grapes of Wrath is much more than a classy, old-fashioned history lesson. With dialogue and scenes that rank among the most moving and memorable ever filmed, it's a classic among classics--simply put, one of the finest films ever made. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (45)

Ford and Fonda do justice to Steinbeck
Take John Steinbeck's Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Novel. Turn it into a movie and let John Ford direct it, and get Henry Fonda to star. In 1940 you could hardly find a more certain recipe for a cinema classic.

As good as the film is, it really should be a companion-piece to Steinbeck's original masterpiece, and if you haven't read it I recommend setting aside enough time to read one of the greatest pieces of American literature ever written.

That being said, the medium of the cinema allows for a visual impact that can't be matched with the written word.

The Grapes of Wrath follows the Joad family during the great depression. That period of economic hardship hit the farmers in Oklahoma a little harder than the rest of the world, at the time of the dust bowl the "Okies" were at the end of their ropes, financially speaking.

Thousands of Okies packed up the house after being foreclosed and moved out to California - many winding up around Bakersfield, at the California end of old US Route 66. (Merle Haggard's family did so and the "Okie from Muscogee" wrote about it in songs like "California Cottonfields".)

Anyway, this is the historical context of the movie. The theme of the movie, and of Steinbeck's book, is the ability of the human spirit to remain intact in these worst of times. The Joads suffer terrible humiliations, one after another, most of them because of their desperate financial status. But as the story proceeds we see that they are fundamentally decent, hard-working people, and every time life knocks them down they get back up, brush the dirt off themselves, and keep moving forward. As a national characteristic, this was an important trait because this was the generation that produced the hard-working, high-minded individuals who did important things like win World War II, followed by America's greatest financial flourishing and the Baby Boom. Tom Brokaw called them "America's Greatest Generation".

The cast is picture-perfect, with Henry Fonda as the spirited Tom Joad and John Carradine as the former preacher with a new social consciousness. Jane Darwell won a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress Award as Ma Joad, and the remainder of the cast is in every way equal to the story and the film.

An American Classic
This is a great movie based on a great novel, and I am surprised by how honestly the film captures the raw humanity of the book. Steinbeck weaved social commentary into the story, and the movie makes many points about the human condition and spirit without being heavy-handed. The story of the Joads and their fight for survival rings very true, thanks to the realistic performances and the atmosphere created by director John Ford. Henry Fonda gives one of the best performances I have ever seen him give, and his "I'll be there" speech is one of the great movie moments. Jane Darwell is also very impressive, and her direct, down-to-earth style of acting makes the quiet strength and the suffering of Ma Joad seem very real. The Grapes of Wrath is an American classic, both as a novel and as a film.

"I'll be all aroun' in the dark."
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loos'd the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on." - Battle Hymn of the Republic.

In 1936, John Steinbeck wrote a series of articles about the migrant workers driven to California from the Midwestern states after losing their homes in the throes of the depression: inclement weather, failed crops, land mortgaged to the hilt and finally taken over by banks and large corporations when credit lines ran dry. Lured by promises of work aplenty, the Midwesterners packed their belongings and trekked westward to the Golden State, only to find themselves facing hunger, inhumane conditions, contempt and exploitation instead. "Dignity is all gone, and spirit has turned to sullen anger before it dies," Steinbeck described the result in one of his 1936 articles, collectively published as "The Harvest Gypsies;" and in another piece ("Starvation Under the Orange Trees," 1938) he asked: "Must the hunger become anger and the anger fury before anything will be done?"

By the time he wrote the latter article, Steinbeck had already published one novel addressing the agricultural laborers' struggle against corporate power ("In Dubious Battle," 1936). Shortly thereafter he began to work on "The Grapes of Wrath," which was published roughly a year later. Although the book would win the Pulitzer Prize (1940) and become a cornerstone foundation of Steinbeck's Literature Nobel Prize (1962), it was sharply criticized upon its release - nowhere more so than in the Midwest - and still counts among the 35 books most frequently banned from American school curricula: A raw, brutally direct, yet incredibly poetic masterpiece of fiction, it continues to touch nerves deeply rooted in modern society's fabric; including and particularly in California, where yesterday's Okies are today's undocumented Mexicans - Chicano labor leader Cesar Chavez especially pointed out how well he could empathize with the Joad family, because he and his fellow workers were now living the same life they once had.

Having fought hard with his publisher to maintain the novel's uncompromising approach throughout, Steinbeck was weary to give the film rights to 20th Century Fox, headed by powerful mogul and, more importantly, known conservative Daryl F. Zanuck. Yet, Zanuck and director John Ford largely stayed true to the novel: There is that sense of desperation in farmer Muley's (John Qualen's) expression as he tells Tom and ex-preacher Casy (Henry Fonda and John Carradine) how the "cats" came and bulldozed down everybody's homes, on behalf of a corporate entity too intangible to truly hold accountable. There is Grandpa Joad (Charley Grapewin), literally clinging to his earth and dying of a stroke (or, more likely, a broken heart) when he is made to leave against his will. There is everybody's brief joy upon first seeing Bakersfield's rich plantations - everybody's except Ma Joad's (Jane Darwell's), that is, who alone knows that Grandma (Zeffie Tilbury) died in her arms before they even started to cross the Californian desert the previous night. There is the privately-run labor camps' utter desolation, complete with violent guards, exploitative wages, lack of food and unsanitary conditions; contrasted with the relative security and more humane conditions of the camps run by the State. And there is Tom's crucial development from a man acting alone to one seeing the benefit of joining efforts in a group, following Casy's example, and his parting promise to Ma that she'll find him everywhere she looks - wherever there is injustice, struggle, and people's joint success. In an overall outstanding cast, which also includes Dorris Bowdon (Rose of Sharon), Eddie Quillan (Rose's boyfriend Connie), Frank Darien (Uncle John) and a brief appearance by Ward Bond as a friendly policeman, Henry Fonda truly shines as Tom; despite his smashing good looks fully metamorphosized into Steinbeck's quick-tempered, lanky, reluctant hero.

Yet, in all its starkness the movie has a more optimistic slant than the novel; due to a structural change which has the Joads moving from bad to acceptable living conditions (instead of vice versa), the toning down of Steinbeck's political references - most importantly, the elimination of a monologue using a land owner's description of "reds" as anybody "that wants thirty cents and hour when we're payin' twenty-five" to show that under the prevalent conditions that definition applies to virtually *every* migrant laborer - and a greater emphasis on Ma Joad's pragmatic, forward-looking way of dealing with their fate; culminating in her closing "we's the people" speech (whose direction, interestingly, Ford, who would have preferred to end the movie with the image of Tom walking up a hill alone in the distance, left to Zanuck himself). Jane Darwell won a much-deserved Academy-Award for her portrayal as Ma; besides John Ford's Best Director award the movie's only winner on Oscar night - none of its other five nominations scored, unfortunately including those in the Best Picture and Best Leading Actor categories, which went to Hitchcock's "Rebecca" and James Stewart ("The Philadelphia Story") instead. Still, despite its critical success - also expressed in a "Best Picture" National Board of Review award - and its marginally optimistic outlook, the movie engendered almost as much controversy as did Steinbeck's book. After the witch hunt setting in not even a decade later, today it stands as one of the last, greatest examples of a movie pulling no punches in the portrayal of society's ailments; a type of film regrettably rare in recent years.

"Ev'rybody might be just one big soul - well it looks that-a way to me. ... Wherever men are fightin' for their rights, that's where I'm gonna be, ma. That's where I'm gonna be." - Woody Guthrie, "The Ballad of Tom Joad."

"The highway is alive tonight, but nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes. I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light, with the ghost of old Tom Joad." - Bruce Springsteen, "The Ghost of Tom Joad."

The Grapes--and Apples and Oranges--of Wrath
It's striking how many reviewers here base their comments on a simplisitic comparison between the film version of "The Grapes of Wrath" and the Steinbeck novel on which it was based. For many such a comparison seems to function simply as an excuse to proclaim the inherent superiority of the Steinbeck original--and, by extension, the superiority of their own literary taste values-- when all it really does is highlight the patent silliness of trying to pit different artforms into some sort of evaluative competition. Literature and cinema are two vastly different modes of representation each with their own strengths and limitations, so the framing question shouldn't be which version of "The Grapes of Wrath" is "better"--as if there were a universal yardstick with which to measure such things--but rather how do they perform in terms of their respective mediums? On that count, I think we are extraordinarily fortunate with both the Steinbeck and Ford versions of "The Grapes of Wrath" to have two masterworks that operate consummately at the peak of their respective artforms. What each does well, it does brilliantly. As a verbal medium that unfolds slowly, literature is good at offering rich, layered descriptions of person and place and mapping complicated narrative links and Steinbeck makes the most of this in his novel. Cinema, by contrast, is an expressive medium that works best through registers of visual and aural metaphor, allegory and performance...and it's on this ground that I think the film version of "The Grapes of Wrath" more than merits its classic status. It is a magnificently "cinematic" film that uses the expressive capacities of the medium to produce a richly layered experience that is truly moving and that lingers long afterward, sometimes for years or even a whole lifetime. I first saw "The Grapes of Wrath" on TV one rainy afternoon in my childhood and it left indelible impressions that have impelled me to go back to the film time and again: The haunted eyes of Jane Darwell's Ma Joad as she sits in the truck cabin, lit from beneath, driving into an uncertain future, the winds of history howling oustside; the terrifying collision montage as the monstrous "cats" move in to destroy the Okies' homes; the soulless gas station attendants, standing together in uniforms like corporatized automata, muttering that the Joads are too miserable to be human. It's a film dense with iconic richness and an enduring testament both to the artistry of the many workers that created it, and to the democratic spirit of popular cinema at its very best.

As good a restoration as possible
This DVD restoration is probably as good as possible given that the original camera negative was lost. This is the one to get.

By the way, there is NO widescreen version of "The Grapes of Wrath." This DVD release exhibits the full frame aspect ratio of the original (1.33 to 1 ratio). Essentially, films made between 1917 and 1952 were filmed with a full frame aspect ratio. Standard televisions were proportioned 4:3 to copy the standard cinema ratio. Widescreen (Cinemascope, etc) was a gimmick introduced by Hollywood in the 1950s to compete with television. So if a film was made between 1917 and 1952 don't go looking for a widescreen version of it because there isn't any! ... Read more

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Nineteen thirty-nine is often proposed as the movies' halcyon year, and three reasons why were directed by John Ford: Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk. In that exalted company Drums... would have to be accounted "merely superb"--even if it's the best film ever made about the American Revolution and, oh, only about eighth-best picture of its year.

Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play newlyweds in New York's Mohawk Valley at the time of the Revolutionary War. That war is more a distant rumor than a direct concern of people with cabins to raise, crops to harvest, and firstborn on the way. When it comes to their valley, in the form of hitherto-peaceable Indians whipped up by a gaunt Tory with an eyepatch (John Carradine), life changes as though with the passing of a cloud shadow.

In this, his first color film, Ford created indelible images of the dawning of America: a lone wagon making its way through acres of long grass rippling in the wind; the Indians, at the onset of their first raid, seeming to materialize out of the mist, out of the very trunks of trees; a ragged line of farmers with flintlocks passing along a split-rail fence, then resolving into a column, an army, marching toward a distant horizon. (Utah's Wasatch mountain country stands in persuasively for upstate New York in pioneer days.) Edna May Oliver scored a best-supporting-actress Oscar nomination as a memorably crusty frontier widow, while Ward Bond--oddly omitted from the opening credits--claimed a place of honor in the John Ford Stock Company playing Fonda's best friend. --Richard T. Jameson ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Brilliant restoration
Fox did a brilliant job in restoring Drums Along the Mohawk for DVD, with one small, annoying exception ... the 20th Century Fox trademark is from a much later era, perhaps the 1960s or 1970s.They also did this with the DVD restoration for Leave Her to Heaven. It would have been simple enough to use the original.

Stop the screaming.
I actually give this movie 41/2 stars. I would give it five stars if it weren't for Claudette Colbert's annoying screaming.

A perfect example of negative stereotyping!!
Drums Along the Mohawk is a perfect example of films of that era that paid no attention to history and created and reenforced negative stereotypes about American Indian people. I use this film in my American Indians in Film class as an example of how inaccuracies and negative perceptions of American Indian people were created.

HISTORICAL ADVENTURE COMES TO LIFE
Apple-cheeked Claubert and tall and gangly Fonda are so young, they're a pleasure to watch. All performances, including Ward Bond and Edna May Oliver, are exceptional and the color is amazing. "Drums Along The Mohawk" is an epic of the frontier that you'll want to watch again and again. Although the film takes place in upper New York State, viewing the terrain, it was probably shot in northern California. No matter. The film begins with hope alive and better things to come yet is dashed by the realities of the frontier and war. Battle scenes between indians and settlers can be a little frightening so I'd recommend that if you're going to let small children see this, an adult should sit with the child. A perfect film.

Outstanding!!
This is one of Henry Fonda's and Claudette Colbert's best movies..!! They play a young couple new to the frontier (Upstate New York pre-revolution). Well written and acted. Don't miss this one it is well worth viewing. ... Read more

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A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (120)

A classic western
The Searchers is considered by many to be one of the best westerns ever made, and I cannot disagree with them. The story follows the efforts of two men trying to track down a kidnapped girl from Comanches over the course of five years. The men tracking the tribe are a Confederate veteran and the girl's uncle and the other a family friend and also part Cherokee. The film is beautifully shot as all John Ford westerns are, which adds to the overall mood of the movie. There is a vastness to some scenes which show the futility of tracking down this girl after so many years. The Searchers is a classic that provided John Wayne with a role that was different from any other he had previously played.

John Wayne stars as Ethan Edwards, the Confederate veteran trying to track down his niece after his brother's family is slaughtered by a Comanche raiding party. He plays the role of the racist veteran to perfection. At times it is startling to see him in a role that differs so greatly from most other movies he had done. Jeffrey Hunter plays Martin Pawley, the Duke's partner in his search for the kidnapped girl. He plays a good sidekick to Wayne throughout since they have such differing personalities in the movie. Also starring are Natalie Wood, Ward Bond, Harry Carey JR, Patrick Wayne, Hank Worden, Ken Curtis and plenty of other Wayne stock actors. The DVD is good but could have been much better. You can view the movie in fullscreen or widescreen, with trailers included alongside four documentary shorts. A must have for western fans that is up there with Shane and The Wild Bunch as some of the greatest westerns of all time!

John Wayne at his Western Best now on WideScreen DVD!
"The Searchers" (1956) Anamorphic Widescreen DVD version is one of the best classic westerns ever made! Ranked in the American Film Institute's (AFI) top 100 movies of the last 100 years (1998). Having the best Western Director, John Ford partnering up with his favorite cowboy star, John Wayne can only be the beginning of a grand movie. Adding Widescreen Technicolor, the colorful Panoramic Monument Valley - Utah (Ford's favorite western area to film), a fantastic musical score and top supporting cast leads us on one of the best filmed westerns ever!

Summary - Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) is returning home to his only Brother & his family. After he and a posse of Texas Rangers (Lead by Ward Bond) were decoyed away by distant marauding Indians. The actual Indian raid was on remaining defenseless families left behind. Ethan's returned to find his Brothers family massacured all but his youngest niece, Debbie (played by Lana (younger)& Natalie Wood (older). His vengence takes him on a 5 year journey to recover her. Wayne is brilliant and proves he is a great actor.

"The Searchers" is a powerful 2 hour emotional rollercoaster ride. This movie will leave you with more respect of John Wayne's ability to act, Director John Ford's genius to tell a very complex story. Leaving us forever with a Great Western Classic! Enjoy.

Searchers!!
Ethan Edwards, (John Wayne), finds his way home after the civil war to his brothers homestead. Some cattle are rustled and he and a few men track them only to discover it's a Comanche trick to lure them away while they kill out the folks left behind which is Ethan's brother, wife, and kids. They arrive back too late, all are dead except Ethan's niece who was taken captive. Ethan sets out to find his niece accompanied by Martin Pauley, (Jeffrey Hunter), who Ethan found as a baby years earlier after another Indian raid. Ethan loved his brother's wife which is clear in the book by Lemay but very lightly alluded to in the film. This helps to explain his rage because everything he cared for in the world is gone. He will pursue the Comanche that have his niece until hell freezes over. Along the way he finds that he is still a human being. This film is widely considered the greatest western of all time and a favorite film of Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg if that means anything to you, I thought I would toss it in anyway.

STILL SEARCHING FOR AN ADEQUATE TRANSFER
John Ford was a master craftsman of the American cinema. Though he dabbled in melodrama and action during his directorial career, his everlasting contribution to the movies remains in those galvanic distillations of the old west put forth by an unparalleled series of legendary films. "The Searchers" ranks among his most finely wrought and meticulously hand crafted projects. Indeed it seems to be the film in which the culmination of Ford's own commitment to the power, beauty and frailty of the western frontier tragically come together in a revisionist perspective that exposes both its grandeur and its flaws. The film stars the iconic John Wayne as Ethan Edwards - a strangely majestic antihero who vows bloody revenge after his cousin and family are slaughtered by marauding Comanches. But Ethan's search for his surviving niece (Natalie Wood) becomes a sinister and all-consuming obsession when he learns that she - having been abducted while still a child - has now adopted the ways of her captors and, at least in Ethan's mind, has become one of them. The film tackles racism in the form of Ethan's distrust of one time family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is part Cherokee and the sweep and spectacle of Death Valley has never been quite so poignantly captured on film.
THE TRANSFER: While Warner Home Video has made "The Searchers" available in anamorphic widescreen in a print that is light years ahead of anything the film has looked like before for the home film enthusiast, compared to more current DVD releases, the visual splendor of the transfer falls short of expectations. Though colors are rich there's something of a muddiness and lack of balance to them in many of the indoor scenes. Also, several scenes appear to be suffering slightly from color shrinkage, creating a slightly out of focus image quality that is distracting. Age related artifacts are present but do not distract so much as the digital anomalies of pixelization and edge enhancement which greatly plague the background information in most of the long shots. A slight shimmering is inherent in all of the scenes. Black and contrast levels can be solid at times, while sometimes appearing slightly pasty. Ditto for the unnatural flesh tones which are either overly pink or a ruddy orange. The audio has been remastered and delivers a nice expansive presentation which is in keeping with the vintage of the original sound elements.
EXTRAS: Not this time around. Sadly, this film deserves a documentary.
BOTTOM LINE: "The Searchers" is a masterful western, on par with "Stagecoach" and "High Noon". Definitely one to add to your film library.

The Best Western Ever Made
This is the best Western ever made. There's simply too much to say about it here to do it justice. The imagery, John Wayne's character's growth, the comraderie between the "searchers", the supporting cast and the theme will make seeing this film worth the while of even those who "hate" Westerns. It's a classic, and purchasing it will be money well spent.

Enjoy. ... Read more

Reviews (136)

John Ford's gentle and loving salute to Ireland.......
From all reports "The Quiet Man" was a very personal and passionate undertaking from director John Ford, and his company of players (most of Irish ancestry)....and what sweet fruit their passion bore...

This is a film of such warmth, tenderness, humour and beauty that it just sparkles from beginning to end.

Irish-born, American boxer Sean Thornton (John Wayne) returns to his place of birth after accidently killing another man in the ring. Seeking to find peace and happiness in the lush green country side, Sean is enraptured with the fiery Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O'Hara in a wonderful performance) but incurs the wrath of her bully of a brother Red Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen) because of Thornton's purchase of local land. Failing to abide by the customs of Irish courtship as advised by resident matchmaker Michaleen Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald) and Father Peter Lonergan (Ward Bond)...it's not long before the whole county is in a spin about this big Yank in their midst !!

Amidst the lopsided courtship and Red Will's refusal to pay the dowry, Thornton & Danaher square off in what must be the most entertaining and longest on screen fights in cinema history...much to the amusement of the entire town that turned out to watch !!

"The Quiet Man" is such a wonderfully enchanting film, that it is as enjoyable for all ages today, as it was nearly 50 years ago. Truly, a film for those young at heart and those who can appreciate such a warm hearted and lovingly prepared ode to the magic of Ireland.

A Movie You'll Watch Over And Over
A true masterpiece, this movie captures the heart and soul of Ireland. That said, not only the Irish will love it. It tells the story of an American, coming home to his mother's beloved Irland. There he meets and falls in love with a beautiful colleen, only to find that her brother is against the affair and basically, out to get him. Shot on location in Ireland, the view is gorgeous, and the plot has everything from exciting fights to tender love scenes. ( My favourite scene is their famous first kiss, when he kisses her in the storm and then she slaps him. Btw, Maureen O'Hara fractured her wrist doing that!)

"The Quiet Man" was John Ford's favourite film, and also his most personal one. He cast his favourite actors in it, and it shows. John wayne is just great -whoever thinks he only played himself in every role should see his performance here. For his love interest we have Ford's kind of a woman, the breathtakingly beautiful Maureen O'Hara.She gives a magnificent performance as Mary Kate, and in my opinion should have won the Oscar for it. (She Wasn't even nominated!) Sparks flew when this couple met on screen, and the result is out there for you to witness.

Don't wait till the next St. Patrick's Day -see this film now. I promise you won't regret it.

A romance almost out of time and place - wonderful cast
Anyway, the story is an idyll that is really out of time and place. Apparently it takes place in the early 20th century in Ireland. It seems to be after the Irish Revolution, but before the First World War. I say before the war because the movie never references the awful loss of life that traumatized every European nation that experienced it. Any later than that and you would wonder where the planes and cars would be.

It is a good love story, but the whole concept of dowry and the stubborn character shown by the whole Danaher clan would be mysterious to the younger American generation, as would the purpose of a matchmaker and the formal courting rituals that the movie sends up.

John Wayne is quite fine in this role as is the whole cast. It is a very enjoyable film with a lot to recommend it for the family. It will certainly spark some discussion with the kids that might be helpful and broaden their cultural horizons.

One of the great classics of world cinema
Everything about this film is first rate. The storyline, cast, the directing, the cinematography. You can't go wrong with this one.

Restored ? Huh !
I'm going to keep this short. The Quiet Man is a classic, so why treat it like crap. I have VHS copies of old Disney Afternoon cartoons that are a million times better than this. The transfer is so bad I finally just messed with the color on my set and decided it would be better in black and white.
Theatrical Trailers? That's what the box says, but there are only three "trailers" on the disc, and none are theatrical. they are all commercials for other Artisan discs, which makes no sense as anyone who sees what a terrible job they did to this classic will be very wary before they ever pick up another Artisan disc. Can you imagine the outcry if they did this to Wizard of Oz or any ohter film classics. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

You say it's your birthday
Yes it is a John Wayne movie and has many of his standard cast. This is a Christmas movie and a birthday movie. And, And, And. John Wayne gets to say, "Swing your legs...limbs over" in his John Wane manner.

Cesar Romero (Marquis Andre de Lage) is always scheming to go to Hollywood and is the first to bring up the fact that the offspring of Jack Warden (Dr. William Dedham) are half-cast and may not meet Boston standards. This leads to situations that just keep snowballing. "Oh, what tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."

Everyone gets an appropriate present for Christmas. But I think the best one is the one that Lee Marvin (Thomas Aloysius 'Boats' Gilhooley) receives. And he gets to play King of America at the pageant.

There is not a slow moment in this film and you have to keep up with all the subplots. And the scenery is breathtaking.

Watch this one for the performances!
"Donovan's Reef" is a strange hybrid of a movie. On the one hand, it's a vehicle for John Wayne to show off with the rest of the very talented cast. On the other, it's also a morality play about racism, set on a lush, (and distant) South Pacific island, but very relevant to the United States of the early 1960s. In these days of multiracial awareness, the latter aspect seems a bit dated, and talk about "half caste [non-white] children" is quaint. Cliches and cultural stereotypes abound, but in its time "Donovan's Reef" was a progressive and even (as another reviewer has called it) "subversive" movie. The beautiful exotic setting no doubt made the message of racial equality more palatable to the mainstream American audience of the day.

Today, however, the movie endures primarily because of the strength of the cast and the characters they create. A young Lee Marvin plays the brawling Gilhooley and Cesar Romero the pleasantly oily French governor. The Asian actor who plays the governor's aide is truly splendid. His name should be up in the main credits along with the stars. Although there is not a weak performance among the lot, my favorite moments are the exchanges between Wayne and Elizabeth Allen, his foil and romantic interest. She plays the supposedly straitlaced Bostonian and he the salty ex-pat bar owner. Both are strong characters, and they give each other as good as they get.

On the negative side, the narrative is sometimes disjointed, as if the movie tries to be too much in too little time. It's as if too much film ended up on the cutting room floor. A pity, because if what was edited out is of the same caliber as what was left in, some rare moments have been lost. Too bad John Ford isn't around to do a "director's cut."

"Donovan's Reef" may not be a great movie, but it sure is fun to watch.

GETS BETTER WITH EACH PASSING YEAR
Professional movie reviewers and published guides do not rate Donovan's Reef very high. More than a few seem to look down their noses at this light comedy. But I have always liked it. Nothing about this movie is supposed to be taken seriously with the sole exception of its subtle rejection of racism. (Some may nitpick about certain depictions of the "non-whites"; but only the hard hearted would fail to notice that the "whites" come off as essentially foolish as well.) At the center is the battle of the sexes between Wayne and Elizabeth Allen-each side getting its share of victories and comeuppances. All the characters are likable and the writing is sharp and witty.

Of special enjoyment is the Christmas Pageant in the leaky chapel. I have never been able to think about the "three wise men" of the Christmas story without this scene coming to mind. The Polynesian ceremony at the end of the film is also humorous as well as touching.

The setting is supposed to be French Polynesia but everything about the film from the scenery to the people suggests Hawaii. No matter. This is simply a great "little" comedy. Watch it some lazy Sunday afternoon and it will make your day.

Don't Take This Too Serious
John Wayne does a great job at Playing John Wayne! This movie is not a serious work -- but rather it is a great excuse for the Duke and his posse to kick it in Hawaii.

Navy buds, pretty girls, beautiful tropical scenery and a big bowl of popcorn makes for a great family night at home. It took me a long to find this movie, but fortunately I finally did.

I can't even begin to count how many times my family and I have seen this great Wayne yarn.

A Top Ten JW movie!
I have to give this 5 stars. I love 80% and just fast forward past the 20% I don't like, and walla!! A nice, short, fun, family friendly, non-disney entertainment. ... Read more

Reviews (55)

Not made for the small screen
Like IMAX films released on dvd...what's the point? This was made for the biggest movie screens ever conceived.

I was lucky to see this film a few years ago in genuine 3-strip CINERAMA on an archival print from the original release. On the big screen it's an amazing experience. The uneven story fades away when one is viewing the spectacular cinematography. CINERAMA captured vast scenes in incredible richness and detail. It's an experience like no other.

On the small screen at home you mainly notice the technical flaws, the borders between the three separate images, and also the dated 1960's Hollywood "Old West" story. (Carroll Baker's makeup is never smudged, even when tilling the soil.) The first two segments are the best dramatically.

One aspect that is still great at home is the magnificent score by Alfred Newman. So save your money, buy the soundtrack, and head to Seattle, LA, or England or where ever you can find an exhibition of the real CINERAMA.

America's own "Triumph of the Will" -- Leni would be proud!
In a remarkable coincidence, the same day I saw "How the West was Won" at the Seattle Cinerama (03/01/03), the History Channel aired a program on the history of the wheel. One of the talking-head experts opined that the wheel's invention marked a fundamental change in human thought -- not only was there a technological solution to every problem, but nature could be bent to human will, forced to reveal her secrets and serve us.

This is the theme of "How the West was Won." It starts with the title, and extends to nearly everything in the film. The narration tells us that the land had to be wrested from nature and from the "primitive people" who inhabited (and by implication, infested) it. The chorus is continually singing about how "we're headed for the promised land" and those who are willing to work hard will be richly rewarded (except the Chinese railroad laborers, of course). We were justified in overrunning the continent because we are actually "doing something" with it -- as opposed to the Indians, who merely lived there in harmony with nature. Not having invented the wheel, they saw no further possibilities.

James Webb's script acknowledge the culture clash between the Americans and the native peoples, recognizing that the latter will have to eventually change or be destroyed. But this is peripheral to the celebration of the industry, hard work, and sacrifice of the Americans, who "tamed" the wilderness. The film ends with a nausea-inducing flyover of the California freeways (I sat next to a guy who'd taken Dramamine in anticipation of such scenes), followed by a flight under the Golden Gate bridge, firmly and unambiguously driving the point home.

"How the West was Won" is social propaganda, plain and simple. It's the kind of film that could change Osama Bin Laden's mind about destroying the US. (Maybe the State Department could arrange a screening...)

As a movie, there's no denying "How the West was Won" is wildly entertaining. Simply as cinematic spectacle, it works magnificently. There are films (such as "2001" and "Lawrence of Arabia") that even the finest video transfer cannot do justice to, and this is one of them. Sitting in the first few rows, you're so close to the screen that you can't take in all of it at once. When the camera tracks into a scene, the sense of physical motion is uncanny. (Can you say "stimulation of peripheral vision"? Sure you can.) And if you haven't seen a buffalo stampede, or a train crash, or a row of cannons firing in sequence on a (roughly) 30' by 90' screen -- well, you haven't lived, cinematically-wise.

Story-wise, there's so much material to cover the script cannot begin to do it justice, even in a film lasting 2½ hours. Characters are more types than individuals, and almost every performer is cast to type. (Eli Wallach, in particular, gets to do his "crazy Mexican outlaw" shtick, though without an accent.) It's only the efficiency and focus of the script that keeps the actors from looking altogether foolish. Other than (perhaps) Karl Malden, no one gives what would be considered a "real" performance.

The plot (which follows the Prescott family and its descendents over 50 years) is concocted to make Debbie Reynolds' character the sort of farm girl who wants to run off to the big city to become rich, so we're treated to several (mercifully brief) song-and-dance numbers. Her sister is played by Carol Baker, who falls head over heels in love with Jimmy Stewart's "aw-shucks" mountain man, and later "tames" him (as the film's conceit requires). The rest of the film rehashes just about every cliché of westerns and Civil War movies -- though entertainingly. The final sequence posits the "conquest" of the West as occurring when "the law" (in the form of George Peppard's marshall) arrives, to establish justice. But Peppard -- who says he wants to bring the bad'un to justice in court -- shoots him to death, anyway.

My five-star rating acknowledges this is a classic film -- not necessarily a great one.

I can't pass up the opportunity to trash Pauline Kael, who was not so much a hard-nosed-but-movie-loving critic as she was an empty-headed, loudmouthed [female canine]. Note how she uses the artistic limitations of a single sentence to craft a thoughtful, insightful commentary that will help the reader better understand this film...

"'How the West Was Lost' would be a more appropriate title for this dud epic, since, as conceived by the writer, James R. Webb, the pioneers seem to be dimwitted bunglers who can't do anything right."

Hello? Were we watching the same movie? "How the West was Won" might be politically incorrect, dramatically shallow, and little more than agit-prop -- but it's no dud. The Seattle audience -- which included many people sporting "No Iraq War" buttons -- just ate it up. "How the West was Won" is Hollywood middlebrow-populist entertainment at its best.

One final question... Where did they find a stunt man who looked like Agnes Moorhead?

Wake me when it's over
I kind of figured television was responsible for this... movie. HOW THE WEST WAS WON dvd comes with a featurette on the making of the movie, in which we learn that the movie studios developed the Cinerama process (three cameras shot the movie which was projected onto three specially designed screens. Think IMAX) to present an alternative "viewing experience" to compete with television.
Watching this on television, even in a letterbox edition, is excruciating. There are visible bars where the three screens meet. Often the color in one screen doesn't jibe with that of the adjoining screen.
Those defects could be corrected by digital manipulation, I suppose, but what's the point? The Cinerama screen was meant to wrap around the audience and a television screen is flat. What can't be corrected is the lack of close-ups and a surplus of dead space.
Almost all the action takes place in the center panel, and the closest we get to the action is in a medium shot. Most of the time there's nothing happening on the edge panels. Two-thirds of the screen is dead. The only time Cinerama seemed to shine was when chaotic action was swiftly coming at the audience, which is why we are so often treated to onrushing trains and galloping horses and stampeding buffalo shot from a camera in the ground. I think it would have taken a visual genius the likes of a Busby Berkeley to exploit Cinerama's potential without having to open the paddock.
The featurette also tells us HTWWW had a cast of 12,000. I guess maybe a dozen of them weren't miscast, but that's just a guess. The movie opens with Jimmy Stewart, out of character as mountain man Linus Rawlings, canoeing along a river while Spencer Tracy narrates over the action: '(The land) known only to the lonely trappers wandering its vastness in search of beaver...' One and a half scenes later Linus skids his bark next to the Prescott campsite and gives Carroll Baker a pelt to stroke....
Okay. I was bored. What can I say? At least I was paying attention. When Debbie Reynolds delivers a rousing rendition of 'Raise a Ruckus' for the despondent members of the wagon train I wasn't paying much attention at all. By the time Eli Wallach was glaring daggers at George Peppard's kids I was wondering whether or not one should fill in that little hole in the middle of a dvd when you make it into a coaster.

Middling story and atrocious transfer
I like westerns. My favorite entries in the genre are spaghetti westerns, those cheap, ultra low budget Italian takes on the American West. I always try to fit some of these movies into my viewing schedule, and when the day came where I considered it time to watch Sergio Leone's epic "Once Upon a Time in the West," I headed out to rent it. Imagine my surprise when I got home and saw that I inadvertently checked out "How the West Was Won" instead. I scratched my head, not familiar at all with the title. After all, I like westerns but I don't know a lot about the genre or the films I have yet to see. When I saw the cast list for this 1962 movie, I decided not to take it back without watching and seeing if I liked it. I think I would be remiss to have skipped this one on initial impression alone; the cast list reads like a "who's who" of mid twentieth century Hollywood. You've got Carroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Agnes Moorehead, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, George Peppard, Debbie Reynolds, Eli Wallach, John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Walter Brennan, Karl Malden, Carolyn Jones, Harry Morgan, Raymond Massey, and Robert Preston filling the roles. Spencer Tracy voices the narration. Howard Hawks and John Ford directed specific segments of the film. What a list of talent! Couldn't go wrong with a movie like this one, right? Wrong.

As amazing as it seems, "How the West Was Won" is not a very good experience. The movie runs for an eternity as it attempts to describe the different experiences in settling the American West. At the beginning of the film, the Prescott clan heads out to the West in search of farmland and a new beginning. Zebulon Prescott (Karl Malden), his wife Rebecca (Agnes Moorehead), and two daughters Eve (Carroll Baker) and Lilith (Debbie Reynolds) travel down the recently completed Erie Canal and travel out into what Illinois or Missouri. Along the way, they encounter a traveling fur trapper named Linus Rawlings (Jimmy Stewart), who stays with the family for a day or so, just long enough to fall in love with one of the daughters. After Zeb and Rebecca perish in an unfortunate rafting accident, Rawlings reemerges to take care of Eve and eventually establish a farm at the sight of the accident. These two will have children-one named Zebulon Rawlings (George Peppard)-who will eventually fight in the Civil War. Zeb Rawlings then leaves the family property to his brother as he moves further west fighting Indians for the railroads and working as a law officer. He ends up thwarting a nasty train robbery in Arizona some fifty years after his grandparents expired on that raft.

The other daughter, Lilith, ends up in St. Louis working as a dancer and actress when she learns that she inherited a gold mine in California. As she prepares to head west, a slick card shark named Cleve Van Valen (Gregory Peck) convinces Lily to take him along. There's a minor competition for Lily's affections between Van Valen and Roger Morgan (Robert Preston), another guy on the wagon train. The gold mine doesn't pan out in the end, so Lilith and Cleve end up falling in love and marrying, eventually going on to build and lose several huge family fortunes. Of course, Lily's travels to the coast are fraught with perils, such as an Indian attack on the wagon train and a song and dance number at a campsite. I kept hoping the filmmakers would insert a Donner Party type situation that would require Gregory Peck to consume either Robert Preston or Debbie Reynolds, but no such luck. In any event, the movie seems to focus more on the Rawlings clan than it does on Lily's experiences.

Sadly, many of the great actors in the movie rarely appear. Raymond Massey plays Abraham Lincoln, John Wayne and Harry Morgan are General William Tecumseh Sherman and General Ulysses S. Grant respectively, and Lee J. Cobb is a Marshal in Arizona. Even Eli Wallach as an outlaw is a ghostly shadow of the villain he played in Leone's "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." The huge cast list highlights the central problem of the film, namely that the filmmakers tried to do too much. Very few of the characters we see receive proper development. The focus here is on shock and awe photography and scenery, not the individuals taking part in the events. "How the West Was Won" was the first film shot in Cinerama, and, I think, a prime example of how Hollywood abuses a new technology. We see the same thing going on today with the CGI effects in those top-heavy special effects bonanzas. Everyone wants to use a new cinematic technique, so much so that they rely solely on the effect and lose sight of the human element. A bit less spectacle and a lot more interaction between the cast would have helped this movie succeed.

I hate to say it, but the DVD version of this film could use a lot of work. You can literally see the two lines dividing the picture into three segments in the transfer. Not only is this enormously annoying, it's completely unacceptable. I can't believe the studio techs couldn't release a seamlessly restored version of this film. The disc does contain a short documentary detailing the Cinerama process along with a few bits about the stunts in the film, but the shoddy picture quality of the movie will dampen your enthusiasm for any extras. I imagine some people would like the actual movie better than I did though no one should settle for the poor transfer. I suggest waiting for a special edition disc.

Needs a better format, anamorphic
I saw the film in LA, at the original Cinerama, in the original
showing. This film is not going to be right until shown in
HDTV (HD-DVD), but for Pete's sake, why letterbox ?

What a trashy way to treat this classic. Stick a crowbar in your
wallet and spring for an anamorphic release. When the HD-DVD with
proper restoration shows up, I'll buy a copy of that, not rent. ... Read more

Reviews (38)

Shakespeare in Tombstone
Of the many movies that I love and own, this is one of the DVDs I would grab if the house was on fire.

My Darling Clementine is fundamentally about the shootout at the OK Corral, arguably the most famous 30 seconds in American history. But in John Ford's loving hands, the story takes its time getting there and, in the process, becomes as graceful and easily beautiful a piece of film-making as you will ever see.

In this age when movie goers prize realism, sheer violence, and de-mythology, Ford has become something of a whipping boy for those who point out the glaring historical inaccuracies present in Hollywood's traditional portrayal of the American West. These folks miss the larger picture and are the poorer for their narrow, fashionable view. In this archetypal story of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and the Clanton family, Ford was not interested in historical detail. He was creating legends, not historical accounts for the archives.

Ford was a film maker. When a movie lover approaches a Ford film, it becomes necessary to give oneself over to the power of film. Once one does that, tremendous pleasures await. Such as: the townspeople of Tombstone having a dance around the skeletal frame of a half-built church while the huge, flat buttes of Monument Valley tower in the background; or Henry Fonda as Earp watching with great sympathy as Victor Mature (Doc Holiday) recites Hamlet's suicide soliloquy in a barroom (as hokey as this sounds, it is Fonda's expression that will move you, I guarantee).

Other images worth mentioning: Fonda/Earp walking alone through the rain of Tombstone at night; or the final shot of Clementine (meaningless in the film other than as a perfect symbol of all the things men love but can never have) standing framed against the Arizona sky and a picket fence - or the way Walter Brennan as Old Man Clanton, flashes through his scenes like a rattler's hiss.

Loving a John Ford Western is a bit like believing in a religion: it requires a leap of faith - a belief in something that might not be tangible reality, but is instead an ideal no less worthy of love.

This DVD is an absolute must for Ford fans, Western fans, or movie lovers. As an extra bonus, the special feature commentary by Ford biographer, Scott Eyman, is absolutely superb. Mr. Eyman's concise and rich commentary is nearly as enjoyable as the film itself. All in all, a real treasure for John Ford fans. -Mykal Banta

Ford and Fonda at their Finest
"My Darling Clementine" has to rank as one of John Ford's three or four finest films, as well as one of Henry Fonda's finest performances. It is only incidentally about the Gunfight at the OK Corral--rather than attempt a factual retelling of the gunfight, Ford uses the story of the Earps, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons to illustrate the sacrifices that have to be made in order for the West to be civilized.

This theme of sacrifice runs through many of Ford's Westerns--see also "Wagonmaster" and "The Searchers," for example. In order for the malevolent lawlessness symbolized by the Clantons to be driven out, there are some others, not malevolent themselves, who are nevertheless doomed by their inability to adapt to civilization (Doc Holliday). Wyatt represents those who must give up something they love--any hope of a future with Clementine Carter--in order to continue doing things that need doing.

As previous reviewers have noted, Ford's account is a far cry from the historical events of the OK Corral gunfight. His biggest alteration of history is to change the relationship between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday from friendship to antagonism that is somewhat softened by mutual respect, and eventually evolves into alliance. The genuine tension between Wyatt and Doc strengthens the film.

The cast is very strong. Henry Fonda's performance as Wyatt is magnificent. Walter Brennan is equally superb as the malevolent Old Man Clanton, while Victor Mature's consumptive Doc Holliday is, if not memorable, very competent. A number of Ford regulars such as Ward Bond, Russell Simpson, and Jane Darwell provide solid support. The awkward slapstick humor of some of Ford's other films is not a big factor in this one, which is another plus.

Ford was the master of filming outdoor pictures in black and white. Several scenes, such as the dance at the church, are visually stunning.

Of the half dozen or more films about the OK Corral gunfight, this is by far the finest, with "Tombstone" a respectable, but distant second. I highly recommend it to all.

A Really Good Movie
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE

There has been a number of movies made about the gunfight at OK Corral, however this one happens to be my favorite.
I personally enjoy classic black and white movies and I am an avid fan of Victor Mature, who plays Doc Holliday in this movie.
One thing that makes this movie especially interesting is the development of the characters, for example, Wyatt Earp's misgivings about the town, the apparent conflict between Chihuahua (Doc Hollidays's girlfriend, played by Linda Darnell) and Wyatt Earp (played by Henry Fonda) and the conflict between Doc Holliday and Clementine (played by Cathy Downs), all of which add a human element to this film.
I highly recommend adding this film to your collection.

Beautifully Paced Western
I have always put"My Darling Clementine" in my top-ten westerns as do some critics,and after viewing it recently on the excellent DVD version I am considering it to be the best! The alternative version on the disc might not be to everyones taste but westerns should be slow paced(check out the excellent "Open Range")not just shoot-ups added for padding every 20 minutes or so. One of the best scenes in this movie or any other western is the excellent dance scene,especially the moment when Henry Fonda asks Kathy Downes to dance. Definetely Ford at his best and Victor Mature,s best hour as well. Kudos to all for a well produced DVD package

Ford Prints the Legend - Sublimely
This is arguably the best Western by the best director of Westerns in the history of the genre. Ostensibly the story of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the legendary John Ford gives us a vision of the Old West that is violent yet idealized, frightening yet warm, grim yet majestic. Ford has often been called a visual poet, and the sublime "My Darling Clementine" is perhaps the best example of visual poetry that anyone has ever put to celluloid.

Forget about comparing this film to actual historical events. While Ford knew Wyatt Earp from his early Hollywood days when Ford was a prop boy, and he claimed that Earp told him how the gunfight really happened, he also said he wasn't trying to make a documentary when he directed "Clementine". The "facts", whatever they may be, don't matter here. As the newspaperman tells Senator Ransom Stoddard in Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Henry Fonda's Earp is the classic Ford hero, somewhat distant and removed from society, quietly confident and basically nonviolent, but nevertheless commanding the utter respect of others (partly because of his reputation which has preceded him, and its inherent threat of violence). And, most importantly, he is ultimately unable to share in the peace and security that he makes possible for others. Next to his portrayal of Tom Joad in Ford's "The Grapes Of Wrath", this is perhaps Fonda's finest performance. He has never appeared more cool and comfortable in a role, as he laconically and assuredly inhabits the lawless frontier town of Tombstone.

Contrasting Wyatt's sanguine pragmatism, Doc Holliday (Victor Mature) is a haunted, tragic outcast who has uprooted himself from civilization and drifted West. We learn that Doc was once a surgeon (the real Doc Holliday was a dentist, another negligible historical discrepancy), a valuable, functioning member of society, his career presumably cut short by alcoholism, consumption and undisclosed ghosts, which apparently still haunt him.

The Clanton family provides the reason for Wyatt's accepting the job as marshal of Tombstone, by murdering his youngest brother, James, and making off with the Earp brothers' cattle. The miscreant Clantons, like the Cleggs family in Ford's "Wagonmaster", are the personification of evil, demented and motherless. The leader of their clan, known only as "Pa" (ominously played by Walter Brennan), would like nothing better than for Tombstone to remain open and lawless and free for the taking.

Clementine Carter (Cathy Downs) appears as a civilizing angel from the East, who has come to rescue Doc from himself and bring him back to Boston (Ford's eternal bastion of Civilization in the worst sense, invariably inhabited by bigoted grotesques - though Miss Carter seems to have been spared this characterization). The tempestuous Chihuahua (Linda Darnell), who wants to run away with Doc to Mexico, embodies the wild, open frontier.

While the climax naturally takes place at the O.K. Corral, the centerpiece of the film, as in many Ford films, is a dance. Its prelude unfolds majestically as Wyatt and Clementine meet in the lobby of the hotel and begin a stately walk toward the framework of the unfinished "first church of Tombstone", the sound of a tolling church bell and the strains of one of Ford's old favorite hymns, "Shall We Gather at the River" growing louder as the couple approaches the assembled congregation. Like many great moments in great films, the beauty of several elements melding flawlessly to create this sequence defies verbal description.

The church, to Ford, helps legitimize the existence of a community, not only for religious reasons, but as a place where people can come together in fellowship, providing a foundation for that community's future existence. The dance, which takes place on the physical foundation of the unfinished church, is the turning point of the film, and provides possibly the most transcendent moment in all of Ford's work. It is the embodiment of the spiritual establishment of a real and lasting community, which, until the arrival of Wyatt and Clementine, and all that they stand for, had no solid foundation.

Ford's use of comedy, often criticized for its broadness (but of which he was nevertheless proud), is sparing and deft in "Clementine". It is gentler and more restrained than his usual comedic fare, as in the humorous references to the aroma of the eau de toilette which the enthusiastic proprietor of the Bon Ton Tonsorial Parlor has applied to Wyatt's freshly shaven and coiffed person: "I love your town in the morning, Marshal", says Clementine, as she and Wyatt step out onto the front porch of the hotel; "the scent of the desert flower . . ." "That's me," corrects Wyatt, adding, explanatorily, "Barber." There is also the justly praised bit of business of Wyatt doing his seated "dance" on the front porch of the hotel, as he, somewhat passive aggressively, ignores the shrewish admonishments of Chihuahua. This casual, reportedly spontaneous creation of Fonda's (or Ford's, depending on the source) succinctly captures the essence of the relationship between the two characters.

Ford's innately masterful sense of composition and lighting, which he displayed throughout his career, is magnificently displayed in "Clementine". The sweeping diagonal of the bar in the saloon as Wyatt walks to the door after Chihuahua's operation; the expressionistic shadows which constantly envelop the doomed Holliday's face; the somber, monumental tableau of Wyatt and Morgan, bending over the dead body of their brother Virgil in the street at night; all of these images resonate indefinitely in the viewer's memory, and all reveal a visual master in his prime.

Many of the reassuringly familiar faces of Ford's legendary "stock company" are faithfully present, as was nearly always the case - with slight variations - over the years. Ward Bond, Jane Darwell, Russell Simpson, Mae Marsh, J. Farrell MacDonald and the ever-present, ever-endearing Francis Ford, John's older brother and former mentor (and a veteran of Hollywood from its infancy), all add their warm, familial qualities, counterbalancing the darker aspects of the film.

Of all the Westerns I've seen, "My Darling Clementine" is the most eloquent, the most understatedly awe-inspiring - the most poetic.

John Ford printed the legend. Sublimely. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

This landmark 1939 Western began the legendary relationshipbetween John Ford and John Wayne, and became the standard for all subsequentWesterns. It solidified Ford as a major director and established Wayne as a charismaticscreen presence. Seen today, Stagecoach still impresses as the first matureinstance of a Western that is both mythic and poetic. The story about a cross-section oftroubled passengers unraveling under the strain of Indian attack contains all of Ford'sincomparable storytelling trademarks--particularly swift action and socialintrospection--underscored by the painterly landscape of Monument Valley. And what anensemble of actors: Thomas Mitchell (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as thedrunken doctor), Claire Trevor, Donald Meek, Andy Devine, and the magical John Carradine.Due to the film's striking use of chiaroscuro lighting and low ceilings, Orson Welleswatched Stagecoach over and over while preparing for Citizen Kane. --Bill Desowitz ... Read more

Reviews (40)

Classic western with great characters and beautiful scenery
"Stagecoach" is a landmark film in so many ways. While probably not the very best western ever created this stunning production is memorable as being one of the first of the genre where just as much emphasis was placed on character development as action. It also marked the breakthrough role (and first collaboration with frequent director Ford) for a young John Wayne after a decade of appearing in countless B films, and the first time that director John Ford used his most favourite location of Monument Valley, Utah for shooting which gives this film an almost out of this world ,mythical quality.

Produced in the magical year of 1939 "Stagecoach" more than holds its own with all the other great classics produced in that year. Honoured with two Academy Awards for its musical score and the beautiful performance by Thomas Mitchell as the drunken doctor travelling on the stagecoach the film tells a very simple story of the intertwined lives of a group of people travelling through dangerous Indian territory on a stagecoach and how each effects the others lives in different ways. Ford assembled a sterling cast of performers here and apart from Wayne as the wrongly convicted outlaw the Ringo Kid we have the before mentioned Thomas Mitchell (in the same year that he played Scarlett O'Hara's father in "Gone With The Wind"), as the drunken doctor who is forced to deliver a baby on route, Claire Trevor in a superb performance as the "scarlett lady" Dallas, run out of town for her morals who forms an attachment to Wayne's character , Andy Devine as the coach driver and John Carradine as the shady gambler Hatfield. Donald Meek also registers as the fumbling spirits salesman who keeps having his samples raided by Mitchell. Louise Platt also does some memorable work as the very pregnant Lucy Mallory, travelling on the stagecoach to join her husband who gives birth during the journey and with help from Dallas learns a good lesson in understanding and tolerance of other's failings. "B" movie cowboy veteran Tom Tyler also makes a rare appearance as the Ringo Kid's nemesis Luke Plummer who is involved in a shoot out with Ringo at the finale.

"Stagecoach" contains many memorable moments, the most outstanding without a doubt being the lengthy and cleverly filmed Indian attack on route which contains some of the most amazing stunt work seen in films up till then. It is the work of stuntman genius Yakima Canutt who doubled for John Wayne in all the complicated action sequnces such as when the Ringo Kid takes control of the horses leading the stagecoach when it is attacked. These stunt scenes became re-used footage in countless westerns over the succeeding years so brilliant they were and are still considered.

While not being a huge fan of the western genre I do love this film for its intelligent writing and attention to character development often not seen in alot of westerns. The beautiful location photography adds a tremendous boost to the overall look of the film and really sets the mood for the whole piece. It is such a landmark film in so many ways already mentioned however for sheer entertainment value for those that like action adventure tales it is unsurpassed. I dont feel you even need to be a western lover to enjoy it so well crafted are the characters and the action story that they are involved in. For stirring western excitement you can't go past John Ford's memorable classic "Stagecoach".

The film that catapulted The Duke into stardom
Before 1939, a young actor named John Wayne had been starring in b-movie Westerns for years. The western genre wasn't taken very seriously, and neither was the young, sauntering cowboy who starred in them. Stagecoach changed all that. Director John Ford knew talent when he saw it, and with this film one of the greatest alliance/friendships in Hollywood history was formed--that of John Wayne and John Ford. Out of this memorable alliance several wonderful films came, but this was the first.

Shot in Utah's beautiful Monument Valley, Stagecoach follows the adventures of a group of unlikely traveling companions as they cross the stage route in an effort to stay clear of Geronimo and his band. Along the way, the group picks up the Ringo kid (Wayne), a confirmed killer. As the journey progresses, the group's true colors come forth, a young prostitute who was driven from her home (played by Claire Trevor) becomes the true heroine, and the stuck-up aristocratic woman, the banker, and the whiskey peddler are forced to learn a valuable lesson--that true inner character is far more important than social status.

The movie itself is a masterpiece, from the brilliant storyline to the climactic ending with the Ringo Kid's battle in the street. The cinematics are spectacular (especially for that time), and Ford's directing is flawless. There have been many, many Westerns since this one (a great deal of them starring John Wayne), but no Western has ever changed the face of the motion picture industry like Stagecoach did.

AWESOME!
John Wayne's first major role, "Stagecoach" is both exciting and poetic! A great addition to anyone's western film collection! Grade: A+

Only Western that I Actually Liked
We had to watch this movie in one of my college courses and I absolutely loved it. a young John Wayne does a stellar job in his role as an outlaw with a good heart and the rest of the cast is exceptional as well. Even if you don't like Westerns you will love Stagecoach.

READ MORE
1939 WAS COSIDERED THE BEST YEAR FOR MOVIES. AND HERE ARE ALL THE TOP MOVIES FOR 1939. DARK VICTORY,GONE WITH THE WIND[WHICH WON BEST PICTUE AND IS CONSIDERED ONE OF OR MAYBE THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME]GOODBYE MR.CHIPS,LOVE AFFAIR,MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINTON,NINOTCHKA,OF MICE AND MEN,THE WIZARD OF OZ,WUTHERIG HEIGHTS, AND STAGECOACH WINNER OF ACADEMY AWARDS INCLUDING BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR THOMAS MITHCELL, AND BEST SCORE NOMINATED FOR I THINK FOUR ACADEMY AWARDS INCLUDING BEST PICTURE MADE JOHN WAYNE A STAR ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF CHARCTAR AND COMICAL ANDY DEVINE. ... Read more

Reviews (40)

ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS LOOKING DVD OF THIS JOHN FORD CLASSIC
"She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" is one of those glorious westerns, luminously photographed by director, John Ford. It stars, John Wayne, as a widower living at a military outpost with the cavalry and features some of the most gorgeously photographed exteriors ever captured on film. Monument Valley becomes a place of quiet, stoic beauty and the duke never gave a more impressive performance than he does here.
My hat off to the good people at Warner Home Video. This is a truly amazing looking DVD and one that should definitely be on every film buffs wish list to own. Colors are fully saturated, well balanced and incredibly life like. Contrast levels are on pitch as are black levels. There is a hint of edge enhancement and pixelization but really - it's just a hint. Chips, scratches and imperfections inherant in the original camera negative are kept to a bare, bare minimum. The audio is mono, as originally presented, but extremely well balanced, with low to non-existant background hiss in most scenes. No extras: a shame! One craves a documentary on either the making-of this movie or John Ford himself. We get neither. Still, it's hard to fault such a near pristine looking transfer.
BOTTOM LINE: Get this one before it goes out of print!

Yellow Ribbon
This is the second and ,as many have said, best in John Ford's famed cavalry trilogy. I go further in claiming for it high status in the genre of western films, it is one of the finest. Wayne wears makeup that ages him 20 years and his acting performance transforms him into that older man Captain Nathan Brittles, soon to be retired from the U. S. Cavalry. Captain Brittles talking to his late wife at her grave ,while he waters the plants he has placed there, with Monument valley in the background is one of the more moving scenes. This and "The Searchers" are Wayne's finest acting performances.
"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" won an academy award for it's color cinematography and it was well deserved. This is one beautiful film. Ford shot many of his westerns in Monument valley, this is his definitive Monument valley western, you really see alot of the landscape and clouds and it's glorious. The special features on this dvd has a short home movie of Ford and Wayne flying down to Mexico and hanging out back in the forties.
Own this one because it's one of those rare films you can, and will want to, watch over and over.

THE SECOND LEG OF GREATNESS
SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON is the second leg of greatness in the John Ford Cavalry Trilogy. Cinematography-wise SWAYR is the jewel in the crown, it's much heralded Oscar winning celluloid images are breathtaking. All three films have their own moments of greatness, here it's John Wayne as Capt. Nathan Brittles, in make-up aging him 20 years no less "making his report" graveside to his wife and daughter; His receiving his silver watch from his troops ("Lest we forget,") and his negotiating Victor McLaglen's retirement ("A man of a thirst like that can't survive on less than a sergeant's pension!"). Of course there is the cavalry's march to their 3 theme songs: "Garry Owen", "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" and "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (a constant in the trilogy). Sterling performances across the board. SWAYR is an all time classic.

John Wayne in his element
When this film was released I was six years old, living in grey, cold, bankrupt post war Britain, a world of food and clothing rationing. Cinema was pure escapism and I thank my parents for taking me there every week. Westerns were big in those days. They had titles such as "Broken Arrow" or "Winchester 73". As my love of cinema was slowly nurtured "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" left an indelible impression on my psyche. I loved every bit of it. The odyessic story, with its lack of 'white man good' 'red indian bad' stereotyping. The sophistication of Ford's direction with its cool appreciation of America's big country. The actors - Wayne, of course, towering above all, and decades before he blotted his copybook with his embarrasing gung-ho roles, to Victor McLagen's 'Oirish' knockabout sargeant, via the under-stated work of Joanne Dru and John Agar. "Never apologise, son. It's a sign of weakness." A simply unbeatable movie.

"Lest we forget!"
Capt. Nathan Brittles (John Wayne) is near retirement and looks at it with an unsure and heavy heart. After years in the U.S. Cavalry it is all he knows and is not sure what will become of him when he leaves it. Brittles knows that the Army and life will go on, but what will his role in life be, since he lost his wife years before. This is the second and best film in the John Ford cavalry trilogy. As it Brittles is not very keen on handing over command to younger soldiers who are yet to prove themself in leading other men and in combat. For all it's worth he has little to no say about what will happen to those who take over and what will become of the indian tribe that he has worked with and delt with for so long. Victor McLaglen is a great supporter in the film as he also faces retirement and enjoys his whiskey and fights along with the other men. A story about trust and service along with changing times, it features one of Wayne's best performances. An Oscar winner for best color cinematography (Winton C. Hoch) that features Monument Valley, this is a film to see as it is a western and war film wraped into one. It is simple yet not boring and it get's to the point when needed. Grade: B+ ... Read more

Reviews (58)

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."
John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" employs the time-tested storytelling device of playing off the idealist against the realist. When done right, engaging drama is created by the pairing of two such diametrically-opposed personas. However, when you up the ante by casting Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne to play the respective idealist and realist, you not only get engaging drama, but one heck of an entertaining film.

Attorney Ransome Stoddard (Stewart) is in a stagecoach destined for the western frontier. Before he reaches his destination, he and his fellow passengers are robbed by thief Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Stoddard tells Valance that society will punish him for his crimes but quickly learns that his words have little power in his new surroundings. Upon reaching the town Shinbone, Stoddard tries to bring civilized order to the untamed town but is told by Tom Doniphon (Wayne) that the ways of the Old West will die hard. Yet, both men eventually develop a bond of mutual respect for each other despite their differences. When Liberty Valance starts to terrorize Shinbone, Stoddard finds himself forced into a showdown with the outlaw - a confrontation that will in time become a legendary part of the small town's lore.

"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" is a fascinating depiction of an important period in American history when civilization started to make its way westward. This was a time when frontier justice started to give away to written law and the local political structure started to become formalized. Ideological differences between the new and the old naturally arose and the characters of Stoddard and Doniphon embodied in microcosm the differences each side held toward each other. The manner in which Libery Valance is defeated and the way it is remembered also is an interesting commentary on how larger-than-life the heroes of the Old West became when their exploits were recalled. Stewart and Wayne are outstanding in their roles as expected and Lee Marvin and Vera Miles chip in with great supporting turns. Life in the Old West was about much more than duels in the streets and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" effectively illustrates this point.

I'm Really Not a Fan of Westerns, But............
John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" is a marvelous movie, regardless of how you feel about Westerns. This isn't a movie about outlaws, or something violent, but a study of the fight between old and new in our society. John Wayne's rugged cowboy represents the old, untamed west. Jimmy Stewart's refined and educated lawyer represents the order and civilized nature of a new west. Both clearly love the land they live on in different ways, and when the time comes to protect the people of the west from the evil Liberty Valance (played to perfection by Lee Marvin), they team up to save the day. In the end, Stewart's way of life, the way of progress, wins out. However, as can be seen by the memories the major characters have at the start of the film, the old west never really dies. The movie is just brilliant, with all the leads in top form, especially the forgotten Vera Miles as the woman both Wayne and Stewart love.

The law, or the gun

Director: John Ford
Format: Black and white
Studio: Paramount
Video Release Date: April 7, 1998

Cast:

John Wayne ... Tom Doniphon
James Stewart ... Ransom Stoddard (attorney)
Vera Miles ... Hallie Stoddard
Lee Marvin ... Liberty Valance
Edmond O'Brien ... Dutton Peabody (Editor of the Shinbone Star)
Andy Devine ... Marshal Link Appleyard
Ken Murray ... Doc Willoughby
John Carradine ... Maj. Cassius Starbuckle
Jeanette Nolan ... Nora Ericson
John Qualen ... Peter Ericson
Willis Bouchey ... Jason Tully (conductor)
Carleton Young ... Maxwell Scott
Woody Strode ... Pompey
Denver Pyle ... Amos Carruthers
Strother Martin ... Floyd
Lee Van Cleef ... Reese
Robert F. Simon ... Handy Strong
O.Z. Whitehead ... Herbert Carruthers
Paul Birch ... Mayor Winder
Joseph Hoover ... Charlie Hasbrouck (reporter for 'The Star')
Robert Donner
Larry Finley ... Bar X man
Shug Fisher ... Kaintuck (drunk)
Mario Arteaga ... Henchman
Sam Harris

Chuck Hayward ... Henchman
William Henry
Bryan 'Slim' Hightower ... Shotgun
Earle Hodgins ... Clute Dumphries
Stuart Holmes
Mike Edward Jauregui ... Drummer
Jack Kenny
Leonard Baker ... Man
Ted Mapes ... Highpockets
Montie Montana ... Politician on horseback
Bob Morgan ... Roughrider
Charles Morton ... Drummer
Jack Pennick ... Jack, Barman
Chuck Roberson ... Henchman
Buddy Roosevelt
Charles Seel ... President, election council
Slim Talbot
Charles Akins
Ralph Volkie ... Townsman
Max Wagner ... Poker game dealer
Blackie Whiteford
Jack Williams ... Henchman
Danny Borzage ... Townsman
Helen Gibson
Gertrude Astor
Anna Lee ... Mrs. Prescott (widow in stage holdup)
Jacqueline Malouf ... Lietta Appleyard
Eva Novak
Dorothy Phillips
Stephanie Pond-Smith

This movie is top heavy with some of the best stars in the business: John Wayne, James Stewart, Lee Marvin, Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Denver Pyle and a host of lesser names. A classic tale of the old West, although it is in black and white--not a flaw for some of us.

The story is about a young lawyer, Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) who comes West to practice law staright out of law school. He soon learns that in the West, the gun is more powerful than the law--although he is not willing to admit it, yet. He is robbed of all his money on the stagecoach, and discovers that almost everyone knows his robber, Liberty Valance, but no one, including the town Marshal, Link Appleyard (Andy Devine) is afraid to take on Liberty Valance. Everyone, that is, except Tom Doniphon (John Wayne), and he appears to be unwilling to get involved.

This sets up the conflict, and the story proceeds from there. This is a fine Western, entertaining, well acted (as one might expect) and well directed by John Ford, also as might be expected.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

So what's all the fuss about?
I've been searching for the "best" western, and a couple of people recommended this one. It does bring up some interesting issues, but I'm still searching.

The movie, besides being stuffed with the usual cliches of the genre and the usual shoddy production values (obviously the whole thing was shot in a studio except for the train scenes at beginning and end), is a muddle.

What exactly is the message? It seems to be that we need to murder bad guys in order to control them, and that what passes for civilization is just a lie. This would seem to support the silly interpretation of the film as an allegory for our war on terror, but that doesn't quite work either. Liberty was out in the street and easily identifiable, whereas most terrorists are in hiding or are unknown. "Taking the law into our own hands" is what Valance's thugs try to do after he's killed, and look where it gets them.

Finally, neither way of life--the old Wild West nor the new more civilized West--looks like a very desirable condition. If we can believe this film (that is, take it as a metaphor), then in the old West everyone was too cowardly to stand up and face the bad