John Ford: American Homer

I wonder if it would be fair to say that the most iconic picture of America is that of a cowboy?

This, in the sense that if we went around the world and asked an average person what comes to mind when they think of America, whether it would be the cowboy that pops in their minds first.

Mind you, there are choices that could be all equally iconic - Neil Armstrong on the Moon, the first atomic weapon with Fat Man and Little Boy, D-day Normandy landing of WWII, Statue of Liberty off NYC, JFK's ich bin ein Berliner at the height of the Cold War and many more.

The American Cowboy justly occupies the mythic imagination of what America represents.  In particular, it seems to me that the rough and tumble life on the frontier, a strong and independent image amongst open untamed vistas, herding vast herds of cattle, all contribute to this image.

John Ford - American Homer

The Hollywood Western has played a central role in crystallizing this image.  And none more than in the movies directed by master craftsman, John Ford.  There were many genres that John Ford was successful in and won several Oscars.  But in his own words, when he referred to himself and his works, he had remarked, "I am John Ford, I make Westerns.'

Robert Pippin, Professor of Philosophy at University of Chicago has labeled John Ford the American Homer for how well and consistently over several decades he has told the story of the American Cowboy.  In as much as the Greeks have the Iliad and the Odyssey, Americans have the Cowboy and John Ford Westerns.

In particular, in my view, the one scene in the movie, The Searchers, where the John Wayne Character lifts Natalie Wood is as mythically powerful as when Achilles drags Hector's corpse around on his chariot at the end of the Iliad.

Here, through just a few photographs, I hope to convey the immense scope of what John Ford has managed to capture on film - the odyssey of the American Cowboy that is firmly imprinted on the world's imagination.

Hope you enjoy this.  It would not surprise me that you might lament my having missed a favorite photograph of yours in this oeuvre.

I. In The Beginning

The first movie in color by John Ford was 'Drums Along the Mohawk' with Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert leading the way west.  However, the British Redcoats had to be turned away first to the east, before the country turned its eyes west. This 'western' is set about only a 100 miles west of Boston.

Wagons West, with Claudette Colbert looking on!

John Ford's signature is create the sense of community in quick deft strokes. The tough old granny, the iron-smith, the priest, the young lass and the brave lad all join forces to fight off the enemy - be they RedCoats, Native Americans or the wild.

He also captures visually, the American Dream as defined by James Truslow Adams, "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

There is a caveat to the above definition that John Ford picks up on as he goes through his movie career.  And it is this caveat on which this write-up will end and establish John Ford as the American Homer.

II. John Wayne makes a star entry

John Wayne was a top 10 star, or even the #1 star in the Hollywood pantheon for decades, beating out the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, Charlton Heston, Clint Eastwood and Gary Cooper.  An amazing achievement.  He got his star turn in this first 'moving talkies' picture by John Ford - Stagecoach

John Wayne makes an entry

This dialogue by the rogue banker in Stagecoach is so pertinent eight decades later today:
"Why, they're even talking now about having *bank* examiners. As if we bankers don't know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books. I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!"

Mitt Romney for President, anyone?!

III.  The Cavalry Trilogy

While the Cowboy was becoming the mythic figure, John Ford filmed the Cavalry Trilogy, lovingly portraying how the United States expanded its frontiers to the west.  Each of the three featured John Wayne.  My personal favorite is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

'I want to see the west,' creates tragedy

Fine music is featured in all of John Ford's westerns.  She Wore a Yellow Ribbon has been an army favorite for ages.  Here is the rousing rendition of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BQPwob6-fI

IV.  Law and order

Hundreds of miles away from the eastern cities of Boston and Philadelphia, as towns were being created from dust, there was need for law and order.  The most famous of all these stories is of Wyatt Earp.  Played by Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine.

Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp

The fight has come to represent a time in American history when the frontier was open range for outlaws opposed by law enforcement that was spread thin over vast territories, leaving some areas unprotected.  The gunfight at the OK corral has everything in it.  Justice, revenge, law and order and myth. All created wonderfully by John Ford and Henry Fonda.

 Here is Frankie Lane's rendition of that famous fight:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7HjPfecJiw

V. Print the legend

Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne pair up in this classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  While in the Wyatt Earp Story, the good Sheriff does his own fighting, in this story John Ford begins to add nuance and subtlety.   

The legend is born

The Jimmy Stewart character wants to establish law with no violence.  And is willing to confront the villain Liberty Valance on that basis.  But a gunshot is needed to fell the bad guy, and John Wayne provides it from the shadows unknown to anyone.  Jimmy Stewart gets the fame and John Wayne fades into obscurity.  When the Jimmy Stewart character years later shares the truth with a newspaper reporter, one of the most famous lines from a John Ford movie is uttered, "When fact becomes legend, print the legend.'

VI. Wagons West

With President Lincoln's Homestead Act, millions started hitching on their wagons and heading west.  St. Louis became the gateway to the west.  The arch in St. Louis stands as a testament to this.

Wagon Train

The Wagon Train is perhaps the most enduring image of the Frontier expansion.  Fredrick Jackson Turner firmly established the creation of the American Character through his Frontier Thesis, "American democracy was born of no theorist's dream; it was not carried in the Sarah Constant to Virginia, nor in the Mayflower to Plymouth. It came out of the American forest, and it gained new strength each time it touched a new frontier."

In the 1960s, Ward Bond, a stock character in pretty much all of the John Ford movies, westerns or otherwise played Wagon Master of the eponymous longest running television series.  When Gene Rodenberry pitched Star Trek to the Studio heads, he called it 'Wagon Train to the Stars.'

VII.  Monument Valley

Monument Valley was the favorite film shooting place for John Ford.  In fact, in his honor there is a John Ford point at monument valley.

John Ford point

When Steven Spielberg was young, he visited with John Ford.  John Ford asked Spielberg to look at three pictures and tell him was different about them even though they looked the same.  When Spielberg could not tell, John Ford said, look at where the horizon is in the picture - top, middle, or bottom - that is how you emphasize the story you want to tell.  

VIII. Cattle Drive

What is a cowboy movie without a cattle drive?  Unfortunately, one of the best cattle drive movies was not by John Ford, but by Howard Hawks in Red River.  But it did star John Wayne.  And was responsible for John Wayne being selected for the most important Western movie ever made, The Searchers.

Cattle Drive in Red River

John Ford was so impressed with Wayne's performance in Red River that he is reported to have said, "I didn’t know the big son of a bitch could act!" and cast him in The Searchers on that basis.

Frederic Remington made western scenes very famous through his paintings and John Ford studied these a lot:  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1220&bih=684&q=remington+paintings+gallery&oq=remington+pai&gs_l=img.3.2.0l5j0i5l2j0i24l3.3146.7182.0.10116.15.10.1.4.5.0.169.1000.6j3.9.0....0...1ac.1.34.img..1.14.1015.Qxb5ZGEQhIY

IX.  .... and Native American Indians

John Ford towards the end of his career felt remorse over portraying Native Americans as the 'other' in his movies.  Additionally, there were stories of many Native Americans either getting hurt or even dying during the filming of his movies.  As a penance, he made his last Western, 'Cheyenne Autumn' - which is told from the Native American point of view and the terrible treatment they were meted at Fort Robinson.

The Cheyenne Indian Chief who led a thousand mile trek back to Wyoming

The movie itself is clunky.  But the Native American point of view is well portrayed.  And the cinematography was perhaps the best of all Ford movies.  For a John Ford fan, a must watch to complete his saga and his vision of the west.  And begins to arrive at the caveat I had suggested to James Truslow Adams' definition of the American Dream.

A fully satisfying completion to this point of view was achieved decades later by Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves. 

X.  Ethan and Debbie

Why did Ethan Edwards played by John Wayne not kill Debbie Edwards played by Natalie Wood, at the end of the most magnificent of John Ford movies, The Searchers?  If there is only one western to watch, it might well be this.  And if there is only one scene to be understood, it is why Ethan does not kill Debbie.  

I will venture to say, that this explanation is key to understanding all of John Ford's epic film career of making westerns.

Ethan Rescues Debbie

In this movie, The Searchers, Ethan Edwards sets out to rescue his niece Debbie Edwards, who has been kidnapped by Comanche Native Americans and has become the wife of their chief, Scar.  This is based on a real life story.  The feelings and perspectives of the real life Debbie are very worth reading and understanding - they are not what we would assume them to be!

The caveat to the American Dream as defined by James Truslow Adams comes into full relief in the final confrontation in this movie.  Ethan Edwards intent on killing Debbie through the course of the entire movie, spares her at the end.  The entire American Odyssey has been told from the settlers point of view.  Nature, the WIld, and the Native Americans had to be tamed, for this settling to happen.  The American Dream is the settler's dream, not anyone else's.

To make this dream come true, society needed Ethan Edwards to be the enforcement arm.  However he spares Debbie as an individual decision.  But for all the deeds that had to be done for the settling to happen, Nathan was needed.  But then he is politely ignored and has to go away.  And that is why at the end of the movie, he does not enter the home, but leaves to 'forever wander between the winds.'  

Ethan was needed.  But now he needs to go away.

And so John Ford of Stagecoach and the Cavalry Trilogy fame, comes full circle to exploring the American Odyssey from the Native American point of view as well.  The scene where Ethan lifts Debbie high up in the air at the end of The Searchers is as mythically powerful as Achilles dragging Hector's dead body around behind his chariot at the end of the Trojan War in Iliad.  (There is an extended meditation on this topic in the notes section below).

And with that sweeping body of work, John Ford, the American Homer has firmly established the American Cowboy as the mythic figure representing the American character.

Notes and Readings (in addition to watching all the Ford Westerns!)

Robert Pippin:  Hollywood Westerns and the American Myth

James Truslow Adams:  Epic of America

Roger Ebert:  The Great Movies

Directed by John Ford:  Peter Bogdanovich

John Ford stock characters:

Ben Johnson, Harry Cary Jr and Ward Bond in Wagon Master

Favorite songs from westerns:

Back in the saddle again

She wore a yellow ribbon

I want to be in the Cavalry

North to Alaska

Gunfight at the OK corral

3:10 to Yuma

Good, Bad, Ugly

Ghost Rider in the Sky

Pancho and Lefty

Rawhide


A classic Frederic Remington Painting

An extended meditation on Ethan and Debbie Edwards

Why did Ethan Edwards no kill Debbie Edwards as he intended to at the end of the movie, The Searchers?

I have been mulling and reading and watching and mulling this question.  Robert Pippins book on Hollywood Westerns and the American Myth, Roger Ebert's review, Peter Bogdanovich's commentary track in the movie and a few other reflections in print, podcast and video were very helpful.

The simplest answer to why Ethan spared Debbie is that the John Wayne character is the white American, from the army, the hero of countless rescues, and has come to save his kin and take her back home.  Of course, John Wayne was going to spare Debbie's life at the end.

This perspective gets muddied up super fast!  Ethan is a defeated confederate soldier, still in uniform!  He is explicitly racist, a mercenary and covets his brother's wife.  He understands the Native American ways better than any.  And he wants to kill Debbie, and even shoots at her the first time!

So why did he spare her?

Here is the second, slightly more layered explanation.  His community has sanctioned the killing, and that is why he went about this epic journey and task.  This community desire is expressed through Laurie Jorgensen, who spews racist invective and correctly predicts that Ethan's actual mission is to kill Debbie.

He first reaches the Native American Chief Scar's tent and finds him dead.  He scalps him and comes out.  Did he experience a release having defiled his enemy?  And did that not satisfy him?  And thus caused a conversion and change of heart with regard to Debbie?

This second answer is that he got his revenge, and he is a changed man after that.

This explanation falls apart too.  The entire movie is predicated on Ethan Edwards being a racist, perhaps immoral and an Native American hater.  Debbie has been corrupted by these native ways.  That she was Scar's wife has not changed as a fact.  So the entire logic of the story does not lead to this conclusion.  And since John Ford does not do cop outs, this is not the explanation either.

So why did he spare her?

Perhaps the Kurtz and the Heart of Darkness is a plank to explore an explanation.  Ethan Edwards carries a heart of darkness.  This dark heart is evidenced by his attraction to his brother's wife, his holding on to the confederacy, his mercenary behavior in the years after the Civil War, his defacing of dead Indians, his hatred of 1/8th Indian Martin Pawley and his desire to kill Debbie.

He is also the enforcement arm of the community that is settling the west.  The entire western genre is told from the settlers point of view.  The Native Americans are part of the wild that needs to be tamed, needs to be cleared, needs to be eradicated.  It takes Ethan's hatred and Ethan's cruelty to do the necessary 'clearing.'

In that sense, John Wayne's character is a myth - i.e. he represents the entire set of actions taken at the frontier, as America expanded west.

Nathan wanted to kill Debbie, because he was supposed to kill Debbie.  This was the unstated need.

At the point of the final moment, the individual of Ethan Edwards (carrying his heart of darkness) breaks through the cultural expectations of Ethan - and his intent is not in congruence with his own society's needs.  And he expresses his individual decision to spare her (which he did not know himself until that moment when he was required to act, in close proximity of his target).

And this is the same reason for that iconic last scene of John Wayne silhouetted against the doorway and not stepping inside.  He, of the dirty deeds, is not welcome into polite society.  He is left to wander forever between the winds, as he so correctly knows of the Comanche beliefs.