Why Every Film Director Owes John Ford | Spielberg Kurosawa Fincher Tarantino Leone Scorcese Welles
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- Опубликовано: 11 окт 2024
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John Ford directly influenced Steven Spielberg, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, David Fincher, Quentin Tarantino and a thousand others.
A word about his political leanings:
"I am a liberal Democrat and a rebel. [on Native American Indians] We've treated them badly, it's a blot on our shield; we've robbed, cheated, murdered and massacred them, but they kill one white man and God, out come the troops." - John Ford (1967)
Also please watch Young Mr. Lincoln and The Sun Shines Bright to know more about his political and moral ideologies.
My favorite John Ford film is Stagecoach (1939). Every technique mentioned in this video is in that one film.
Music by Audionautix.com: audionautix.com/
Why filmmakers shouldn't care about film reviews ruclips.net/video/isveb9OsWOs/видео.html
You're way off about Tarantino having a "racist" intent. You are basing it on the fact that you are young and have been brainwashed. Everything that you see, infers "Racism" because you are programmed to. The things that you connected were not intentional . People with attitudes based on insanity like yours , really ruin the things that we all used to enjoy. You see Tarantino treating his characters as characters and NOT their racial identity, as somehow an intentional, what? a jab at black people ? Race is not a factor in his films in the way that you wish it was and are programmed to see it. You see him having Sam Jackson portray "The House Negro" and having him act what your limited brain perceives as "Bad" as an intentional casting of another Black man who is a bad guy. In reality he is showing a phenomena that is known but not many know about. How House slaves felt about their Masters and how they would die for them. This went over your head and you instead cooked up something, again based on your narrative. The Head of the Mob , who HAPPENED to be Black, WAS raped, because unlike what your brain sees, Tarantino wasn't looking at it like that . I'm really troubled by the way that you think and what you have inferred in your video. It's very untrue, but I deal with twentysomethings every day and know where it comes from.
When it turns into moralizing about how Tarantino should write his scripts it totally goes off the rails.
Yea, woke shit
@@prajwalts1530 so in other words. he was right and you are a triggered incel.
8:32 So a mother caring for her child above all else is a 'stereotype'. Got it.
Yeah whole video was great, but that part about Tarantino felt a bit.. forced.
Those parts were obviously forced and just simply untrue. Beatrix Kiddo was a "mommy" who had never seen her kid. What was she supposed to do, live happily ever after with a murdering assassin? Yeah, that would have been so good.
I agree. I normally love wolfcrow's videos and really liked this one for the most part but yeah that whole Tarantino part felt unnatural. Very cherry picked moments from some films and very precisely worded depictions of those parts of the films. I don't think he's racist and I certainly don't think his films could be used as an example to prove he's racist otherwise he wouldn't be making them today
yep, it is.
@@cgollimusic "It is impossible for Tarantino to be racist" - Samuel L Jackson
Was an interesting video until the really odd, out-of-place rant against Tarantino with bizarrely inaccurate information.
Calvin Candy *was* the antagonist of Django Unchained, not Stephen, even though Stephen was depicted as an equally or even more evil Character than Calvin, which was also a sad but true historical reality.
In fact, Sam Jackson has gone on record multiple times that he was disappointed how much Tarantino had toned down Stephen's character in editing, having cut the majority of his scenes because they made even Tarantino feel uncomfortable.
And saying Sam Jackson's characters are never morally right in Tarantino's movies is quite the hell of a statement and I guess someone wasn't paying attention to Pulp Fiction, where the inciting incident of the movie literally causes his character to have a religious awakening and go onto a path of deep self introspection throughout the movie that ultimately leads to him retiring from a life of crime.
Pulp Fiction, btw, took place at a time where NO ONE was hiring black actors to be protagonists of mainstream movies, especially relatively unknown actors which Sam was at the time of Pulp Fiction's filming.
Also being upset that the strong, female protagonist kills a guy named Bill in the end of a movie called "Kill Bill" is quite a take.
As to his depictions of Asian stereotypes, you have to remember Tarantino is a massive Hong Kong cinefile. He's a life long collector of eastern film and music, and very often invokes their work in his films. Kill Bill itself was practically a love letter to that genre of dated film making.
And Bruce Lee in Once Upon in Hollywood was just acting like Bruce Lee in my opinion.. there were real times in Bruce's career, at his peak, that he actually behaved like that. I don't see anything racist about that depiction at all.
It's disappointing such an otherwise well written analysis of an intriguing topic is muddied by baseless accusations against another revolutionary director stemmed from the personal opinion and feelings of the narrator.
Well said. Many things about this video bothered me.
There's a film John Ford made called "The Prisoner of Shark Island". It's *lengthy* condescending, racist portrayal of black Americans is what I always cite as the worst I've ever seen, as far as "problematic representation in Golden Age Hollywood".
I've seen a lot of Golden Age films. I've never seen anything as jaw-dropping as "The Prisoner of Shark Island". No one should ever use John Ford as their example of racial equality in American cinema, he's not that guy.
As a black fan of Tarantino, I praise his depiction of characters how he sees fit, that's what an artist does, he's not supposed to be "politically correct".
Interviewer: how did you shoot that
John Ford: with a camera.
He is now the biggest legend on planet earth
Oh John, you grumpy genius
I wish people talk more about him. Today only I learned how big of a influence he has on other filims.
Fun fact: Orson Welles watched "Stagecoach" dozens of times while making "Citizen Kane"
Welles commented that Ford was where the cliches began. Note in Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) where a character peering out of the fort says it quiet, too quiet, out there.
there's the innovators then there's the ones that popularize the innovators work
Fun fact: Orson Welles ballooned up to the size of an actual Stagecoach later in life.
@@Valkonnenhe was also the greatest director in all of cinema you fucking idiot
@JJ KK john ford won the best picture and best director against citizen kane, do I need to say more?
John Ford influenced Star Wars, Breaking Bad, Taxi Driver, Paris Texas, Lawrence of Arabia, and so much more. Truly a legend.
Breaking Bad! Really? how so
TAXI DRIVER?
@@surajjha6255 Ethan Edwards is an direct influence on Travis Bickle, my friend, and Scorcese himself who'd say it.
@@davetheman2615 breaking bad is basically a western
@@fernandomaron87 i thought the main influence on Travis Bickle was Arthur Bremer.
8:09 'You see, Quentin, you may have spent twelve straight years of your life writing and directing movies about women kicking men's asses six ways till Sunday, but one of those women was a mother who cared a lot about her child and slew her mortal enemy merely by causing his heart to explode inside his body. So I gotta dock you some MAJOR points there.'
Lol I know wtf was that
Tarantino's movies are often about karmic revenge, I don't see how Bill's death is any less deserved than Buck's death.
12 years of women being raped, abused, spat on, killed, and whipped. The man is disgusting.
And she doesn't just "crumble" when she finally confronts Bill, he freaking shoots her with a freaking neurotoxin and stops her right there... Then she kills him.
You see, this is what we call forced moral judgement, kids!
😂❤
8:19 Uhm......... 'the deadliest blow in all of martial arts' is a 'death he doesn't deserve'?
wolfcrow too caught up in identity politics to understand.
i think he meant he didnt deserve it because it was in Bill's eyes an honorable way to go, and it was their teachers move so it held some gravitas
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is monumentally underrated. Easily one of Ford's best, if not his very best.
@Randy White, it's not even widely considered these days. People are too busy wanking off to Chris Nolan's latest farcical attempts at moviemaking.
@Randy White, I'm not disputing its standing with scholars, but with regular people. Walk down the street and ask everyone you pass if they even heard of it. You will be out quite a long time, so bring snacks.
It’s not underrated at all.
His very best is The Searchers, and Duke Wayne's finest performance.
It’s an amazing, touching, heartfelt film.
those Tarantino comparisons were senseless to me. I’ve watched hundreds of westerns and literally the majority have similar shots
A funny comparison is the Danny as a greaser reveal in Grease and how QT emulated it for Calvin Candy in DU, same snap zoom turn over the shoulder cigarette smile and everything lol
Tarantino is a shameless plagiarist.
There is nt single original idea or scene in his movies. All are stolen from other movies.
The man is so shameless he plagiarize a whole HK movie, scen by scene, and called it his own creation.
@@parapoliticos52 And yet, filtered through QT's mind by some sort of alchemy, Reservoir Dogs is regarded by many as a superior film to 'City on Fire' -- a quality flick in its own right -- or at least is easily distinguishable from it (for Dogs he also borrows liberally from 'The Killing' and 'Kansas City Confidential'). The ability of QT to transcend the sources he draws from is the defining characteristic of his craft, one that neutralises the dusty argument that he is nothing but a pale imitator.
Funnily enough, I consider Tarantino's plundering to be one of the most unique pleasures his films offer to the cinephile. He knows where he got this idea, that costume, this shot etc. from, and he hopes you do too. He is not hiding his references like so many lesser filmmakers. Knowledge of the margins of film history enhances the meta aspect of his stories, which is why he cross references his own films as well.
But I know that for some this will never be enough to justify his remix/pastiche style, and that's ok. I don't care for every movie he's made either. But he is a living legend in the biz, like him or not.
The Searchers: an older veteran of campaigns takes a young man under his wing to rescue a girl kidnapped into slavery. Django: a seasoned campaigner takes young man under his wing to rescue a woman enslaved by a villain. In both movies, the two protagonists are welcomed into the villains home and shown trophies. In both movies the older protagonist kills the villain.
@@riverottermcqueen2079 And? Who cares. There's nothing new under the sun. We don't give points to originality. We only give points to execution.
8:36 Thousand-year-old kung-fu master hermits and ruthless mob bosses aren't stereotypes; they're archetypes.
8:55 I think you'll recall 'Pulp Fiction"s largest black role by far is Jules, and the Gold Watch section of the film was written by Roger Avary anyway, not Quentin.
Exactly. And Jules is the only character in the film who even considers the idea of doing something morally right at any point. Also right after Pulp Fiction Tarantino made Jackie Brown. And before somebody tries to to throw the “well that’s based on a book” thing, Jackie is white in the book. And Tarantino has said that when he read the book and tried to imagine a strong, independent and resilient woman the first image that popped into his head was Pam Grier.
Jules is also the most morally just after Bruce Willis's character, idk what bro was on about
It doesn’t add up that someone intelligent enough to make this video would say something so rash and disprovable.
I really feel like he must’ve been taught to think that by some film professor who was otherwise solid at their job. Just really out of left field there. So easily disprovable lol.
@@tommunist10 it adds up when there’s malice behind it
8:23 Uhm, because she doesn't know where he is, because she needs to go to Okinawa to get a sword from Hanzo first (and get information from Sofie on where the other Squad members are), and because a movie protagonist can't kill the main villain first.
Dude really liked your comments, he is like one of my most favourite Director.
+, and also she doesn't even know her kid is ALIVE?!
8:39 Not hearing a peep about 'Jackie Brown', 'Death Proof' or 'Inglourious Basterds' anywhere in here.
"Jackie Brown" is the last adult film that T made. It bombed and he's been making live action cartoons ever since
Bruh why are you trying to prove by commenting second for second on a RUclips video? Do you have nothing better to do with your time if you're the smartest man in the comment section?
@@pjmaas4287 If this person doesn't speak up, someone else will. Or will we all accept wolfcrow's opinions about Quentin Tarantino to be correct?
Many of the things wolfcrow said about Quentin are debatable. And Brian set out to debate.
@@thegrayyernaut I'm all for a debate and I understand how what I said might have been vague. What I meant to say was that based on the volume of comments he made on a RUclips video, I cannot imagine that anyone takes him seriously as I find it preposterous to waste that much time analyzing and breaking down works of content creators.
But here I am so good luck with your debate 🔥I'm out 😂
@@thegrayyernaut Also, I am perpetually busy breaking down videos of stuff I can apply to my individual circumstance, I definitely don't leave second for second breakdowns on the ones I feel are trash.
8:30 love your in-depth analysis, but the SJW style of interpreting everything as some sort of negative stereotype was difficult to sit through.
at least it was brief...
yea, stop telling us the truth, i'm here for the cowboys!
I don't know if this is true but I read a story in a book about how Spielberg once met John Ford himself who tested the kid (Spielberg) by asking him where the horizon on a painting was. When Spielberg answered, Ford was apparently satisfied and told him that if he remembered the appropriate placement for the horizon in the frame, Spielberg would make a good filmmaker. Guess Spielberg remembered that, if true.
You can actually find a RUclips video in which Spielberg himself relates that story.
That's true, Spielberg says it on the documentary 'Directed by John Ford' his account of this meeting is hilarious.
He depicted that event in "The Fabelmans", casting David Lynch as John Ford.
you should go see the fabelmans
Spielberg has talked about that in interviews and it’s in his latest film courtesy of David Lynch
What about Satyajit Ray? His work was hugely influential to many acclaimed directors like Scorsese and Wes Anderson
Yes, but if we're talking about the one western (western world, not the genre, though that too I guess) director that had the most impact on other directors in the western world more than anyone, it's Ford. Ray had a huge impact as well, but none loom as large as Ford.
The only things satyajit ray doesn't have is wide range of audience.... Look inside india 90% of us haven't seen his work and people rarely talk about it
@@sameerahmed-gx8js Wow that's sad. But then, the great majority of "young" westerners have no idea who John Ford is nowadays. I'm a film student and even my fellow classmates have no clue, but everyone knows Quentin Tarantino.
Ray was influenced by De Sica
This video happens to not be about Satyajit Ray
I agree that the way QT portrays violence is questionable cause he makes it look fun, but your comparison with JF doesn't make any sense, nothing looks similar. His dialogs may not have anything to do with the situation but they certanly are full of subtext, they tell you how characters think and their moral convictions. I think Bill's death is awsome and well deserved, and there would not be a movie if she kills him at the beginning. They use their own child as a shield, that doesn't makes QT a bad person, that makes antagonists evil. Jules decides to quit the thug life and lives on, Vincent doesn't, he gets killed. I don't see how Tarantino could be portraying diferent cultures in a negative way, he loves cinema from so many diferent places so he pays homage and haves fun with the material, he has good and bad guys in all different colors killing and getting killed.
I think it was more the plots in The Searchers v the plot in Dangjo. An old timer and a young pup trying to rescue a young woman enslaved by a villain
@@riverottermcqueen2079 haha youre right, I got carried away
Kill bill was a mindless boring story only ppl with low iq enjoyed
Also, QT has JF pacing in all his films. He, like Ford, lets scenes breathe. It's actually my favourite part of Tarantino's work (and I know plenty of people hate it), not the violence or profanity.
Of course, correlation is not causation but Tarantino does lean a fair bit in Ford's direction, regardless of how he feels about "the old man" of Hollywood.
@@riverottermcqueen2079 The video made no mention of plots, just techniques.
The most influential directors were John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock who both started in the silent era followed closely by Orson Wells. Their influence is seen in the likes of Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Stanley Kubrick and Sergio Leone. Later, we have the trio who became famous and influential since the 1970s: Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
Most of John Fords film are incredibly dated except Grapes of Wrath and Stagecoach and maybe The Searchers
@@kdizzle901 “The Quiet American” from 1952 is a delightful John Ford movie with great directing, acting and cinematography of Ireland. It’s my favorite John Ford which I’ve watched a good half a dozen times. Great cast including locals.
@@kdizzle901 I agree but The Searchers is still a masterpiece imo. Lots of his other movies fell victim to the teeth of time.
"People just stare at each other and wait until the music stops to shoot eachother." I had to laugh because you're right
Great video as usual but I don't agree that Tarantino is a racist, or at least that those excerpts from his films can be used to prove he's a racist.
Pulp Fiction; I can't remember whether the owner of the shop (Ving Rhames' character went to) was racist or not but maybe the message in Ving's character being saved was that they should work together to move forward? Or that there are bigger problems in the world (racism, the shop owner could represent that problem) that Bruce and Ving's characters should be aware of rather than their own problem in the film.
As for Django, I really don't think Stephen is an example of Tarantino being racist. There are many interpretations, perhaps Calvin did something to Stephen to make him see his twisted world view, or perhaps Stephen just defended Calvin in his own self interest for survival and chose not to worry about Django or the other slaves' lives. There are lots of possible reasons and interpretations for why Stephen defends Calvin but if Tarantino was simply saying something racist in that casting and character choice, he would not be making films or doing much else today.
Honestly, what wolf crow asserts its just patently stupid and lacks any sort of historical understanding.
I totally agree. The video misses the mark with its Tarantino criticism. The character of Stephen was a representation of a slave who didn't believe he was a slave. He just believed that was the way the world was, and he was in his rightful place. And to have a black character be a bigger villain than a white one is not racist either.
Loved the factual part of the analysis, but someone is obviously trying to cash in on the current awful state of affairs with a tasteless and cheap 'pop-shot' sort of bashing with cherry-picked examples. Jackie Brown is arguably his best movie, along with Django, and inglorious. And as you said, John Ford attempted to correct himself at the end of his career, so we'll just act like he didn't at least address his mistakes? As i said, someone is obviously just attempting minutely take advantage of the times.
Spoelberg heath@ r o rourke
@@daniel-zh4qc Awww, Tarrantino simps feel hurt?
Jackie Brown is definitely not arguably his best movie.
@@SnailHatan If someone says they think it's his best, I'd say it's an interesting choice. The more I reflect on "Jackie Brown", the more I appreciate it.
Hard to quantify sometimes what's a filmmaker's "best" film, in my opinion. I _usually_ stick with what's my "favorite".
"Jackie Brown" would be high up in my picks for my favorite of Tarantino's films.
I think the greatest achievement of the great ford is the flow of his movies the way of the seamless camera movement like it was not there like an eye that just follows the characters in the story, he is not saying look at me I'm great director he is just saying look at these people and feel for them.
One essential aspect of John Ford's filmmaking is he started out in silent movies, as did Ozu (and many others). In almost every Ford film there are long silent reaction shots of just people, sometimes the principals, sometimes 'the old folks' or just 'passersby.' All the shots here from The Grapes of Wrath are exactly this. There's a Swedish TV series where a group of wives kill their husbands. Visual enough to make it interesting. The Finns did a remake and they do what seems to happen so often in current Finnish filmmaking, everybody just stands around and talks (a lot.) A lot of really smart creative people in Finland, but their filmmakers seem to have missed some important lessons. In the movie Junebug a woman is seen across the street, she's a bit heavy set and ordinary but the camera just stays on her as she walks into her house. It's just one of the reasons this is such a great movie. By holding on her the film conveys to us deep respect for her. Powerful and very much something Ford would do.
So you can watch a John Ford movie without the sound and understand what's happening. Sergio Leone is often, but not always, as good or better at this. (Be regrettable if a follower of Ford didn't take it a bit farther.) This is a sign of good filmmaking, but not necessarily great filmmaking. Kurosawa saying, "I studied John Ford:" Don't forget what Orson Welles and Greg Toland did before making Citizen Kane, they watched Stagecoach 42 times. (A friend tried this with Anonioni's Blow-up but never really got anywhere.)
When I was young I worked on a low budget (bomb) that John Carradine was in. He had terrible arthritis in his fingers and hands so we'd like his Camel cigarettes for him. Of course we asked him about Stagecoach, and he said what he's always said, "It was just another Western gambler role for me. Had I any idea that movie would be as important as it's become I would've paid more attention, written something down." Another aspect of Ford, use and very much the overuse of archetypes. But all those archetypes in and driving that stagecoach? They're just background for John Wayne's the Ringo Kid meeting, seeing the decency in, Clare Trevor's Dallas.
The moralizing talk in Ford's films get a bit tedious. With Tarantino -- and Seinfeld -- they start at the tedious and then play the funny bits. My Boomer generation might claim to have invented this, and we might get away with it -- so long as you don't go back to1761!! and Laurence Stern's Tristram Shandy.
The Fincher variation of the Ford dialogue, scenery, action scene repeat has a simple essential purpose: keep your audience interested, don't bore them. (Ever been back on the tour bus at an amazing place? Everybody is increasingly bored and anxious until the bus starts moving - away from the spectacular place and toward just another piece of road...)
Here's a tip to young filmmakers. Sure it's great to learn from the giants, but make experimental movies too. (And I don't mean Stan Brakage. Hours I'll never get back...) instead try to convey an emotion or information without using language you've already learned and seen on TV. I did this a couple times in the 1970s and think I did pretty good for college level. I had a whole slew of ideas I thought were good. Here's what happened next. First, I didn't cut it in the movie business, then every one of those ideas turned up in M TV videos in its first year. Even to the point I wondered at least once, 'did these people copy me?' Nope. Those were just some of the ideas that were in the air for my generation. What happened over the next two years is these ideas (plus many many more) were developed and made much much better. That's where you want to aim for. Just get started so you're working when you're at the 4th or 8th iteration of your ideas and what you've learned. This is also a formula for becoming Steven Spielberg, Kurosawa, Leone, etc...
Highly recommend the biography "Print the Legened." Ford was a heavily private soul who desperately wanted to fit in with the "cool kids" he even points out the real him is only expressed in film. He also was a huge advocate for hiring minorities of all kind. A few specific examples: he constantly hired African-Americans for set work and below the line job. He also worked with regularly a gay set designer who was not necessarily open, but was necessarily closeted either. He was a man who said never enough but somehow said too much, and he let his actions speak for him. Master filmmaker.
These classic directors still inspire me today: Spielberg, Kurosawa, Fincher, and Kaza, Buñuel (not mentioned). Interesting analysis on Ford's style. I should study more of his work 👍
Samuel's characters in Tarantino movies is akways the smartest one. What about great women characters in Jackie Brown, Death Proof & Inglorious Basterds.
Don't even dignify this idiots opinion with excuses for something the guy is not guilty of. He admits that since Tarantino said that he disliked Ford, he has a vendetta against him.
My favorite Ford film is My Darling Clementine. Victor Mature's performance, Joe MacDonald's indoor & outdoor camerawork, the concentration of time. "No, I've been a bartender all my life."
mine too
John Ford was unique. He used to keep the camera fixed on the scene (with only a few small movements when absolutely necessary). The movement was given by the actors (horses, indians, stagecoaches, etc.) who moved in and out of the shot. Unequaled great director.
A video about my favorite Director? And one that satisfies at that. Good job man.
Brilliant video, but I don’t think it was the right place for the Tarantino-bashing. When you squeeze that gnarly a subject into a mostly unrelated video essay, the limited time short-changes whatever nuance your arguments may have had.
There are many holes and oversimplifications in your logic people will take issue with (as you’re currently finding out) that could’ve been addressed in a dedicated video. It’d be worth exploring, as I believe the question of Tarantino’s cultural and socio-political sensitivity is an interesting one, even as I disagree with your conclusions on it.
no, he was spot-on. Ford was Catholic. Tarentino apparently atheistic.
Sam Jackson is never morally right in Pulp Fiction?
His ENTIRE storyline is about pursuing the righteous path and forsaking his old way after he "witnesses a miracle". Smh
That's only after he was almost killed. For the rest of the film he was just an asshole like everyone else.
He just killed ppl. Jackson character should be on death row.
@@karlkarlos3545 yeah but why does this dude single him out if everyone else was an a'hole as well. I followed the video and thought it was very interesting but the insinuations that Tarantino is racist were kinda misplaced.
@@michiel1162 There is no reason to believe he is a racist. I think it was a silly reaction to Tarantino accusing Ford of being a racist (which I also disagree with).
8:40 Except about 80% of the time in his 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Hateful Eight' characters. And a ratio like that is damn rare in Quentin's work.
the video is nice, but the part about tarantino, oh boy, it's not even worth the time to correct you, so many absurds were said, that I honestly couldn't believe it. Nice to see that in the comments people know better, and are simply ignoring that...
Wow, you really showed him, what with all those facts and logic. Brilliant.
I liked his take on it. I’ll try looking out for it and see
He is right about Tarantino
Noting the kindness and sweetness of Ford is something people don't do enough.
Thank you for both your channel and recognizing the work of one of the true artists of film. He is both, one of the greatest and most innovative directors and one of my favorites, personally.
You're welcome!
You have to willfully ignore a lot of Ford films to push the idea that he marginalized female characters. But no director is obligated to do anything- if Ford’s films were all male characters all the time that would be perfectly valid.
Hilarious opening response by John Ford! Thanks for that, Sareesh. Otherwise very enjoyable and it ends well with your reflections on the quality of Ford's characters that sets his films apart. Thank heaven for that.
I spent a great deal of my life in the film/tv industry and I can tell you that one essential trait of success in the Industry is the love of, study of, acknowledgement of the work of those who came before. Steven Spielberg was my brother's roommate in college for a year and so I know that he was obsessed with the study of film and film history. No matter how talented one is, one must learn from those who came before one in order to create one's own style and work.
Wolfcrow, you need to be teaching cinema in universities. Thank you for sharing your insights with the world. But perhaps better than a university you have found the best platform here.
"...I'll be there." is all that needs saying. Thank you for driving that point home.
Your virtue has been noted....now bore off.
feel not enough people respect John Ford. He is one of the greats.
I enjoy Tarantino's films and have great respect for his directorial work. But he had it coming.
For those of you who want some perspective, Tarantino doesn't like Ford very much: thenewbev.com/blog/2019/03/ulzanas-raid/
Here's a quote from 2012: "One of my American Western heroes is not John Ford, obviously. To say the least, I hate him. Forget about faceless Indians he killed like zombies. It really is people like that that kept alive this idea of Anglo-Saxon humanity compared to everybody else’s humanity - and the idea that that’s hogwash is a very new idea in relative terms."
You can google 'Tarantino John Ford' for older comments, etc. I just used his (Tarantino's) own yardstick to measure Tarantino. It might come as a shocker, but John Ford isn't the person Tarantino makes him out to be. Even during the shitty times Ford made films in, he found a way to make his characters moralize about humanity in general. Watch Young Mr. Lincoln and The Sun Shines Bright for amazing humanitarian work that truly shows Ford is not the racist Tarantino makes him out to be.
Tarantino, on the other hand, hasn't made a film about anything that's actually useful to humanity. That's cool, entertainment is what it is. But when Tarantino the moralizer opens his mouth about morals...
I don't want to waste my time or yours arguing about the details. I leave everyone here with enough juice to form their own opinions.
And this thing about humanity lacking in Tarantino movies is untrue. Objectively very untrue and really idk how you get to that point subjectively. If we look at his characters objectively, for fact, what happens, action/reaction, beat by beat, conflict and choices made we can find their humanity. When were given the flashback in Django, we glimpse reality in the face of fiction, Kerry Washington and Jamie Foxx being caught for running away, Kerry being whipped, Jamie pleading. We glimpse this also when the German and Django talk by the campfire in the morning, and we flashback to him getting branded and broomhilda getting branded. This is reality in cinema, and for me humanity. We understand from that point on, exactly why Django MUST blow the head off of every racist he comes across. No, were not going to get a scene where Django runs though the legal system and gets his justice there and where it ends in happy tears and we see very blatantly who's good and who's bad and Django took the moral Christian way of fighting without violence. Instead we get the better version, where these racists are handed their asses as should be. I have no sympathy for a racist and when one or a bunch or all of them die on screen, I laugh and take joy in it as Shoshanna does in Inglorious basterds. No were not going to get pacifist characters from Tarantino, and this is not Marvel so theres going to be blood, and also Tarantino has a style. But to say theres no humanity? Theres no humanity in these characters? Who wouldn't be as heartbroken as The Bride--her love for her child and husband and friends, we can feel that through her course on revenge. Who wouldn't want justice for Django or any of the slaves in that movie? Or In history. I want to see every racist handed his ass and I don't care how because hes a racist. Humanity has nothing to do with the choices we make at the end of the day, humanity has everything to do with why we make those choices. Understanding why instead of taking just the very blatant surface material is what needs to be seen.
I dont care how many humanitarian films John Ford made, throughout his career, he has weaved racist bs in his movies. Now can we learn from him? Sure. Can we take from D.W. Griffith too? Of course. They made cinematic history, you cant be a film major without having heard these names anyways. So you learn their technical craft but that's it. Theres no love for John Ford, as Tarantino says, "To say the least, I hate him."
It's not about you saying how John Ford influenced Cinema, which is fully agreeable. But about the sexist and slightly racist accusations you sarcastically threw in, where you also at one point give Ford a pass for his racist and sexist portrayals in films because of the time he was in. But yet accuse tarantino, who is at every black protest there is out there. There is no excuse for John Ford a man who was one of the most powerful men in cinema. That's what I'm trying to point out. Now are his films amazing? Yes, still there are no excuses there. I'm not a tarantino fan boy by the way. I like some of his films and don't like some of his others. All I can point out is that those sarcastic remarks u did about him, especially at a time like this are not fair.
Pulp Fiction is about redemption, and the foibles that come with it. In each of the three intertwined stories, every main character’s primary action is to save someone else in a way that runs counter to their amoral character - and this puts them in a place of unfamiliar moral potential. They then exercise (or don’t exercise) that potential, and reap the benefits and consequences of their action or inaction. Notice the Black character is the one who acts positively on it in the strongest way.
I suspect you may have an absolute view of morality, and value sincerity and transparency above all in its cinematic representation. I can empathize. But cinematic morals, as with real-life morals, are best expressed through action, not dialogue - and this translates to story structure. I’d argue Tarantino’s moralistic story structure is more nuanced than almost anyone else’s, precisely because he embraces the contradictions morality poses in extreme situations. The overall truths he finds are hidden in the mechanism of the narrative itself - where the strength of that mechanism is what validates them. Those truths are not superficially parroted in his characters’ dialogue, which any screenwriter can easily do. With Tarantino, characters are characters, not mouthpieces.
And yes, Tarantino’s kind of character nuance is also extended to minorities. He is not going to give us (literal) black and white heroes, where the minorities easily check the boxes of #empowerment. He’s going to give us powder kegs of unexpected flaws, virtues, and vulnerabilities - and the genius behind them is that, in spite of endless contradictions, almost all of them still adhere to character logic.
He does this under the disguise of entertainment. The fact that you’re taking it at face value leads me to believe you’d benefit from a deeper look at his work.
Fanboys are annoying.
John Ford is the best director of all time
Otto Preminger also had long takes and complex camera moves with blocking. He once said he used long takes so that executives couldn't easily re-edit his work.
I just thank you for mentioning Preminger in a RUclips comment at all, lol...There's a lot of people online who think they're "film scholars" because they've seen all of Nolan's films and they know who Kubrick was.
But mention Preminger and their eyes glaze over.
I'm reading Foster Hirch's biography of him. Highly recommend it if you haven't read it.
Great video. Thx. Provokes one to want to research further. Please dont stop saying what you think. It's what makes the channel interesting.
Somehow I can’t hear John Ford without thinking of David Lynch playing him.
I can only imagine how much work you put into these videos. You deserve more subscribers. Thank you, you are awesome.
Just spent part of this afternoon watching the greatest western ever made The Searchers. Every time I watch it I find something new in it.
@wolfcrow Great that you really watched, understand John Ford's influence on All Directors. Now you need a Sequel, focus on Orson Welles: Why Every Film Director Owes Orson Welles...A Triple Threat: Masterpieces in Radio, Theater/Stage, & FILM....
Man, I am loving those videos. I feel you really are stepping up peoples eyes, recognition, appreciation for cinema by teaching the sublte art. Keep up the good work. Truly amazing and fun to watch. Thank you.
Some people view Tarantino's dialogue as fluff or meaningless ie Pulp Fiction's dialogue but they miss the point and the connections to the plot and character
I see a relationship between Lawrence of Arabia and Ford's 1924 film Iron Horse.
All you need to know is that it's boring if the horizon is in the middle.
What a delight to learn that one of my favorite films, Stagecoach, helped inspire another favorite, Seven Samurai. Thank you for putting together this fascinating compendium of John Ford's enduring influence on cinema.
Great video, very well made, and easiest subscribe click I've made in a while!
So glad to learn about John Ford and his cinematic technique. Will make a point of watching his important works.
Great work! .. So glad i found your channel!
great video essay to watch after seeing the fableman’s! what’s the film you selected end at the end? this line reminds me of adrian brody’s in the thin red line.
Love your insights brother! Really learned a lot of filmmaking stuff I was able to incorporate in my tutorials :)
Ford's last movie, 7 Women, is one of his best movies and one of the most important feminist movies ever made, yes, I've said FEMINIST because it's true.
Tarantino on the other hand, well... his great weakness is that his movies almost have any moral or critical content, that's why you can find in them a portrait of a strong woman that for no reason becomes a sexist portrait.
That's why Ford is who he is, it's not only that he perfected cinema language to its highest peaks, he did it being meaningful and relevant still to this very day
John Ford best director in my opinion his filming style was awesome amazing especially westerns in that time. The 3D and closeups scenes Amazing
Lol I’m not a Tarantino fanboy, I find him overrated but that side by side has pretty much nothing in common....
I distinctly remember on the audio commentary for From Dusk Till Dawn, that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have a conversation about John Ford and doorways.
I read through most of the comments. The latter ones were quite critical of Wolfcrow. I thought he did a very good job in his analysis of directors. I compliment you(Wolfcrow) on a job well done. For the critics, they should try to put together a RUclips video. It is work and it takes time. I am glad you took the time to do it. Thanks!
Umm, the people who are critical of what this guy presented have valid opinions. And they are not the ones who Chose to be the presenter. Wolfcrow did.
When you create fire for light, you also get heat.
@@charlie-obrien Well said, yeah. When you publilcy make a video accusing filmmakers of alleged "racism" with supporting arguments that are subpar, you gotta expect push back.
Especially if the filmmaker you hold up as an example of racial equality is John Ford, of all people.
The problematic representation in some of Ford's films gets pretty bad. I find this video venerating him to be mind-boggling.
A lot of butthurt folks in the comment section, I enjoy John Ford and have watched a handful of QT movies, I appreciate your perspective and the thoughts you bring to the table. Definitely should assess our own individual morality before trash talking others, is my take away (on the moral side). I love Stagecoach, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Will definitely check out more of his work!
Very interesting video essay. Much thanks. I disagree somewhat with your takes on Kurosawa and Ford. Kurosawa has a number of great films about regular people, including "Ikiru," the ultimate film about the heroism of an ordinary man. And in 1960's "Sgt Rutledge," Ford tried to present non-white characters in a favorable light.
WITH FOUR OSCARS, HE IS THE DIRECTOR WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF OSCARS.
#johnford #stagecoach
WTF with those Tarantino remarks? Came outta nowehere and had nothing to do with the video. Is it trendy to throw hate on QT now, did I miss something?
Completely agree. They're so shallow and baseless.
Some of the greatest black characters in the history of cinema were produced by him.
Not only that, but QT was at Black Lives Matter protests all the way back before the release of The Hateful Eight. With his involvement resulted in a boycott of the movie -- but he didn't care and continued to support the cause.
That whole section of the video is so poor, in my opinion.
Perhaps the Tarantino effect comes from simply watching every single movie at the rental house to pay tribute to the greatest scene of each piece, perhaps Orson Welles, etc al felt this way about John Ford. Barry Lyndon compositions with lockdowns and movement matching movement ala Ford or Fincher is a fantastic through line to this video. Grateful to have this perspective as great art and story is like a tree with one central theme coming from the trunk.
QT was stealing
@@badazzfeliciano lol...ah, I see. So you're just putting up glib, baseless condemnations of Tarantino all over the place.
Just curious.. Are you from Kerala?
Great Analysis. I like this RUclips channel.
The fade to black effect was criticized in John Carpenter's The Thing ironically but when I watched it, it caught me off guar and actually made the next scene very tense and suspenseful. Fade to black works but not so much with Modern cinema in my opinion due to the quality of cameras and the digital editing style and the texturing of the picture. Its a technique that should be used maybe once or twice in a film. Sometimes, it can work effectively to highlight the end of an act of a film and the beginning of a new one.
I had the honor of training as a script supervisor by John Fords script supervisor Robert Gary. He was in his late 80's when I trained under him. He had some wonderful stories about Ford.
I am curious if you ever studied who Ford may have been influenced by.
I know that when Ford was at Fox studios he was blown away by F.W. Murnau, who was there making SUNRISE.
8:50 How could could Stephen conceivably be considered worse - or even nearly as contemptible - than Calvin Candie?
Stephen was smarter than Calvin, but rather than use his intelligence to educate him in compassion, he leveraged the man's ignorance to better his own situation at the expense of people like him.
Thanks so much for this! I always get so much insight out of your content. I’m an Indigenous person in Canada and we are still dealing with the legacy of ‘our’ portrayal in western films. I both love and hate them! Fantastic films but often times so problematic.
Note the nobility of Cochise and the righteousness of his cause in Ford's Fort Apache.
they are and were all great in their own way. now i need to go find these movies and watch them again.
Probably my favorite director.
Sincerely a director.
Am so so glad youhave posted this to draw current viewers to the richness of John Ford...so much crap out there now. John Ford (and his brother) began in silent film. Storey, narrative, composition and light, contrast, conflict, humor, action and the inherent dignity of people. 150 films, Wow!
There were a lot of things in this video I disagree with, one of the more possibly nitpicky (?) ones is the video-maker inferring that Ford's large filmography is more notable than it actually....is.
No argument, 150 films is a lot. Obviously. But I don't like how the video implies that it's _exceptional_ ...because at least within the era that Ford was working, he was hardly the only one cranking out films at a high rate.
For instance, Ford's contemporary Michael Curtiz directed roughly 180 films.
Allan Dwan directed 125.
William Wellman directed 77.
Lloyd Bacon directed 130.
Robert Z. Leonard directed 162.
Again, it's an achievement. But within the context of studio-era American cinema, Ford's filmography is not jaw-dropping. This video trades in way too much in myth-making for my taste.
Awesome! Well I learned about John Ford's influence on Sergio Leone from John Carpenter's comment track on the Once...in the West DVD. I think there is even more to the carefully crafted cinematography. It's very likely the way our brain perceives reality and stores memory. Thanks for taking the time making this!
And what do you know, with Kind Characters, comes Great Characters from John Ford
Great vid, from a technical point of view, on directing, the cinematographers eye and how to tell a great story through the application of innovation and minimalist choices.
I take your point regarding the moral implications of the content of the individuals mentioned here, but I don't really come here for all that. I just want to learn to be a better filmmaker and understand how to get what is in my head onto the screen. And for that you do a wonderful job challenging me to think differently, study more and provide inspirational content that grows my confidence and self belief and for all of that I thank you.
I think one of the differences between classic and modern directors is the way they shoot dialogue scene. Modern director prefer to use shot/reaction shot frequently. On the other hand classic director use wide shot/long take and let the actors move around the character the director want to focus on.
Excellent video. Thanks!
Ingmar Bergman once said that Ford was the best director of the world.
Looking forward to seeing some epic masterpieces soon to be directed by the many cinematic experts here.
Looking forward to any films you may have.
"Where's your art?" is the laziest, most pointless and most butt-hurt attempt at deflection someone can make. It's not an argument and people don't need to be artists to be good critics. Usually a symptom of deep insecurity.
The section on Kill Bill and how it "adapts the bad aspects" doesn't make any sense. She "caves like a puppy" because despite the atrocity Bill committed they once had a deep connection and after seeing him act caring in front of her daughter that she didn't even know was alive her emotions were definitely colliding. And what do you mean why didn't she go for him first? You realise that it wasn't just bill who was involved. They all fucking went in and shot everyone! That's why she goes for all of them. Also from a certain perspective yeah maybe the whole concept of children make them "mommy soft" as you called it can be an outdated example of representation of women in film but the fact that part of her tragedy was the fact that she thought she lost her own child when she was pregnant kinda invalidates that stereotype as it's a very valid reason for that aspect of her character.
Brilliant filmmaker. Note, at 2:15 you can see the dolly track on the left side of the frame.
The woke part was unnecessary.
I do hope everyone realized the group he endorsed at the end openly and plainly state they want an apartheid society, genocide of a particular race, and the pure destruction of western civilization and the family as a whole. The best people can do is actually look up the group I've listed, and make up their own mind. I don't have anything else to say about this.
@@jackbauer4186 I saw that endorsement at the end of the Woke group. I just let it slide, giving Wolfcrow the benefit of having his opinion. However, as I look back on it,
I find it tasteless. Whether you are a film critic, an actor, or director, I think you should keep your political opinions to yourself. Everytime one these actors opens there mouth about politics, they turn half their fans against them.
He should have kept his personal opinion to himself. It has no place in professionalism. It didn't age well either...
John Ford is the king of the directors.
what about Alfred Hitchcock? Not to take away from Ford, but he was pretty influential as well.
I thought QT famously despised John Ford. He's said some very strong things about him.
One of the things that John Ford does that I would do for my movies is actors doing their own stunts (of course all actors and directors from silent films (even some legendary directors came from making silent films, even John Ford) most notably Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd pioneered that idea, but I think John Ford does it best, because of the action scenes from his movies, and what’s awesome about it is there was no CGI back then)
Alot actors got hurt and paid shitty during those silent movies
@@badazzfeliciano I know, but I’m just saying
@@MatthewGhirardi saying what? You rather see ppl lives be destroyed for your entertainment because you want be Karen about cgi?
@@badazzfeliciano that’s not the point, and who cares of people get hurt, tell that to Jackie Chan or Tom Cruise, they get hurt doing stunts, but they still keep going
@@badazzfeliciano and speaking of CGI, it does get old and stale, not only because of its overuse for everything, but no matter real it looks, it still feels unnatural, and that’s why James Cameron with Avatar 1 & 2 (even though I’ve never seen the sequel) is such a breath of fresh air because he pushes what’s possible with technologies in filmmaking, the bridge between natural and unnatural gets a lot shorter, I don’t mind the big budget for movies with a lot of CGI, but just because the movie has an extreme high budget, doesn’t mean it’s always good. Some low budget movies can be good too, in other words, there has to be a balance between high budget and low budget of a good movie. Example: the budget for the 2014 movie called Whiplash was on a low budget, the budget was 3.3 million dollars, but it won some awards, not to mention it has a 8.5 rating in IMDb
OMG David Lynch was genius casting for a looks and acting in The Fabelmans.
I disagree with you on Tarantino. Imo you have a jaded view warped by modern identity politics and are not seeing the whole picture, but rather just the surface level of black/white, woman/man. I believe Tarantino to be almost the opposite of what you say.
Why do they keep calling David Lynch "Mr John Ford" in this clip?
I’ve recently been asked if I believe any era defining geniuses are currently living? And if so who? My answer is Steven Spielberg. I believe once he is gone he will be considered the greatest filmmaker of all time. I love John Ford. His natural ability and understanding of the audience is staggering, but I put Spielberg above ford because of Ford’s irascibility. His whole I like making movies but I hate talking about them attitude. He was absolutely entitled to be this way. We are very lucky to have gotten his films. I just feel it’s unfortunate what we may have lost due to him just refusing to speak about things.
I wouldn't say EVERY director, but yes, there are many who are obviously influenced by him.
Well made and edited video. The clips you chose were excellent. But you went jarringly off topic.