John Ford (III)

Publico ara l'esboç del que serà el meu treball, tot reflexionant que el tema en si mateix no és especialment difícil perquè és clar que si hi ha autors, Ford n'és un. Sobre les diferències entre les dues pel·lícules crec que més enllà de la seva existència el fet fonamental és que formen part d'una evolució coherent que comença amb The Stagecoach i acaba amb Cheyenne Autumn, pel·lícules de significat potser diferent però ambdues del tot fordianes.

Theme: The notion of Authorship in the work of John Ford
Films: The Searchers (1956)
The man who shoot Liberty Valance (1962)

We can study the subject from several points of view:

The Visual style:
· Filming without close-ups the characters are always showed in the contexts. Þ Similar direction of actors and in many cases the same actors (John Wayne, Vera Miles, John Qualen)
· Quiet camera, (restricted movement only within the frame. He prefers that the actors move but inside the frame) but when it moves, there is a powerful creation of meaning
· The use of the doorways as privileged place to show the characters or the place the camera
· Attention to some objects: the coat of Ethan or the cactus-flower.

(There is close relationship whit expressionism but both films are very different: the one is shot in colour, the other in Black and White. Liberty is shot in studio, the Searchers in Monument Valley)

Narrative structure:
Many of the opposites that define the work of John Ford are common to the two films:
Garden Desert
Settler Nomads
Civilization savages
Book Guns
Married Unmarried
Home Outside

Besides these general differences I have found some common points between both films:
1. Tom Doniphon and Ethan Edwards are always personages in between the two opposites.
2. In the core of the film is always a triangle which is congruent with the opposites: Scare- Ethan-Martin and Liberty-Tom-Ramson. There are very similar relationships between the three characters in both films.
3. There are in both films characters who can be described as marginal or marginalised but whose action is fruitful for the community Moses and Pompei.
4. There is a silent witness of a frustrated love story who helps the public to make attention about it. The reverend in the first film and the Marshall in the second
5. There is always a big performance which represents a moment of affirmation and self-knowledge of the community. In the first is the dance at the wedding party, at the second the polls-day
6. Comical persons inserted in the narrative: Charly McCorry or Appleward
7. Both films have flash-backs, which is not very common in the film-makers of Ford’s generation


Philosophical and historical Background
Both films belong to John Ford because they are part of a common enterprise to understand the story of the states and both treated the same philosophical question: the social contract and the foundation of civilization. Indeed, and as a consequence of this concern in both films has a deep meaning the tension between the individual portrayed by John Wayne and the community.
Maybe both films could be seen in a complementary way. Ethan doesn’t stay. He will go far away but his memory will remain and people will keep talking and maybe forgetting something of the bleak realities about Ethan, which has been shown in the film. The Searchers happens in the foundation a place where there are no good and evil. Liberty shows how the dark foundation can become legend; how we can invent the triumph of good in a situation without distinction between good and evil.