Dagelijks archief: donderdag 26 augustus 2010

wagons west !

vanmiddag gezien op BBC 2 Wagon Master van John Ford (1950)

Wagon Master 1950Na de “cavalry trilogy” Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950) met John Wayne maakte regisseur John Ford Wagon Master. De film vertelt het verhaal van een groep mormonen die onder begeleiding van drie wagon masters met huifkarren westwaarts trekt. De reis van de wagon train door de Amerikaanse wildernis wordt schilderachtige in beeld gebracht. Daarbij wordt de sfeer nog eens versterkt door de soundtrack met liedjes als “Chuckawalla Swing” en “Wagons West Are Rolling” van Stan Jones. Deze staan overigens ook op de CD Wagons West van The Sons of the Pioneers. John Ford beschouwde Wagon Master aan het eind van zijn leven als zijn favouriet. In de jaren vijftig volgde een televisieserie onder dezelfde naam.

Wagon Master
Wagons west are rolling
out where winds are blowing
through rivers and plains
through sand and through rain
rolls a mighty wagon train

Wagons west by Stan Jones

This great film captures the pioneering spirit about as good as any Western ever has. It was shot in Monument Valley, and though short on plot it’s strong on character. (Bron: homepages.sover.net)
Wagon Master
een ‘mormon wagon train’
Wagon Master brengt de Amerikaanse pioniersgeest schilderachtig in beeld

John FordJohn Ford became best known for his Westerns, of which he made dozens through the1920s, but he didn„t achieve status as a major director until the mid-„30s, when his films for RKO (The Lost Patrol [1934], The Informer [1935]), 20th Century Fox (Young Mr. Lincoln [1939], The Grapes of Wrath [1940]), and Walter Wanger (Stagecoach [1939]), won over the public, the critics, and earned various Oscars and Academy nominations. His 1940s films included one military-produced documentary co-directed by Ford and cinematographer Gregg Toland, December 7th (1943), which creaks badly today; a major war film (They Were Expendable [1945]); the historically-based drama My Darling Clementine (1946); and the “cavalry trilogy“ of Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950), each of which starred John Wayne. My Darling Clementine and the cavalry trilogy contain some of the most powerful images of the American West ever shot, and are considered definitive examples of the Western.

The westerns of John Ford