By Craig Modderno
When director Peter Bogdanovich decided to update his 1971 documentary "Directed By John Ford" he felt as if he'd been dealt four aces in a game of five card stud.
"I had 45 minutes of original interviews with John Wayne, Henry Fonda, James Stewart and Mr. Ford himself. Since The American Film Institute ran out of money and never paid for many of the clips used, which meant it was only shown at a few colleges and on a PBS fund-raiser, I discovered I had a relatively brand new picture. Plus I had Orson Welles' original narration.
"So I decided to get some financing to do new interviews with myself, Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Maureen O'Hara, Martin Scorsese, Walter Hill and Harry Carey Jr., an actor Ford used regularly and whose dad was the star of several of Ford's early westerns. When I edited everything together it became an entirely fresh documentary."
The final result has been showing on the Turner Classics Movies cable station this month as part of a tribute to the six-time Academy-Award winning director.
Ford's films show an evolution of American values from the men and women who shaped the frontier of the West to those who suffered from the poverty of the Depression.
The films shown include "Stagecoach," "The Last Hurrah," "Fort Apache," "The Informer," the 1941 best picture Oscar winner "How Green was my Valley" and what many critics regard as the greatest western ever made, "The Searchers."
"'The Searchers' is perhaps the most influential film ever to many of the current crop of directors. You can see its theme of the search for family and justice against dramatic and physical hardships in Spielberg's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind,' Eastwood's 'Unforgiven,' nearly every Scorsese film ... and in the original 'Star Wars,"' he said, adding:
"One can teach a college film course on changing American values as seen through the lens of John Ford and his films. ... He changed everyone's life during the time he was making movies. Fonda, Stewart and Wayne were excellent actors but they became movie stars and icons after they worked with Ford."
Ford's Secret
Bogdanovich believes the secret of Ford's success with actors was how he used their fear of him to his advantage.
"Ford ran a tense set because he never wanted his actors to feel comfortable. The more ill at ease they were wanting to please him, the more intensity they would bring to each take. Fonda, Stewart and Wayne all regarded Ford as a father figure whose approval they were constantly seeking."
Those three stars share stories in on-camera interviews supporting Bogdanovich's claim. Perhaps the most interesting recollection belongs to Spielberg, who tells of the time the then teen-ager got to meet the elderly master of cinema.
The sentimental story basically boils down to Ford's sage advice to not use the camera to draw attention to yourself and don't frame shots as if they were picture perfect postcards.
With the possible exception of Alfred Hitchcock, who became a celebrity via cameos in his films and by hosting his own television series in the 1950s, no director has influenced filmmakers as much as Ford but his curt responses to a clearly intimidated Bogdanovich indicate he could not care less.
When Bogdanovich later attempted to get Fonda, Stewart and Wayne to star in a film entitled "Streets of Laredo," Ford talked Wayne out of doing the picture.
"It would have been my masterpiece," Bogdanovich said, refusing to say why Ford objected. Bogdanovich is also at a loss to explain why westerns aren't made anymore.
"Perhaps it's because they (Hollywood) can't see today's actors riding into a town then going into a saloon. They can see Tom Cruise jumping on someone's couch but then can't see him jumping on a horse!"
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