John Ford, America’s greatest filmmaker, has been dead for forty one years. Since his death, every aspect of his life and films has been examined cinematically, psychologically, historically, mythically, sociologically, symbolically, and religiously.
So why does Chicago iconographer Joseph Malham think the world needs another book about John Ford, and a modest three hundred page book at that?
Perhaps he realized that in all of the analysis, John Ford, his films, and his times had become fragmented. Perhaps he thought a constructive synthesis was needed to clarify Ford’s greatness.
Whatever Mr. Markham’s motivation, I am very glad he wrote John Ford. Poet in the Desert. No matter how many books about Ford you may have read, Mr. Markham’s book will seem like you are being reacquainted with an old friend you haven’t seen in quite a while. You find a comprehensible John Ford, living at an exciting time in American and world history, and responding to his world through the new art of “pictures”, as he called his films. The book is a joy to read.
Not only does Mr. Markham accomplish his stated goal – “a unified tapestry of Ford’s life and work” – he also provides some of the most astute exegeses of some of Ford’s films. To Mr. Markham, Drums Along the Mohawk is “an American exegesis of Ecclesiastes.” Of course, it is! I just didn’t see it until Mr. Markham pointed it out. And Ford’s masterpiece, How Green was My Valley, requires an understanding of the Christian Communion of Saints for the work to be fully appreciated. Markham sees that as well. His insights into Ford’s other great films – The Grapes of Wrath, The Searchers, The Quiet Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance– are worth the visit. But so are his looks at lesser known Ford films like The Long Voyage Home, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Three Godfathers.
However, Markham goes off the rails, I think, when he tries to see Fort Apache (1948) as a veiled attack on the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating Communist infiltration of American industries. (Joseph McBride’s account of this time in John Ford. A Life remains the most balanced discussion of the times, I believe.) In fact, Mr. Markham seems to down-play Mr. Ford’s anti-Communism, especially when discussing the relationship between the House Committee and the Screen Directors’ Guild. Mr. Malham’s knowledge of Communism and its infiltration of America seems pre-downfall of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union fell, its archives were opened and new historical understandings have refuted the old liberal red herring of “witch hunt”. To get up to date with current scholarship on the Cold War which utilizes the Soviet archives readers should look into Ronald Radosh’s Red Star Over Hollywood and Diana West’s American Betrayal.
But my quibbles are just that – quibbles – which should not stop you from picking up John Ford Poet in the Desert. If you love movies, you owe it to yourself to read this very enjoyable book
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