Customer Reviews

About John Ford

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've just finished this, and I have to agree with a critic who reviewed "About John Ford" for the Times of London: 'One of the best books published by a filmmaker on a filmmaker'. It certainly is. The author, Lindsay Anderson, was himself a distinguished director("O Lucky Man!"; "If"), a longtime admirer of the films of John Ford-and a damn fine writer on the subject. Anderson uses clear and thoughtful prose and a great, copious selection of stills to illustrate his take on many Ford movies-from his classics such as "The Searchers" to less often discussed titles("They Were Expendable"; the silents). Not a dull page in the book(not always the case with film studies!). Lots of humor. Great frankness. And best of all, several chapters detailing interviews and encounters Anderson had with "the old man"-priceless stories that give the reader a real flavor of Ford-for better or worse. Reading this book produces two tremendous urges: first, to watch all the films discussed again; and second-to make movies. A classic.

This book contains a great deal of information about John Ford, including interviews that the author actually conducted with Ford. This is great because Ford was such a difficult interviewee. There are tons of stills from the film. However, a great deal of time was devoted to the film They Were Expendable and just a few sentences to the Ford film that won more Oscars than any of the others - How Green Was My Valley.

However, the thing I found most difficult, which was not the author's fault, was the typesetting and such. I had the paperback edition and feel the type font size could have been one point larger. In addition, paragraphs and paragraphs were printed in italics to indicate material added at a later date. This was very difficult to read and some other solution should have been found as italics should only be used for emphasis. I just found the book very difficult to read because of the format.

I haven't read this book yet