Product Details

• Actors: Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey Jr., Ward Bond, Charles Kemper
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: March 24, 1993
• Run Time: 86 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301766229
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #252,630 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

How is it that John Ford's greatest film remains largely unknown? All right, let's not kick sand on The Searchers, or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, or Ford's many other masterworks. But the director himself numbered Wagon Master among his personal favorites, and it's an utterly unique and original film no one else could have made.

This crusty, eccentric production, slipped in between installments of Ford's Cavalry trilogy, doesn't really star anybody. Ward Bond plays a Mormon elder, a reformed sinner still given to "the words of wrath" who asks a slightly larcenous young horse trader to lead a wagon train through the desert to a valley "the Lord has reserved" for them. The newly anointed wagon master is played by Ben Johnson, an amazing horseman Ford had been bringing along in character roles; at this point Johnson was still getting used to delivering lines, though that's part of his charm and serves his character beautifully.

A transcendent allegory of the opening of the frontier, Wagon Master follows no conventional, linear itinerary. The Lord moves in mysterious ways and so does the movie, which begins before it begins (that is, before the opening credits) and ends a few luminous seconds after THE END has come and gone. Storytelling takes a backseat to poetry, with long passages consecrated to savoring faces, landscapes, and raw sunlight. Some of these passages are supported by songs, and sometimes music rises faintly like an auditory mirage borne in from a great distance. The musicality extends to communal dancing, and to the demonic jingling of spurs that signals the appearances of "Uncle" Shiloh Cleggs (Charles Kemper), patriarch of an inbred outlaw clan whose dog-legged journey eventually intersects the wagon train's.

In keeping with Ford's vision of civilization and its discontents, Wagon Master is populated mostly by pariahs. Besides the deservedly outcast Cleggses, there are the Mormons, the vagabond horse traders played by Johnson and Harry Carey Jr., a medicine-show troupe, and the first people on the land, the Navajo. As individuals and groups drift and coalesce, then separate and coalesce again in fresh configurations, a new nation gets its footing while marching west--"out across the backlands, where the dust has lain so long...." This is the heart's-core of American cinema. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wagons West are Rolling, February 3, 2004

By 

L. Peake "louisepeake2" (London UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wagon Master [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Wagonmaster is quietly poetic and optimistic. I found it quite unlike other Ford westerns I have seen, possibly because it hasn't got Dook or Hank in the way, so the ensemble cast comes into its own. Beautiful b/w cinematography with some breathtaking shots of the wagon train (shadows and dust) desperately looking for the next watering hole, but that is expected from John Ford. The Chuckawalla Swing dance is wonderfully filmed as well. Good use of the Sons of the Pioneers music in this movie, it is much more fitting than in Rio Grande. Ben Johnson is great in this movie, the role really suits him. Ward Bond and Harry Carey Jnr are very good and the Cleggs are as creepy as you could want. It is difficult to find on video, I had to find a second hand vhs version, but it is more than worth it. With My Darling Clementine, my favourite Ford western.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tribute to Ben Johnson, May 23, 2007

By 

mr david cairns "wesnut" (kennoway, fife Great Britain) - See all my reviews

A simple little story of a group of Mormons,led by Ward Bond,enlisting the help of two horse traders,Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jnr,to get them to their Promised Land.
Along the way they bump into,a love interest,Joanne Dru,and as evil a bunch of Bad Guys, The Cleggs,including a young James Arness and one of the best western character actors ever, Hank Worden;; as your ever likely to see.
Directed by the genius that was John Ford,music by Stan Jones and the Sons of the Pioneers,set in the fabulous Arizona,Monument Valley landscape and scenery,and what have you got?
;;;;;;;;A CLASSIC WESTERN;;;;;;;;
Why is this classic not been given the;;Special Edition;;treatment on DVD?
Ben Johnson,s only lead role,Harry Carey has just turned 86 years of age,Ward Bond,Hank Worden and a gallery of great western character actors and actresses.Need i say more?
Davy,Westernnut from Scotland.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great John Ford Film Finally On DVD, July 3, 2009

By 

Mike (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wagon Master (DVD)

Wagon Master is a wonderful film by John Ford. I've been waiting for it to come out on DVD for years. It probably hasn't been available on DVD until now because it didn't star John Wayne. Ben Johnson is the lead. Johnson appeared in many Ford films, but it was rare for him to be the star. Ward Bond, another regular for Ford films, is a Mormon elder who is taking a group of families west across Utah. James Arness is listed as one of the leads in the film. His screen time is limited, but it is a memorable performance. If you mainly know Arness from his role as Marshal Dillon in Gunsmoke, you will be very surprised with his character in Wagon Train. Wagon Train is an excellent western and shows why Ben Johnson was a terrific actor and a real cowboy.