Directed by John Ford

Extremely interesting. Captivating through the commentaries from such stalwarts as Spielberg and The Duke. Spielberg's studies of Ford's symbolic portrayals of traditional ceremonies and John Wayne, as eloquent as one might not expect, are worth the viewing. Truly, Wayne expresses a sincere admiration and fondness for the artist that Ford was. A moving piece delivered by Maureen O'Hara. Very interesting that her comments were read from a written speech, but after she finished reading the speech, she broke down in tears. Hank Fonda and Jimmy Stewart's recollections of Ford's gift for creating character was a brilliant entry by Bogdanovich. John Ford's career spanned 140 films, including the silent era. Thanks to this documentary, we realize what a divine national treasure American film had.

Directed By John Ford (2006)

**** (out of 4)

Peter Bogdanovich directs this documentary on the life and career of the legendary director. Vintage interviews with John Wayne, Henry Fonda and James Stewart are mixed with newer interviews with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood (among others). The doc does a great job at showing what made Ford some a great director and I really enjoyed the scenes where they'd show clips from countless films in a row, showing you how Ford liked certain themes in his films. There's one section where they cover 180 years of history shown through Ford's films. I do wish the documentary had spent more time with Ford's career in the late 1910s. There's also another segment, which I felt shouldn't have been included. There's a recorded conversation between Ford and Katharine Hepburn, which was great to hear but the recorder was left on when the two didn't know it was running. This audio recording might show Ford at a softer moment but I really didn't feel comfortable listening to it.

Made the same year Peter Bogdanovich created his masterpiece, "The Last Picture Show," one might expect great things from this somewhat unconventional documentary on John Ford. After all, how wrong can one go with interview footage of John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and the director himself? And if that's not enough "star power," consider that no less than Orson Welles narrates. But things often go horribly wrong in this uneven, inconsistent work that's more of a random, love-letter to the director, than an insightful peek into his world.

Rather than tell the story of his life, Bogdonavich focuses on the work of John Ford. In fact, he relies heavily on film footage. It isn't all the typical sound-bite clip one comes to expect from documentaries, but often long scenes, or sequences of scenes. This works well sometimes, but all too often, the clip is simply longer than it needs to be. It makes its point, and then keeps going, and going, and going. This wouldn't be so bad if Bogdanovich, a former film critic, put more commentary into the scenes, but he usually doesn't.

Then there is the interview footage, the real reason to watch. There are some wonderful anecdotes and insights here, but they are too often constructed in disjointed, dare I say, amateurish ways.

Indeed, the whole film is inconsistent. It lacks focus, and shifts rather uneasily from one way of looking at things to another. Taken as isolated pieces, such as the the way it surveys the historical scope of Ford's work, it's wonderful, but as a whole, it's potential is never realized.

If anyone is to get anything out of this, one would probably have to possess some familiarity with the work of Ford. As a fan of the great director, I certainly found this worthwhile, but too sloppy. Those unfamiliar with Ford's work will probably find nothing of interest here, and their time would be better spent watching the actual works of Ford, than this work about Ford.

This film was originally made in 1971 by Peter Bogdonovich. However, Bogdonovich and Turner Classic Movies re-edited and expanded this film for release on 11/6/06.

In general, I enjoyed this film--mostly since I love so many of Ford's films. It tends to focus mostly on actors impressions of the man--with lots of interviews with actors and actresses. Some of these interviews are quite recent and many were made around 1969-1971. They all gave some wonderful insights into the director and with my background in psychology, what WASN'T said explicitly was interesting. While no one said it, Ford seemed like a very controlling and domineering man with some self-esteem issues. And, sadly, his personal life was a mess--probably because these characteristics that helped him be a great director probably made him a lousy family man. I really, really wished the film had gone into this area further, but the focus of the film was not so much on his psychology but on what others superficially saw in him. Too bad it just didn't go deeper.

Also, I had seen a documentary about Ford years ago on American Movie Classics and it had a totally different slant. Instead of interviews, it was more a sequential overview of Ford's films. If this IS what you are looking for, the Bogdonovich documentary is not for you, as it shows clips and talks about most of the famous Ford films but ignores the rest (he did direct something like 150 films).

So overall, it was very interesting and it was nice to see interviews with so many of my dead favorites. But this must be seen as a very narrow and superficial tribute, as it ignores Ford's life story or a sequential or in-depth account of his film career.

You get to hear why Ford was so great, see him be a cantankerous jerk to a young Peter Bogdonovich, and see loads of clips from classics. If anything, this movie leaves you wanting more, but you will certainly want to go and watch all of these movies again (or for the first time). A great summation.