Wagon Master: John Ford

When fans and scholars discuss the Westerns of John Ford, his 1956 film The Searchers is frequently the only one from that decade that is brought up. He directed a few other Westerns that decade, but they ranged from unremarkable to minor works when compared with his other input into the genre. Of course, there is one major exception: Wagon Master. Only his second film of the Fifties, Wagon Master is a stunning Western in the true John Ford tradition: a film that focuses on family, community, and justice. After hiring two horsemen (played by Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr.) to act as guides, a group of Mormon settlers set out West for Utah Territory. However, their train is soon hijacked by a group of bandits on the run from the law. They terrorize the settlers, forcing them to "escort" them away from the authorities hot on their trail after a bank robbery went sour. Wagon Train is one of the most intimate Westerns of Ford's later career, balancing superb characterizations with sincere suspense and tension. Two character moments struck me as particularly powerful: an early scene where a Mormon Elder haggles with the horsemen while both parties feign nonchalance by leaning against a fence and whittling and a later scene where the leader of a traveling group of "entertainers" volunteers his wagon (and his life) when the bandits cruelly force the settlers down the side of an impossibly steep hill. These scenes demonstrate an introspective knowledge of human behavior that few other directors have ever managed to duplicate. And yet, none of it seems pretentious or indulgent. And really, that was one of Ford's greatest talents: the ability to create serious works of art while tricking the world into thinking that his films were merely standard Hollywood fare.

8/10