Who was Jack?
John Ford died years before I was born, but I've still learned a lot from him about being an artist.
He didn't write a book about making movies, so the only way to understand him is to wade through dozens of biographies and watch a couple hundred movies. Having done this, I get a sense that I know him, and that I have begun to know and understand his true voice. What I don't have is any advice from him on how to make a movie or tell a story. The vibe is there in his films and the voice is almost overwhelming when you really sense it after reading all the biographical information and what few interviews he gave, but he never talked publicly about composition, use of daylight, character development, or really any of the practical elements of cinema.
Ford was a master of his craft to the point where it seemed effortless. His passion for telling stories never ebbed. Ford was an innovator and possessed an intelligence on-par with Jefferson, Fuller, or Tesla. He simply knew truth when he saw it. But even though the man is my idol, something I feel I must to do differently, besides avoiding his violently self-destructive tendencies, is to give my knowledge and ideas more openly than Jack Ford was able to share his own.
He didn't write a book about making movies, so the only way to understand him is to wade through dozens of biographies and watch a couple hundred movies. Having done this, I get a sense that I know him, and that I have begun to know and understand his true voice. What I don't have is any advice from him on how to make a movie or tell a story. The vibe is there in his films and the voice is almost overwhelming when you really sense it after reading all the biographical information and what few interviews he gave, but he never talked publicly about composition, use of daylight, character development, or really any of the practical elements of cinema.
Ford was a master of his craft to the point where it seemed effortless. His passion for telling stories never ebbed. Ford was an innovator and possessed an intelligence on-par with Jefferson, Fuller, or Tesla. He simply knew truth when he saw it. But even though the man is my idol, something I feel I must to do differently, besides avoiding his violently self-destructive tendencies, is to give my knowledge and ideas more openly than Jack Ford was able to share his own.
Labels: ford
posted by Charles Beckwith at
8:25 PM
1 Comments:
"My name's John Ford. I make Westerns. I don't think there's anyone in this room who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. DeMille - and he certainly knows how to give it to them. But I don't like you, C.B., and I don't like what you've been saying here tonight."
- During the DeMille mandated "loyalty oath" contraversey at the darkest hours of prolific McCarthyism, the Director's guild of America proceedings.
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