Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford

Rating:
Summary: A scenic trip through Hollywood's golden era
Review: This book is like a Christmas basket, full of delicacies. Not only do you get Ford, the man, the drunk, the son-of-a-sea-cook, the genius, but you also get Will Rogers, John Wayne, stuntman Yakima Canutt and a hundred other mini-biographies of people whose lives crossed Ford's and were changed by him. Ford fires up the whole thing like a Roman candle. Just when you think he can't top himself, he tops himself, for better and worse, and writer Eyman manages to keep everything in focus. He really knows films, and can tell you everything, from the to-the-penny budget of "Stagecoach" to the kind of film stock and lenses used to get the rich cloud effects over Monument Valley. This is a fascinating book, and not just for film buffs and scholars. It captures the glamor of Hollywood, the huge egos (Ford's not least!) and the money, jealousy, booze and sexuality that somehow combine to make great, great movies. Again, the character of Ford just drives the thing, like a powerful V-8 engine. I hated to fall asleep each evening while reading it

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive almost to a fault...
Review: Unless you are old like me and remember many John Ford movies from their original 50's release dates, or you have a semi-professional interest in film directing, this book offers more than one needs to know about a complex, often unlikeable, sometimes generous, routinely selfish genius. It isn't just a bio of John Ford, respected director with a 40-year career...it also functions as a partial history of movie-making itself, since Ford began before 1920, when films were silent, and ended up in the mid-60's, when wide screens, technicolor, blatant sex and violence and changes in how movies were financed stranded him in a very different professional atmosphere. To a person with a more casual interest in Ford and his films, like me, the book had many surprises. Ford was cruel on the set to many actors whom he befriended away from the cameras, John Wayne and Hank Fonda included. Ford was a binge drinker, and kept his sprees separate from his duties until the mid-1950's, rather late in his progressive alcoholism. Ford was capable of great kindness, generosity and loyalty, but also held grudges for decades. He was not only personally brave in World War II while filming the real battle of Midway, he was tuned in enough to have joined the Navy and prepared for documenting the war on film a full year before Pearl Harbor. He also showed courage in standing up to the Communist witch-hunts in the early 50's. He was sometimes a liberal Democrat, sometimes a conservative Republican. His final decade was full of illness and idleness and loneliness and undoubtedly some bitterness. If you are a lover of "American" movies, John Ford's story will be essential for you. I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll ever need to read it a second time, or keep the book in my personal collection.