John Ford DVD Reviews

reviews - Basically I find that Ford just keeps getting better as he goes along - I like his stuff starting from the late 40s on, the stories get deeper, the camera work is wonderfully stylized yet always very economical and efficient. Things I notice - he ALWAYS has a dance scene, look for the obligatory dance scene - the films are mainly character-driven - the stories almost always have plot developments that are unrealistic - things fit into place in the most convenient and dramatic way by remarkable coincidences - pure Hollywood fantasy -I like the whole Norman Rockwell/Hollywood small town sense of goofy decency- it's heartfelt and heartwarming. The theme is usually the conflict between collective duties and personal, family responsibilities - with lots of nostalgia and sentimentality. 

 

Drums along the Mohawk (1939) - Michael Curtiz makes good epic-style films - the ones with Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland. They're quite good. 

 

My Darling Clementine (1946) - Rip-snortin', rootin' tootin', archetypal romantic Hollywood western - good fun.

 

3 GodFathers (1948) - How unrealistic is 3 bankrobbers carrying a newborn baby across the Arizona desert? Plus it parallels the story of the three wise men and the nativity - if you can wrap your head around that, it's an excellent John Ford Hollywood fantasy fable. 

 

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) - This the second of the 'Cavalry' trilogy - my least favorite of the 3 - although wonderfully filmed and an interesting story- basically I feel that the acting isn't as strong - and the very specific historical references to the battle of Little Big Horn is too grim a backdrop for me to sympathize with the US Cavalry. There's a good review of it here - http://girishshambu.com/blog/2009/05/john-ford-in-undercurrent.html 

 

Rio Grande (1950) - The third 'Cavalry' film - I like it - I like Ben Johnson - good cast - probably the tightest editing of the three - You have to bemoan the simplistic 'White man good, red man bad' context in which native americans are portrayed - although there are sublte efforts at nuance - like the John Wayne character respects the Indians, for example - it's only around the mid-50s that the Indians start have more substantial, nuanced portrayals, with a little more awareness of historical evidence. 

 

The Searchers ( 1956) - A great film, based on an excellent book - a textbook for handling drama economically with cinematic style - a great role for John Wayne, a complex, hard-boiled character ideally tailored to his strengths. It's fairly long (2 hours), with a lot of scenes, but it holds together remarkably well, there's a cohesiveness, a depth, and an edgy grittyness that makes it the classic that it is... stuff - This is my favorite squirrel - her name is Mame - not many people feed the squirrels in the parks I go to, so the squirrels are kind of wild and untamed - as the picture below demonstrates, Mame is a little more laidback and approachable.

more stuff -

It is with great pleasure that I pass on the news that Mr. Herbert Morton Stoops has been inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. It's about time! Mario Cooper as well, a very talented artist.

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/famed-cartoonist-arnold-roth-inducted-into-society-of-illustrators-hall-of-fame.html

Bruno Premiani - El Caballo 8- The Horse

So this ends the Bruno Premiani thing - there's tons more illustrations of all sorts in this book, I hope this gives a general idea of how great it is. 

 

check out  http://chiquirritipis.blogspot.com/2008/04/bruno-premiani-2-el-caballo.html

 

Bruno Premiani - El Caballo 7 - The Horse

Bruno Premiani - El Caballo 6 - The Horse

Bruno Premiani - El Caballo 5 - The Horse

Bruno Premiani - El Caballo 4 The Horse

stuff -

They've designed a Corto Maltese sailor jacket - looks good -

http://www.selectism.com/news/2009/05/08/hugo-pratt-for-corto-maltese-preview/

Making sense of my world - One of my fave directors once met up with one of my fave - cartoonists - Jijé once went down to the set of the Sergio Leone produced 'My name is nobody' (which is a pretty decent Leonesque movie) to work on a BD adaptation of the film - The meeting apparently didn't go so great, but 12 very cool pages were produced -

http://tepepa.blogspot.com/2007/06/western-en-bd-mon-nom-est-personne.html

Bruno Premiani - El Caballo 3- The Horse

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you page 86 of El Caballo.

stuff-

Forgotten genius - Lucien Nortier

http://top-comics.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!FB4816EFCC8A595E!1527.entry

Bruno Premiani - El Caballo 2- The Horse

These are from pages 83 & 86.

Bruno Premiani - El Caballo 1- The Horse

Bruno Premiani - he's known for drawing the Doom Patrol -  His Conquest of Mexico comic for Classics Illustrated is really awesome. And this book on horses that he did with his wife has been reprinted recently - it's loaded with superb illustrations - I'm gonna try and upload a good batch, but not all, there are dozens of them. These are all from page 82.

stuff

http://guttersnipemedia.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/glory-premiani-the-doom-patrols-original-underrated-artist/

e Sam Peckinpah's 'Major Dundee' - - with Charlton Heston - Ironically, this movie is very similar to the previous one I got, 'Hallelujah Trail' (at the pharmacy). Both feature the US cavalry, similar plot involving retaliating against Indians, both from 1965, and both feature Jim Hutton in a similar supporting role, and both actually use that historical context to subtext the burgeoning counter-culture social unrest of the period. It's very weird watching these two back-to-back.

This movie, I find much more interesting - the social issues are handled with more depth and sympathy - it's a challengeing movie that's superbly filmed and really kind of harkens to a new era of moral ambiguity, complexity, and unsentimental realism albeit with an underlying conscience and humanity. I can recognize the influence of 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'The Searchers' - It would be interesting to compare both 1965 movies - it's amazing how the same basic themes can be handled in so diametrically opposite ways i.e. one is very commercial and conventional whereas the other is radical and challengeing.

Herbert Morton Stoops Illustrations 9

  an illustration from Blue Book, August 1942, for a story titled 'Warlock or Woman?'. And an example of Stoops bold sense of color design.

stuff- Earth Hour this Saturday- http://www.earthhour.org/home/

Herbert Morton Stoops Illustrations 8

These are images I got off the internet - so technically, the copyrights to these images belong to the respective owners of the original art.

Stoops is all about impressionism - he's got great draftsmanship, but there's often a minimalist, spontaneous, sketchy look - there's a lot of scratchy noodling, but his compositions have a sense of bold simplicty and strong contrast in design. In his pen and ink work, he uses blacks to great effect - lots of large, areas of shading done with brush - he's all about chiaroscuro - stylistically, he's very comic book-friendly - he has a cartoony quality, and he's dynamic and expressive as well.

Herbert Morton Stoops Illustrations 6

These are from 'The Blue Book Illustrations of Herbert Morton Stoops' by Col. Charles Waterhouse with an intro by Walt Reed published by the Art Directors Company. 

Herbert Morton Stoops Illustrations 5

This is from another Frank Linderman book, 'Pretty-shield' a biography of an Native American woman from 1932 - dig the pen work - this is from the Time-Life 1991 edition - so there's still a few books in print with Stoops illos., which is cool. Time to do an ad hoc biography:

He served in WWI and started his career after that. Like most top illustrators from the Golden Age, he did it all - ads, magazine illustrations, book illustrations, posters, murals, historical paintings,... He was noted for adventure, western, and historical topics - He had a major association with Blue Book, painting over a 100 covers for them from the mid-30's until his death in 1948. He did several propaganda posters for the military during WWII. He also did much work for the American Legion magazine and illustrated several books for adolescents and books about American Indians.

Herbert Morton Stoops Illustrations 4

These are from 'Plenty-Coups, Chief of the Crows' by Frank B. Linderman, this has had several editions - this has tons of great illos. by Stoops - I like the author a lot, as well - and it's really a remarkable biography - a great author being matched with a great illustrator who complements the story wonderfully well - this one makes sense of my world - fortunately, I believe Stoops was the original illustrator on four of Linderman's books, including a children's book - Stumpy the squirrel, a classic in squirrel literature...

Herbert Morton Stoops Illustrations 3

More from the Bible stories book.

Herbert Morton Stoops Illustrations 2

This is from a bible story book he did -  from 1956 - the variety of styles he uses - he can go from his typical rough and rugged look to a very clean, delicate style and various points in between - 

Herbert Morton Stoops Illustrations 1

This is a Listerine ad from the November 1934 issue of the Ladies Home Journal - a dramatic scene showing an emaciated Scottish family on the island of St-Kilda, ruefully awaiting the dreaded supply ship! because it will surely bring an epidemic of ... the common cold... so use Listerine. OK - maybe not the greatest ad concept, but a great subject for a super HM Stoops wash illustration.