BY JOHN
M. WHALEN
Some movie directors achieve greatness by steadily
working at their craft over a lifetime, building their reputation movie by
movie, until they develop a following, creating a catalogue of films that they
become known for. It’s a steady process of craftsmanship. And then there are
some few directors who seem to come out of the egg fully hatched, so to speak.
Their particular vision, their attraction to certain themes, their own peculiar
style is evident even from their earliest work. Orson Welles was one such film
maker. So were Howard Hawks and Sam Peckinpah. If you watch the episodes of the
half-hour “Gunsmoke†TV series that Peckinpah wrote in the 1950’s, or The
Westerner TV series in 1960, you will be surprised to see how many of the
themes and obsessions that Peckinpah put into films like “The Wild Bunch†and “Pat
Garrett and Billy the Kid†were on display even back then.
John Ford is another one of those “fully-hatchedâ€
directors. His movies are immediately identifiable, infused with a vision that
Ford and only Ford possessed, and he had it from the beginning. If you want a
demonstration of what I’m talking about get a copy of Kino Lorber Studio
Classics new Blu-ray release of “Straight Shooting†(1917), Ford’s very first
silent feature film, which he directed under the name Jack Ford. Starring the
legendary Harry Carey, it’s a story set against the backdrop of the changing
frontier. Like “Shane†(1953) it’s about the conflict between the cattlemen who
conquered the frontier and the sod busters who wanted to tame it. But it’s more
complex than “Shane.†Even though Ford is on the side of the farmers and sees
the necessity of civilization, he also mourns for the passing of the frontier.
Carey plays a hired gunslinger named “Cheyenne†Harry, a
man who sells his gun to the highest bidder. He’s an outsider in every sense of
the word—a man not unlike Ethan Edwards, the central character John Wayne
played 40 years later in Ford’s “The Searchers†(1956). In “Straight Shootingâ€
Cheyenne comes face to face for the first time with everything that’s lacking
in his own life. He’s changed when he sees how desperately the family of a
young boy grieves after being shot by Placer Fremont (Vester Pegg), another
killer hired by the ranchers. He feels compassion, especially for Joan Sims
(Molly Malone), the dead boy’s sister, and quits the ranchers, saying there are
some jobs too low even for him. He’s then faced with the dilemma of either
riding away, as he always has, or siding with the farmers.
Ford repeated that same inner conflict in “The Searchersâ€
by making Edwards face the choice of either remaining an outcast by killing his
own niece because she had been raised by Indians, or rejoining society by letting
go of his passionate hatred of them. What is really fascinating when you
compare the two films, is that the resemblance between Cheyenne and Edwards is
not merely thematic, it’s physical. Film historian Joseph McBride, author of
“Searching for John Ford: A Life,†explains in the audio commentary accompanying
the movie, that later in his career when he worked with Wayne, Ford told him to
study Carey. “Duke, take a look over at Harry Carey and watch him work,†Ford
said. “Stand like he does, if you can, and play your roles so that people can
look upon you as a friend.†Wayne even imitated the way Carey held his right
arm with his left hand, a gesture Ford taught him to indicate his aloneness.
Both films end with the same shot of the hero standing in
the open door way of the sod buster’s house, which Ford used as a symbolic boundary
line between a settled life and the wilderness. In “The Searchers,†Edwards is
left standing outside as the door closes on him. In Cheyenne’s case, Ford
couldn’t seem to decide which way to conclude the story, with the gunman
struggling internally until almost the last frame which way he wants to go.
There are some great action scenes in “Straight
Shooting,†especially an assault on the farmer’s house by the ranchers’ army of
gunmen, which Ford modeled on a similar scene in D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a
Nation.†Also in the cast, as one of Cheyenne’s pals, is Hoot Gibson, a rodeo
rider who went on to become a cowboy star in his own right.
In addition to McBride’s audio commentary, Kino Lorber
provides a 12-page booklet with an informative essay by film critic Tag
Gallagher. According to Gallagher the sole surviving print of “Straight
Shooting†is in the Czech Film Archive,
under the title “Facing Cowboy’s Guns,†35 mm, and tinted. In 2016 Universal
made a color digital restoration from a Czech print, 4th generation,
given to the Library of Congress. Gallagher notes the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray restoration
is in black and white and correctly mastered at 18 fps. The picture is
remarkably sharp and clear, displaying Ford’s California location photography around
Beale’s Cut in Newhall in all its glory. Other bonus features include a video
essay by Gallagher, and a 10-minute fragment of “Hitchin’ Post†(1920)
preserved by the Library of Congress.
For anyone interested in the history of movies or John
Ford’s career this Blu-ray is a must have. Recommended.
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John M. Whalen is the author of "Tragon of Ramura". Click here to order from Amazon.