Searching for John FordJohn Ford's classic films—such as Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man, and The Searchers—have earned him worldwide admiration as America's foremost filmmaker, a director whose rich visual imagination conjures up indelible, deeply moving images of our collective past. Joseph McBride's Searching for John Ford, described as definitive by both the New York Times and the Irish Times, surpasses all other biographies of the filmmaker in its depth, originality, and insight. Encompassing and illuminating Ford's myriad complexities and contradictions, McBride traces the trajectory of Ford's life from his beginnings as “Bull” Feeney, the nearsighted, football-playing son of Irish immigrants in Portland, Maine, to his recognition, after a long, controversial, and much-honored career, as America's national mythmaker. Blending lively and penetrating analyses of Ford's films with an impeccably documented narrative of the historical and psychological contexts in which those films were created, McBride has at long last given John Ford the biography his stature demands. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 15 | |
| 37 | |
A dollar for a bloody nose | 75 |
A job of work | 101 |
Directed | 135 |
Without a harbor man is lost | 165 |
Sean and Kate | 214 |
Yesthis really happened | 335 |
I am a director of Westerns | 416 |
Go searchin way out there | 520 |
Theres no future in America | 600 |
Sources | 721 |
Filmogmphy | 797 |
Acknowledgments | 805 |
| 813 | |
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actor Admiral American Apache April Araner Argosy army artistic asked author's interview Barbara Battle of Midway blacklist Bogdanovich Bulkeley called camera career cast character Cheyenne Autumn Clementine Dan Ford Darling Clementine Davis December directed director documentary Donovan Dudley Nichols Dunne father February Feeney Field Photo film's filmmaking Fonda footage Ford films Ford's Fordian Frank Capra Grapes of Wrath Guild Harry Carey Hepburn Hollywood Horse Indians Information Ireland Irish Jack James January JF's John Ford John Wayne July June Killanin letter Liberty Valance Lilly March Mary military Monument Valley Motion Picture movie Naval navy never October play political Portland production Quiet quoted recalled reported role scene screen screenplay screenwriter script Searchers Sergeant Rutledge shooting shot Spiddal Stagecoach star story studio talk told Vietnam wanted Ward Bond Wayne's Wead Western World wrote York young Zanuck