"Guns" Doniphon
Donovan's Reef (1963)
directed by John Ford
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Ford's technique is one thing, but any biography about his life with John Wayne begins here: Irish inflections, easy days in the tropics (right down to the Araner docked in the bay), the ceremony of celebration and remembrance. There's the casual racism and casual misogyny, never malicious but somehow central; Duke gawking at the take-charge beauty; Duke spanking her; Duke tenderly watching out for the "half-caste" kids. Even Jack Ford's occasionally liberal nature gets a moment of earnest Native American contemplation, just before a hallowed homage to the Great War. Yes, it's as much Ford/Wayne 101 as this is, with eighteen times the broken bottles, and only a rental away.
directed by John Ford
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Ford's technique is one thing, but any biography about his life with John Wayne begins here: Irish inflections, easy days in the tropics (right down to the Araner docked in the bay), the ceremony of celebration and remembrance. There's the casual racism and casual misogyny, never malicious but somehow central; Duke gawking at the take-charge beauty; Duke spanking her; Duke tenderly watching out for the "half-caste" kids. Even Jack Ford's occasionally liberal nature gets a moment of earnest Native American contemplation, just before a hallowed homage to the Great War. Yes, it's as much Ford/Wayne 101 as this is, with eighteen times the broken bottles, and only a rental away.
posted by NPK at 11:34 AM
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