![]() The Projectionist Chronicles the Awards Season The Oscars aren’t until March, but the campaigns have begun. Ford treats his Apache warriors with sympathy and respect, depicting them as fully justified in their revolt against the deceitful and exploitative policies of the United States government (represented by the sniveling Indian agent played by Grant Withers). At the same time it was among the first of the postwar “pro-Indian” westerns. Hoberman, in his recent history of Hollywood and the cold war, “Army of Phantoms,” finds it an early exemplar of Fortress America, “a vision of total mobilization” in the face of a mounting Communist menace. ![]() ![]() It has been the subject of reams of critical discourse, most often fastened on its historical and ideological aspects. “Fort Apache” is one of the great achievements of classical American cinema, a film of immense complexity that never fails to reveal new shadings with each viewing. He would dedicate “Three Godfathers” (1949) to Carey’s memory, and give Carey’s son, Harry Carey Jr., a leading role in it. ![]() Carey had died in 1947, a few months after “Fort Apache” began production, a loss that clearly meant a great deal to Ford. FOR his 1948 “Fort Apache,” the first movie in his celebrated cavalry trilogy, John Ford brought together four of the five leading men most closely associated with his career: George O’Brien, the star of “The Iron Horse” (1924), Ford’s first major critical and commercial success Victor McLaglen, whose 12 films with Ford include an Oscar-winning performance in “The Informer” (1935) Henry Fonda, the Tom Joad of Ford’s “Grapes of Wrath” (1940) and John Wayne, who first worked with Ford as a prop man and extra in the late 1920s but only became an A-list actor with Ford’s “Stagecoach” in 1939.Ĭonspicuously absent is Harry Carey, the early western star who had given the young Ford his first feature directing assignment with the 1917 “Straight Shooting,” and whose dignified underplaying would remain a template for Ford in his direction of actors for decades to come. ![]()
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