Michael F. Blake's THE CAVALRY TRILOGY--John Ford, John Wayne, and the Making of Three Classic Westerns--deals with a trio of films made by John Ford in the years spanning from 1947 to 1950. The three films--FORT APACHE, SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, and RIO GRANDE--all deal with United States Cavalry units based in the American Southwest during the post-Civil War era. Even though the films have many similarities to one another (such as the names of their characters), the movies are not "officially" connected to each other. Despite this, film buffs and historians have labeled the three productions "The Cavalry Trilogy".
John Ford is my favorite film director, and I have a number of books about him. This is a more than worthy addition to the collection. Michael Blake provides a thorough examination of each aspect of the production of the three films, and he does it in a way that even non-film geeks can understand and appreciate. Blake has a concise, get to the point writing style, and due to his several years working in the entertainment industry as a makeup artist, he knows exactly what it takes to produce films on remote locations involving many performers and horses.
Blake gives background on Argosy Productions, the company headed by John Ford and Merian C. Cooper that made the films of the Cavalry Trilogy. He also details the lives and careers of several of the members of the John Ford Stock Company, and how these individuals interacted with and felt about the idiosyncratic and sometimes difficult director. The critical and box-office reception of the films are discussed, along with the music and the songs included in each, a factor that many Ford scholars overlook. The book also has a brief photo gallery.
What really stands out in this book is how Blake compares the original scripts of the films with what Ford actually shot. Time and time again Blake presents how Ford would take a sequence and strip it down to either a few lines of dialogue or a few shots, making it more meaningful and memorable. Ford certainly wasn't the easiest guy to get along with, but his cinematic genius is indisputable, as this book clearly shows.
After reading this book I re-watched the entire Cavalry Trilogy, and because of Blake's work I was able to notice several items of interest I had no knowledge about before. That's about the best compliment one can give to a book written about a film or a series of films. I had already owned the three books about Lon Chaney that Blake had written, so I knew I wouldn't be disappointed by this volume.
In the preface of this book Michael Blake states that the films in the Cavalry Trilogy have never been given the proper attention that they deserve. I agree with that assessment--the Cavalry Trilogy has often been regarded as nothing more than entertaining Westerns. The fact is that these are great films period, and we'll probably never see anything made like them again. THE CAVALRY TRILOGY is a proper tribute to them.
Excellent review. 'How the West was sung' from 2007 is an excellent book on the way John Ford used traditional American folktunes in his Westerns (including the cavalry trilogy).
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard of that book, I'll have to seek it out.
DeleteKathryn Kalinak is the author. She did a wonderful job with it. I'm sort of besotted by all things Ford and she certainly came into the subject from a very informative angle.
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