Robert Regan

4Sep12

Filmy, though Ford made several fine films in the twenties and thirties, there's a good argument for considering Stagecoach his first true masterpiece, followed pretty quickly by Young Mr. Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath, The Long Voyage Home, and How Green Was My Valley. After the War he was back in the saddle with They Were Expendable, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, and The Quiet Man. His late masterworks include The Searchers, The Wings of Eagles, Sergeant Rutledge, Two Rode Together, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Others, including our friend Arsaib, would drop a few of these titles and add a few others, but these are the Ford that mean the most to me at this precise moment. Tomorrow the list could vary slightly, but not a lot. Just recently, I saw Stagecoach for the first time in a few years. Sometimes we take "classics" for granted, putting them on a shelf in the back of our minds to gather dust while we spend time seeking new sensations. But they really need to be checked out again periodically, usually to be overwhelmed once more, though occasionally to be reassessed and "demoted". Have fun and keep me posted on what you are seeing, old and new, and what truly knock you out. Bob