Masters of cinema: John Ford vs Howard Hawks

There are films I’ll always remember almost as if I was in them. Rio Bravo is one. I saw it on a large screen which descended right down to the floor. I was at the same eye level as the characters. I was ‘in’ Rio Bravo! The camera was in its famous position, ‘a little below eye-level’. I was sucked into the Hawksian space.The way Hawks constructs a continuity of space is remarkable, and genuinely holds you ‘inside’ it.

Of all American directors, John Ford probably had the clearest personal vision and the most consistent visual style. His ideas and his characters are, like many things branded "American", deceptively simple. His heroes may appear simply to be loners, outsiders to established society, who generally speak through action rather than words. But their conflict with society embodies larger themes in the American experience. Ford's films, particularly the Westerns, express a deep aesthetic sensibility for the American past and the spirit of the frontier ... his compositions have a classic strength in which masses of people and their natural surroundings are beautifully juxtaposed, often in breathtaking long shots. The musical score, often variations on folk themes, plays a more important part than dialogue in many Ford films.The great John Ford made so many films that his canon is virtually unassailable. I repeat myself in keeping with Orson Welles who after viewing Stagecoach (1939) 40 times before embarking on Citizen Kane (1941) said he was influenced by the old guys; the “classical” film makers, by which he meant “John Ford, John Ford and John Ford”.