John Wayne Centenary: The '40s - Fort Apache, Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Sands of Iwo Jima - Page 4

The film focuses a little too much on the love triangle with Dru’s spoilt brat hard to like and Carey and Agar both unexceptional. It’s Ben Johnson who makes the biggest impression in only his second major role (his first was in Mighty Joe Young the same year). He plays Sergeant Tyree and, as well as some magnificent riding, he gets to do some real acting. The death scene of a fellow ex-confederate soldier is a particularly poignant moment and for such an inexperienced actor he does a remarkable job.

One of the most striking elements of the film is its look. Winton C. Hoch’s cinematography is as beautiful as any painting of the west. It captures the spirit of the film perfectly; this is the west of myth, a romantic vision that only existed in movies. It’s Ford’s love letter to the US Cavalry.

When I was a kid watching westerns with my dad this was always my least favourite of Ford’s cavalry trilogy; it seemed overly sentimental and lacking the action of Fort Apache or Rio Grande and what kid wants to see John Wayne playing an old fart? Yet it’s a film that I’ve come to love as I’ve grown older; in fact the closer I get to being an “old fart” the more it seems to move me. Yes, it is overly sentimental but so what? It’s also a beautiful piece of filmmaking, visually stunning, and featuring a majestic performance from Wayne that ranks as his best of the '40s and one of his best ever.

The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

Most of Wayne’s war movies were flag waiving gung-ho affairs and there’s certainly an element of that here but it’s tempered by a more realistic depiction of combat. Characters we’ve come to know and like are killed with brutal suddenness and not from an act of derring-do, but merely because they failed to keep their heads down. It’s the film's focus on survival as much as heroics that sets it apart.

Telling the story of Sergeant Stryker and the squad of recruits he trains and takes into combat, the film culminates with the famous battle for Iwo Jima (seen recently in Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima). The film may lack the pyrotechnics of modern war films, but for the period it does a fine job of recreating the beach landing. Many of Wayne’s war films relied on stock footage for their action sequences and there is some used here but there isn’t the over-reliance on them that mars many of the other films.

Article Author: Ian Woolstencroft

Ian Woolstencroft was brought up on a diet of John Wayne movies and Marvel Comics and still has a passion for both. Now as a blogcritic he finally understands what Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben meant when he said ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ …

Visit Ian Woolstencroft's author page — Ian Woolstencroft's Blog