Three Godfathers

Buy This Item Three Godfathers by MGM (Warner)  Available from Amazon  $14.95  on 11-26-2008     It's hardly shameful that <I>The Three Godfathers</I> ranks as the slightest John Ford Western in a five-year arc that includes <I>My Darling Clementine</I>, <I>Fort Apache</I>, <I>She Wore a Yellow Ribbon</I>, <I>Wagon Master</I>, and <I>Rio Grande</I>. The source, a Peter B. Kyne story both hard-bitten and sentimental, had already been filmed at least five times--once by Ford himself as <I>Marked Men</I> (1919). The star of that silent version, Harry Carey, had recently died. This remake is dedicated to him ("Bright Star of the early western sky") and proudly introduces his son, Harry Carey Jr. (who had already appeared in Howard Hawks's <I>Red River</I>--as did his father--but we won't quibble).<p> Just before Christmas, three workaday outlaws (John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, Harry Carey Jr.) rob a bank in Welcome, Arizona, and flee into the desert. The canny town marshal (Ward Bond) moves swiftly to cut them off from the wells along their escape route, so they make for another, deep in the wasteland. There's no water waiting for them, but there is a woman (Mildred Natwick) on the verge of death--and also of giving birth. The three badmen accept her dying commission as godfathers to the newborn. Motley variants of the Three Wise Men, they strike out for the town of New Jerusalem with her Bible as roadmap. It becomes increasingly apparent that saving the child's life will cost them their own.<p> Ford's is the softest retelling of the tale; in place of Kyne's bitter/triumphant final twist, he adds a very broad comic postlude. Elsewhere, the nearly sacramental treatment of the mother's death is followed by an extended gosh-almighty sequence of the banditos reading up on childcare. But it's all played with great gusto and tenderness--especially by Wayne, who's rarely been more appealing. Visually the film is one knockout shot after another. This was Ford's first Western in Technicolor, as well as his first collaboration with cinematographer Winton Hoch. What they do with sand ripples and shadows and long plumes of train smoke is rapturously beautiful. It's also often too arty by half, but who can blame them? <I>--Richard T. Jameson</I> Reader Reviews I am neither an expert in the cinema nor educated to be one. But I have a working knowledge of John Ford's films, and understand why he is among our greatest diectors. If you share this view and see something much deeper in John Wayne's work in films than just being himself, there may be some parts of this brief review that ring true to you. You may find other reviews of the plot and some analysis of the film and Ford's intentions. You may read those. I feel strongly enough about the film, especially now that it is available on DVD, to pass on a few thoughts: 1. The film is very loosely based on the arrival of the three wise men to the Christ child, but of course, set in Arizona Territory, so there is plenty of sand to strike some sort of geographical similarity. I came across this film on television twenty or so years ago, made a copy the next year, and my family has enjoyed watching every Christmastime since. With this much exposure, one is sure to catch a thing or two. I might also add that once is not enough...there are many subtle points which can only be found with multiple viewings. 2. I would rank this film right along with "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "The Searchers". Not only Ford's direction and Wayne's leadership, but a terrific supporting cast to round things out and fill things in, including Hank Worden, and introducing Harry Carey, Jr., but most spectacularly, Ward Bond. I mention Bond because he was in so many Ford/Wayne films, from "The Searchers" to "The Quiet Man", and was a close personal friend of Wayne's (and I assume Ford's) playing great parts, but never really seemed to get the credit he was due. He is at his best in "3 Godfathers" and I can't imagine anyone else succesfully playing the part. 3. This film continues the theme of confusion over good and bad and right versus wrong in the western wilderness. In "The Searchers" Wayne is the only one with the wisdom, devotion, and strength to carry out a five-year long rescue mission. Anyone else would have quit. But what he has in mind may have been right as things were known in the 1860s, but would not have been acceptable to audiences in the 1950s. In "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", there is confusion about good/bad, right/wrong, strong/weak, truth/lie from the very beginning, to the revelation of who actually shot (murdered) Liberty Valance, to who wins the girl (or does he completely), to the very poignant and ironic end when the conductor announces "Nothing is too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance." "3 Godfathers" carries on with Robert, Pedro, and William, who are at least horse thieves and bank robbers, but who have impeccable manners, ironic senses of humor, deep feelings of comraderie and compassion, and great devotion to the "word they gave a dying woman", even at certain risk to their own fortunes. As Christ is about sacrifice, redemption, and salvation, these three men become wisemen. And again, the prescient Ward Bond, town sheriff, upholder of the law, unlike any other western man present, uses his rifle to break the fleeing desperadoes' water bag, not gun them down in the back..."They ain't payin' me to kill folks." Anyway, I think Ford does another honorable job of describing the juxtaposition of right and wrong in the wild West, especially as the civilized East encroaches. Very much worth seeing...and don't miss Ward Bond.

Three Godfathers Available from Amazon Price: $14.95 Updated on 11-26-2008.

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