The biggest “misconception” about John Ford
In the Western movie world, few directors have done as much for the genre as the legendary and inimitable John Ford. Having directed some of the most significant Western movies ever made, Ford established himself as one of the key figures in the Golden Age of Hollywood. He worked for more than five decades and released a huge 140 films during that period.
Of course, having such a reputation in the film industry had to be thoroughly earned. Throughout his career, Ford received four Academy Award wins, including a record four wins for ‘Best Director’ for his work on The Informer, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley and The Quiet Man.
Such films prove Ford’s versatility, but it was his Western work on Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, many of which he made with John Wayne, that made him famous. Ford became known for his stunning cinematography and his use of Monument Valley, which became synonymous with his movies.
Aesthetically and culturally, Ford is well known. Still, concerning his private life and his political views, there seems to be a great misunderstanding, at least according to Dan Ford, the iconic director’s grandson and author of the biography Pappy: The Life of John Ford, someone who was likely to know a thing or two about the legendary cinema figure.
In an interview with Box Office Mojo, Ford once spoke of the “greatest misconception” about Ford and noted, “Probably political – that Ford was so [politically] aligned with John Wayne. Not that they were on completely different ends, but, during the Depression years, Ford was a Democrat – at least during the war years.”
The author added, “Wayne didn’t really get political until after the war. It was probably the tax rates that drove him to being so political. That and the [rise of] communism. Ward Bond was really political in his anti-communism.” As Dan Ford notes, John Wayne, who was closely associated with Ford via their film collaborations, was a staunch Republican and it was widely believed that Ford had a similar political outlook.
In the mid-20th century, communism had run rife through Hollywood, and Wayne couldn’t stand with his right-wing views. However, according to his grandson, Ford was actually a “pretty centrist guy” and didn’t have the kind of anti-communist sentiments that seemed to anger and define his frequent actor, Wayne.
“I remember he voted for [Republican Richard M.] Nixon – he hated [Democrat] Lyndon Johnson – he loved [Democrat John F.] Kennedy because he was an Irish Catholic from New England,” Dan Ford explained. “It was an ethnic thing, with the Irish [immigrants] rising above the lace curtain image.”
Wayne and Ford were so synonymous with one another that it was only natural that people would believe they shared a political system of beliefs. However, according to the director’s grandson, the truth was that Ford actually liked a number of Democratic politicians and possessed a more centrist outlook than many might have thought.
Such a facet of Ford revealed a man who made his own decisions and wouldn’t let anybody sway his opinions of the world and his own values of life, even the notorious forthcoming Wayne, who shared a special relationship with the filmmaker.
