How an on-set feud led to one of John Wayne’s most enigmatic scenes: “Shoot the damn thing”
The connection between John Ford and John Wayne is the stuff of cinema legend. Ford was at once Wayne’s director, friend and tormentor. The filmmaker was known for not only making Wayne a hero in his pictures but also making his life hell when he was in them. Having already carved out his place in the first entry of Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy, Fort Apache, John Wayne once again saddled up for the director’s follow-up, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, just a year later.
The movie quickly became a hot topic as the studio granted a whopping $1.6million budget, making it one of the most expensive western productions Hollywood had ever dared to put together and it paid off for all involved. Considered one of Wayne’s finest performances as the Cavalry Captain Nathan Brittles, the actor would later recall it as the best character he played with Ford event, presenting the seasoned performer with a cake which read “You’re an actor now” once shooting had wrapped.
Cinematically, the movie stands out among Ford and Wayne’s canon. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon found the collaborators right back in the legendary Monument Valley, capturing the kind of sweeping, sunburnt vistas that would cement the American West as the most cinematic landscape in film history. It is these images which we most keenly think of when trying to ascertain the cultural impact such movies had on how we view cinema.
While Brittles’ role in the movie is fraught with danger, as he tries to reconcile the differences of the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the wake of Custer’s Last Stand – a white saviour-style role that Wayne would become all too familiar with — the real drama happened on set and not in front of the camera.
Midway through production, Ford and cinematographer Winton Hoch—who had meticulously modelled the film’s visual style after the cowboy paintings of Frederic Remington, a non-too-small feat that he pulled off with a startling dexterity—found themselves at odds in the wilds of Monument Valley. Hoch had already been at war with Ford for much of the shoot, but the conflict reached its peak when the skies opened up during a real-life thunderstorm. Befitting the name of the landscape it was in, it was a monumental downpour that threatened to end the shoot.
Hoch, carefully aware of his cameras wanted to call of the scene. He called for a halt but was met with a particularly difficult director in Ford. But while it may have appeared to be sheer pigheadedness on Ford’s part, the veteran filmmaker knew what he had unfolding in front of him. The sky was beyond anything he could have planned, and he demanded they keep rolling. Hoch protested—it was too dark, and worse, the metal camera equipment could act as a lightning rod. But Ford, true to form, shut him down: “Shoot the damn thing.”
Through gritted teeth, Hoch obeyed orders. And what they captured—streaks of lightning illuminating the cavalry against the stormy sky—became one of the most breathtaking moments in western cinema. It was so stunning, in fact, that Hoch won an Oscar for ‘Best Cinematography’ in 1950. An award he would have likely lost without the dramatic scene in the middle of the picture.
Though legend paints this moment as an all-out battle between director and cinematographer, actor Harry Carey Jr later offered a softer take. He recalled Ford noticing the storm after wrapping for the day and casually asking Hoch if he thought they could get the shot. Hoch, ever the professional, gave his honest answer: “It’s awfully dark, Jack. I’ll shoot it. I just can’t promise anything.”
Ford’s reply was nicely poised: “Winnie, open her up and let’s go for it. If it doesn’t turn out, I’ll take the rap.” It did turn out. And, like the film itself, it became part of Hollywood legend.
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