Sue Matheson is associate professor, University College of the North. She is the editor of Love in Western Film and Television (2013).
The book gives much to consider regarding Ford and his films, no
small feat in light of all the critical thought that Ford and his
work has spurred over several decades. Scholars of cinema (Ford,
war on film, Westerns) will find the book welcome, but it will also
be of value to the culture-studies crowd, and even those
investigating United States social history.
*Journal of Popular Film and Television*
There have been numerous books on the films of John Ford, with Tag
Gallagher’s John Ford: The Man and His Films arguably leading the
pack, but this excellent volume, focusing on a select group of
Ford’s Westerns and war films (both features and documentaries) is
a solid addition to the Ford bookshelf, with incisive analyses of
everything from early films such as The Iron Horse (1924), through
the real-life The Battle of Midway (1942), the wartime elegy They
Were Expendable (1945), right up to the last Ford films, such as
The Searchers (1956), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and
Cheyenne Autumn (1964). Writing in a clear, direct, accessible
style, Matheson offers rich insights throughout. Ford’s sense of
duty, honor, and responsibility shines through in these films, and
the author’s careful reading of the key works in this volume adds
much to the literature on Ford and his works. VERDICT Effectively
illustrated and written with passion and style, this title is
highly recommended.
*Library Journal, Starred Review*
Matheson is thorough in her research and insightful in her
interpretations. For instance, she sensitively ferrets out
profound, unspoken meanings in Ford’s conversation, taped shortly
before his death, with Katharine Hepburn. Matheson’s prose is clean
and stylish; her judgment, creative and reliable. She makes a
persuasive case that Ford was at his best in his genre films about
war and the American West. This is an essential book for Ford
scholars and a worthwhile read for anyone who wants to understand
the aesthetic of arguably the greatest filmmaker of the twentieth
century.
*Journal of American Culture*
Proving that the study of John Ford has not been exhausted, Dr. Sue
Matheson untangles the complicated relationships between industry
and art, fiction and fact, critical distance and fervent commitment
that underscored the work of Hollywood's most honored director.
Fans and scholars alike will find much to appreciate in this
nuanced, carefully researched account of how these relationships
impacted Ford's westerns and war films as trauma narratives
revelatory of a vision of the American character that continues to
influence the cultural imagination.
*Gaylyn Studlar, David May Distinguished University Professor in
the Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis; co-editor of
John Ford Made Westerns: Filming the Legend in the Sound Era*
Sue Matheson’s engrossing history of John Ford’s Westerns and war
films sheds new light on the life and legend of Hollywood’s Old
Master. Seen through the lens of military culture, and Ford’s own
service in World War II, these films take on new meaning as
complex, personal engagements with an American culture profoundly
shaped by the experience of war. Matheson presents the strongest
case yet made for Ford’s status as greatest American filmmaker, and
one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century.
*Andrew Patrick Nelson, author of Still in the Saddle: The
Hollywood Western, 1969-1980 and editor of Contemporary Westerns:
Film and Television since 1990*
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