And I went to sleep
John Ford Goes to War (2002): 4 out of 10: This is almost a textbook example on how to take a fascinating subject and make a boring poorly made documentary out of it.
John Ford Goes to War highlights Ford’s extraordinary service during World War 2 when he and his various crews filmed the war from Midway to India to Burma to Normandy, and the war trials afterwards. It’s like a real life Winds of War. Ford himself carried the hand-held camera on Midway as bombs landed just feet away from Japanese planes. He had a telephone in one hand, calling in enemy positions to headquarters while he filmed with the other.
A fascinating story like this should make for a fascinating documentary… it doesn’t.
For one thing, the movie seems to be under the mistaken impression that World War 2 took place in the 1840s not the 1940s. Now I know Ford was best known for his westerns, but this film isn’t about his westerns, it is about his work during WW2. In addition, Ford’s personal life, at this time, was more Jimmy Buffett than Eddie Dean. So who do they get narrating the film? Kris Kristofferson.
Kristofferson’s slow around the campfire drawl hits the viewer like a fistful of barbiturates and the along the trail Civil War era musical score doesn’t help either. And then we have the talking heads. The endless talking heads.
You would think a film that can use dramatic footage from “The Battle of Midway” or “December 7th” or moving footage such as the smiling faces of the doomed crew of “Torpedo Squadron” wouldn’t cut away every minute, from the hours of available footage, to show some guy talking… and you would be wrong.
Peter Bogdanovich and Leonard Maltin come across the best (though, would it have killed Maltin to shave? I have I High Definition Television. I really appreciate some personal hygiene before you get on camera.) Most of the others are people who wrote books and honestly should continue to write books.
They interview an actual cameraman who shot footage for Ford during the war. His experience is insightful, touching and moving, so, of course, he is only on once and for less than a minute.
Anytime the documentary shows footage of Ford’s work, it seems to realize you may be getting interested and quickly swerves into another talking head. This teasing us into a complacency of enjoyment and engagement before another talking head breaks the mood is a strange form of torture. It’s as if the movie has a strange puritan streak that wishes you to not actually enjoy yourself.
Speaking of a strange puritan streak… I have left the best for last. Apparently, John Ford ran over Oliver Stone’s kitten while backing out of his driveway in 1971. There is almost no other explication for Stone’s bizarre vitriol against the man. If Stone was a filmmaker in 1940, apparently he would have been doing documentaries on how the Japanese are victims of American Expansionism and how the D-Day invasion at Normandy was yet another example of American Colonialism.
I would normally say hearing Stone rail against Ford for being historically inaccurate would be worth the price for admission. But alas, no. The viewer is better off… much better off finding Ford’s original documentaries uncut. (And if you want to see Stones’ version of historical accuracy, I believe Alexander has a new 240 minute cut available on DVD)