A Race Divided
The Indian Westerns of John Ford
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2931592 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Angela Alei, Angela Aleiss (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 167-186 |
| Publication date | 1994-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Indian Culture and Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0161-6463 • E-ISSN: 0161-6463 |
| Publisher | UCLA American Indian Studies Center (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.17953/aicr.18.3.e82817h037185828 |
| OpenAlex | W1684874513 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
No film director has created as enduring an image of the American West as has John Ford. During a career that spanned more than fifty years, Ford directed approximately 135 films, of which close to sixty were Westerns. His depiction of American Indians has been especially controversial: While his adversaries bemoan the savage portrayals of American Indians in The Searchers, his defenders counter with the sympathetic images presented in Wagon Master. Still others call attention to Ford’s so-called reversal of Indian portrayals, pointing to the ferocious Apaches of Stagecoach and then to the Indian martyrs of Cheyenne Autumn. Any compromise between the opposing factions appears impossible.\nSeveral scholars have attempted to explain the director’s seemingly contradictory Indian portrayals. A few object to the description of Ford as a “cinematic racist”: Jim Weigert’s essay “John Ford and the Indians” argues that Ford actually pioneered a sympathetic attitude toward Indians long before it was fashionable to do so. Weigert cites, in particular, the more ”humanizing” portrayals of Indians in Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Michael Nathan Budd’s dissertation develops a similar argument; he describes Ford’s Indians as becoming more individualized from Stagecoach to Cheyenne Autumn. Kirk Ellis’s article “On the Warpath: John Ford and the Indians” emphasizes the apparent intercultural conflict in Ford’s Westerns and the director’s inclusion of both noble and savage Indians
Art · Citation · Download · Icon · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Gender Studies · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights
Descent into Hell
As Sure as the Turning of a Page
John Ford's Stagecoach
But, He’s So Serious”
Geronimo!” The Ideologies of Colonial and Indigenous Masculinities in Historical and Contemporary Representations about Apache Men
Les Apaches face à la colonisation et globalisation du réel et de l'imaginaire
| Citations per year | 0.22 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1999 - 2021 (23) |
| Highly cited | No |