3 Godfathers
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Movie Reviews of 3 Godfathers
Movie Review: 3 Godfathers: Most Overlooked Ford/Wayne Film
Summary: 5 Stars
I am neither an expert in the cinema nor educated to be one. But I have a working knowledge of John Ford's films, and understand why he is among our greatest diectors. If you share this view and see something much deeper in John Wayne's work in films than just being himself, there may be some parts of this brief review that ring true to you.
You may find other reviews of the plot and some analysis of the film and Ford's intentions. You may read those. I feel strongly enough about the film, especially now that it is available on DVD, to pass on a few thoughts:
1. The film is very loosely based on the arrival of the three wise men to the Christ child, but of course, set in Arizona Territory, so there is plenty of sand to strike some sort of geographical similarity. I came across this film on television twenty or so years ago, made a copy the next year, and my family has enjoyed watching every Christmastime since. With this much exposure, one is sure to catch a thing or two. I might also add that once is not enough...there are many subtle points which can only be found with multiple viewings.
2. I would rank this film right along with "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "The Searchers". Not only Ford's direction and Wayne's leadership, but a terrific supporting cast to round things out and fill things in, including Hank Worden, and introducing Harry Carey, Jr., but most spectacularly, Ward Bond. I mention Bond because he was in so many Ford/Wayne films, from "The Searchers" to "The Quiet Man", and was a close personal friend of Wayne's (and I assume Ford's) playing great parts, but never really seemed to get the credit he was due. He is at his best in "3 Godfathers" and I can't imagine anyone else succesfully playing the part.
3. This film continues the theme of confusion over good and bad and right versus wrong in the western wilderness. In "The Searchers" Wayne is the only one with the wisdom, devotion, and strength to carry out a five-year long rescue mission. Anyone else would have quit. But what he has in mind may have been right as things were known in the 1860s, but would not have been acceptable to audiences in the 1950s. In "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", there is confusion about good/bad, right/wrong, strong/weak, truth/lie from the very beginning, to the revelation of who actually shot (murdered) Liberty Valance, to who wins the girl (or does he completely), to the very poignant and ironic end when the conductor announces "Nothing is too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance." "3 Godfathers" carries on with Robert, Pedro, and William, who are at least horse thieves and bank robbers, but who have impeccable manners, ironic senses of humor, deep feelings of comraderie and compassion, and great devotion to the "word they gave a dying woman", even at certain risk to their own fortunes. As Christ is about sacrifice, redemption, and salvation, these three men become wisemen. And again, the prescient Ward Bond, town sheriff, upholder of the law, unlike any other western man present, uses his rifle to break the fleeing desperadoes' water bag, not gun them down in the back..."They ain't payin' me to kill folks."
Anyway, I think Ford does another honorable job of describing the juxtaposition of right and wrong in the wild West, especially as the civilized East encroaches.
Very much worth seeing...and don't miss Ward Bond.
Movie Review: They're no angels--or are they?
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a few days before Christmas when three Texan outlaws--Bob Hightower (John Wayne), his longtime partner Pete Fuerte (Pedro Armendariz), and William Kearney, the Abilene Kid (Harry Carey, Jr.)--ride into the town of Welcome, Arizona, 60 miles from the Mexican border. After a long and successful career as rustlers, they've decided to branch out into bank robbery. Their raid goes wrong, however, when the Kid is wounded and loses his horse and the loot. Fleeing into the desert, they're pursued by U.S. Marshal Buck Sweet (Ward Bond), known to his wife Carrie Lou (Mae Marsh) as Pearly, a chess player who moves quickly to use the railroad to cut them off from water. So the trio heads deeper into the wastes, only to find that the seep they counted on has been dynamited by a foolish greenhorn--who then wandered off after his straying stock, leaving his wife (Mildred Natwick) on the verge of childbirth. After Pete helps deliver the child, she asks them to "be my baby's godfathers" and names her son Robert William Pedro Hightower before she dies. Now it's up to Bob and his partners to get themselves and "the infant" to New Jerusalem. And as the Kid points out, it may not be just chance that everything happened the way it did--even though it becomes increasingly obvious that none of them may survive.
Full of humor and pathos and unforgettable characters (including Buck's deputies, played by long-time Fordian stalwarts Ben Johnson (who two years later co-starred with Carey in Wagon Master) and Hank Worden, and Carrie Lou's cousin, man-hungry railroad stationmistress Miss Florie (Jane Drawell)), this is a sentimental yet suspenseful Western classic, perhaps not one of Ford's best-known, but certainly one that families will enjoy. (Continuity might have been a little better--a depleted water bag mysteriously reappears on Pete's saddle *after* Bob throws it away!--but that's really minor.) Bob and his partners are tough but not vicious--probably a more accurate portrait of Western outlaws in general than many we see on film, especially TV--and despite disagreements and privation, they're agreed on the necessity of doing whatever they have to to ensure that "little Robert William Pedro" survives. This has been one of my favorite Westerns for 50 years and I was delighted to find it available on DVD. Don't miss it.
Movie Review: An Unusual Western--In More Ways than One
Summary: 5 Stars
Rather than repeat what other reviewers have said, I focus on certain themes. Having seen many westerns and John Wayne movies, I was struck by the unique nature of this one.
To begin with, John Wayne, for once, is the bad guy--a bank robber. Second, outlaws are usually incorrigible and with seared consciences. These outlaws are different. Third, seldom are infants shown in westerns, much less one being taken care of by a bunch of tough outlaws!
Religion is not usually shown in westerns and, when it is, it is usually portrayed as something effeminate--fine for women and children but something that the men had left behind in their childhoods. Here we see outlaws using a Bible for guidance (actually, for divination), praying, and singing hymns before their deaths. Christmas is celebrated.
Imagine struggling in a desert to avoid getting overcome by exhaustion and dehydration. Your primary water supply is gone, and you try to subsist by squeezing out water from the flesh of the barrelhead cactus. And so it goes...
Movie Review: Good Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
These 3 guys just robbed a bank and the sheriff is after them. They are stuck in the desert without water because the sheriff has men all over the place and they can't get out because they will get shot. They come upon a wagon were a lady is about to have a baby and she is all alone because her husband went to search for water and food and never came back. The lady is the sheriffs daughter and they were moving out west to liver with her parents. The three robbers help deliver the baby and the mother dies They know nothing about babies at all. But the mother has a chest with a book on how to raise babies. They put axle grease on the baby. The sheriff is closing in on them so they continue on there way. 2 of the 3 men die, only John Wayne lives. Then he gets to the town & gets arrested.Movie Review: It's a must see!
Summary: 5 Stars
There are other versions of this story, including a recently made one.
But this one stands out as the best of them all.
Three bad guys come across am abandoned women having a baby just before christmas day and take the baby to safety in spite of the terrible odds against them.
With the cast in this film it was hard to go wrong.
If you love westerns this is a "must have" for your collection, especially if you like John Wayne, the way I do!