A truly wonderful film. So many excellent effective scenes. For example the dust storm was amazing. What I also love about John Wayne is in his films he often is a very flawed character. And in this film we see his flaws displayed in his often anti religious and godless behavior. My favorite scene is where after he has thrown out the Bible he see an actual fulfillment of the passage that he was ready. That scene was so effective showing that God’s word is always fulfilled and as a devout Christian it really hit home.  Only reason this is not a 5 star for me is in many aspects it failed in it retelling of the three wisemen. For example the fact that the wiseman were saving the baby which goes against the Biblical narrative of the three wisemen worshiping Christ. But I digress. Also the ending didn’t feel right. Something about it felt out of place. But again overall this was truly an excellent film!

A truly wonderful film. So many excellent effective scenes. For example the dust storm was amazing. What I also love about John Wayne is in his films he often is a very flawed character. And in this film we see his flaws displayed in his often anti religious and godless behavior. My favorite scene is where after he has thrown out the Bible he see an actual fulfillment of the passage that he was ready. That scene was so effective showing that God’s word is always fulfilled and as a devout Christian it really hit home.  Only reason this is not a 5 star for me is in many aspects it failed in it retelling of the three wisemen. For example the fact that the wiseman were saving the baby which goes against the Biblical narrative of the three wisemen worshiping Christ. But I digress. Also the ending didn’t feel right. Something about it felt out of place. But again overall this was truly an excellent film!

Overdelivers considering the premise wasn’t exactly something I was feeling particularly keen on. Was worried that it was going to be far more cutesy than it actually is, and wound up remembering why I’m a fool to ever doubt John Ford. 3 Godfathers still does come with a much gentler and compassionate outlook on the world and on the nature of man but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be such an outright Biblical epic. Ask me to sit through the story of the Three Wise Men again, I might roll my eyes. Give me the Three Wise Men as a couple of bank robbing varmints who bicker like children and I’ll sit up in my chair. John Wayne was a son of a bitch but he is just one of my favorite actors, the kind of esteem I hold him in is rare air reserved for a specific handful. Ford gave him most of the best, more complicated and challenging roles of his career and this one, in its own way, is no different. There isn’t this soupy morality surrounding himself and he’s not taking himself super seriously here, he’s kind of just an out and out curmudgeonly crook here who gets redemption because he still have a conscience and becomes committed to protecting something innocent. But seeing him play a rowdy, argumentative, sometimes even a bit dimwitted part like this was kind of refreshing. There’s a softness to him here that I’m honestly not used to seeing him delve into. Duke had a habit of naturally dominating the frame whenever he was in it, no matter the part, but here he’s like just one of the guys. He loses his temper and gets into petty arguments and apologizes and even lets himself become the butt of the joke. Putting him as the laughing, bragging crook against a tall and noble lawman was kind of wild. But then when the tables turn and he has to actively fight to keep from collapsing in the desert, Wayne mines some serious depth out of the material. You truly do want to see these guys save this baby and the desert terrain feels omnipresent and insurmountable so often. Ford and his greatest cinematographer Winston Hoch make the thing look truly stunning so frequently. There’s shots that feel so deliberately like a guy laying the foundation for a painting, crafting the exact image he wants your eyes to feast upon. Was struck by things like the burial scene at dawn, with the three of them lingering on the hilltop. It feels like such a small scale plot but Hoch gives it a grand and properly epic feeling. Stuff like Wayne and company trudging through a sandstorm, like that shot from inside the abandoned wagon facing Pedro Armendáriz with a skeletal, dying tree behind him. It gives the film a touch of proper mythical romanticism that I find to be incredibly stirring. Was just mostly stunned by how empathetic and compassionate a movie this is, though. Ford was very obviously a deeply romantic storyteller in a lot of ways but he could also be so goddamn brutal. Here, he very obviously likes all of these guys and believes they’re better than what they even think they can be. Even small stuff like Ward Bond (who is excellent) as this pacifistic sheriff (“They ain’t payin’ me to kill folks.”) stands out when you consider how harsh Ford usually viewed the American West and the men that lived in it. That it takes an hour for the baby to even become part of the narrative means you’ve spent a lot of time with these three guys and watching them bicker and squabble and sacrifice for this infant becomes all the more equally amusing and arresting. This is the second film in a row that makes me wonder if Friedkin was meditating on it at all when it came time to shoot Sorcerer. John Wayne and Roy Scheider trudging along on foot, desperate to see it through after being whittled down to nothing, both of them hearing the voices of their fallen companions, evoke each other so vividly that I have a hard time imagining one wasn’t an inspiration for the other. Two of its central three characters are very explicitly Christian and a non-believer, and they’re both treated with dignity and like they’re capable of the same goodness when the responsibility comes down on their shoulders. A film that gives you some (maybe unfounded) optimism about the world around you. Just a very good piece of work with a good heart, that makes you think any lowlife can become a hero when the time comes.

Overdelivers considering the premise wasn’t exactly something I was feeling particularly keen on. Was worried that it was going to be far more cutesy than it actually is, and wound up remembering why I’m a fool to ever doubt John Ford. 3 Godfathers still does come with a much gentler and compassionate outlook on the world and on the nature of man but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be such an outright Biblical epic. Ask me to sit through the story of the Three Wise Men again, I might roll my eyes. Give me the Three Wise Men as a couple of bank robbing varmints who bicker like children and I’ll sit up in my chair. John Wayne was a son of a bitch but he is just one of my favorite actors, the kind of esteem I hold him in is rare air reserved for a specific handful. Ford gave him most of the best, more complicated and challenging roles of his career and this one, in its own way, is no different. There isn’t this soupy morality surrounding himself and he’s not taking himself super seriously here, he’s kind of just an out and out curmudgeonly crook here who gets redemption because he still have a conscience and becomes committed to protecting something innocent. But seeing him play a rowdy, argumentative, sometimes even a bit dimwitted part like this was kind of refreshing. There’s a softness to him here that I’m honestly not used to seeing him delve into. Duke had a habit of naturally dominating the frame whenever he was in it, no matter the part, but here he’s like just one of the guys. He loses his temper and gets into petty arguments and apologizes and even lets himself become the butt of the joke. Putting him as the laughing, bragging crook against a tall and noble lawman was kind of wild. But then when the tables turn and he has to actively fight to keep from collapsing in the desert, Wayne mines some serious depth out of the material. You truly do want to see these guys save this baby and the desert terrain feels omnipresent and insurmountable so often. Ford and his greatest cinematographer Winston Hoch make the thing look truly stunning so frequently. There’s shots that feel so deliberately like a guy laying the foundation for a painting, crafting the exact image he wants your eyes to feast upon. Was struck by things like the burial scene at dawn, with the three of them lingering on the hilltop. It feels like such a small scale plot but Hoch gives it a grand and properly epic feeling. Stuff like Wayne and company trudging through a sandstorm, like that shot from inside the abandoned wagon facing Pedro Armendáriz with a skeletal, dying tree behind him. It gives the film a touch of proper mythical romanticism that I find to be incredibly stirring. Was just mostly stunned by how empathetic and compassionate a movie this is, though. Ford was very obviously a deeply romantic storyteller in a lot of ways but he could also be so goddamn brutal. Here, he very obviously likes all of these guys and believes they’re better than what they even think they can be. Even small stuff like Ward Bond (who is excellent) as this pacifistic sheriff (“They ain’t payin’ me to kill folks.”) stands out when you consider how harsh Ford usually viewed the American West and the men that lived in it. That it takes an hour for the baby to even become part of the narrative means you’ve spent a lot of time with these three guys and watching them bicker and squabble and sacrifice for this infant becomes all the more equally amusing and arresting. This is the second film in a row that makes me wonder if Friedkin was meditating on it at all when it came time to shoot Sorcerer. John Wayne and Roy Scheider trudging along on foot, desperate to see it through after being whittled down to nothing, both of them hearing the voices of their fallen companions, evoke each other so vividly that I have a hard time imagining one wasn’t an inspiration for the other. Two of its central three characters are very explicitly Christian and a non-believer, and they’re both treated with dignity and like they’re capable of the same goodness when the responsibility comes down on their shoulders. A film that gives you some (maybe unfounded) optimism about the world around you. Just a very good piece of work with a good heart, that makes you think any lowlife can become a hero when the time comes.

Ford sempre interessado em falar sobre comunidade e em um certo ponto, sobre família. O deserto por si só é uma maravilha após a outra e Ford utiliza muito bem seus belos planos pra comunicar a sua história. Só achei a escolha do nome do bebê meio ruinzinha, mas pelo menos teve piadas sobre.

Ford sempre interessado em falar sobre comunidade e em um certo ponto, sobre família. O deserto por si só é uma maravilha após a outra e Ford utiliza muito bem seus belos planos pra comunicar a sua história. Só achei a escolha do nome do bebê meio ruinzinha, mas pelo menos teve piadas sobre.

Eh beh, ça donne soif

Eh beh, ça donne soif

This is a Christmas movie?! Well color me shocked. I would’ve never guessed, given the old west and desert backdrop. My dad never fails to show me the most random westerns I’ve ever seen

This is a Christmas movie?! Well color me shocked. I would’ve never guessed, given the old west and desert backdrop. My dad never fails to show me the most random westerns I’ve ever seen