In this video I’ll show you how and why
many of the greatest directors owe their visual
and editing styles to John Ford. I’ll also
show how in one aspect no one has matched
him. Watch till the end to find out.
For those of you who don’t know, John Ford
is the director’s director. He made almost
one hundred and fifty films in his career.
That’s not a typo. He won the Best Director
Oscar four times, plus two more for his wartime
documentary work, and he hardly attended any
award functions.
John Ford’s influence on Steven Spielberg
is common knowledge. Let’s hear it from
the man himself:
There are 
many aspects of Spielberg’s style you can
attribute to John Ford. Reflections in mirrors
is one great example, even when they aren’t
necessary. I love this scene where they actually
take the mirror off the wall, and draw attention
to it. The camera moving in to a close up
of a face at a dramatic moment is also something
John Ford did a lot of. Spielberg made it
his own.
When John Ford made movies the cameras were
heavy. Handheld camerawork was mostly non-existent.
Complex blocking wasn’t regular. In Stagecoach
you can see how the actors move in and out
of the frame like a choreographed dance. Each
actor doesn’t overlap the other, either
by talking or action. This ensures the audience
can follow every single movement and dialogue,
like following breadcrumbs.
The way tracking shots are constructed are
also similar. Here’s a comparison. Take
note of the depth of composition and blocking.
The frames of both directors are rich with
detail. They don’t cut corners.
Spielberg was definitely also influenced by
the action scenes of John Ford. The breathtaking
chase sequence in Stagecoach, released in
1939, is textbook cinema. The way the camera
moves gracefully is also something Spielberg
inherited. Of course, Spielberg took it to
a whole new level. In camera movement and
blocking, there’s no equal to Spielberg.
By the way, if it isn’t clear, just because
a director is influenced by John Ford doesn’t
mean he or she copied John Ford. Everyone
is more or less influenced by someone. Even
experimental cinema is over a hundred years
old, so there’s little you can do that hasn’t
been done before.
I think the greatest way Ford influenced Spielberg
is in the casting of extras. Look at the brilliant
way Steven Spielberg cast extras in Schindler’s
list, or Munich. And now see how immaculately
John Ford did the same. Look no further than
The Grapes of Wrath, where almost every actor,
every child and every extra feel like they
were picked through some magical mode of time
travel. It’s almost as if you could enter
that world and live in it, it’s that real.
Ask any director how hard it is to cast one
or two actors perfectly. Casting hundreds
perfectly is incredibly rare.
The great Akira Kurosawa also was influenced
by John Ford. The use of wind, fire, rain,
and horses are prevalent in both director’s
films. I’ve heard when Ford met Kurosawa
he observed: You like rain a lot, don’t
you? They understood each other because they
were perfectionists who couldn’t stand mediocrity.
Here’s a scene from My Darling Clementine
and Seven Samurai. We’re introduced to two
larger than life characters, and the objective
is to show that with almost zero dialogue.
Wyatt Earp decides to risk his life for a
shave and some peace. Kambei does it for similar
reasons, and is happy to get rid of his hair
in the process. It’s an incredible homage.
Look at how the characters in Stagecoach are
introduced one by one, and compare that to
how characters are introduced in Seven Samurai.
The most interesting character, the star in
both cases, is introduced last, as a surprise.
They almost didn’t make it. You’ll find
tons of such influences, and I’ll leave
you to discover those pleasures. Like I said
with Spielberg, I’m not implying one copied
the other. All the directors mentioned in
this video are giants in their own right.
Everybody is influenced by the giants that
paved the way. The greater the director, the
greater the influence. What makes John Ford
special is he directly influenced a huge number
of legends.
Akira Kurosawa went on to achieve mythical
status. He stretched out the most suspenseful
moments and reduced dialogue. He is the very
definition of pure cinema.
Another way Kurosawa was influenced by Ford
is in the use of shadows as a compositional
technique. Ford loved shadow play, and he
framed his actors through doorways, or just
used the shadows created by lighting to compose
seamlessly pretty frames. Kurosawa, with his
background in painting, just mastered composition.
His compositions and elegance are unmatched.
The confrontations are drawn out for greater
theatrical effect. But just like John Ford,
the violence is 
over in a flash.
The director who adopted both Ford and Kurosawa’s
styles together and amped it up by ten thousand
is Sergio Leone. He made Westerns in which
the gunfights are stretched out to full operatic
effect, and dialogue is kept to a bare minimum.
People just stare at each other and wait until
the music stops. Then they shoot. And we hang
on every nail biting second.
You can find Ford’s influence all over Leone’s
work. I’ll highlight a quirky one. One signature
technique Ford used is the surprise pan, with
a musical flourish. Leone did the same thing,
with actors popping out of nowhere.
John Ford’s techniques have been influencing
countless directors, including one Quentin
Tarantino.
Here’s a comparison. Watch how the tension
builds up shot by shot, almost carbon copies
of each other. The shots, the reactions, the
inserts, even the editing. Tarantino likes
to have his actors talk a lot, generally about
things that don’t have any relevance to
the plot. The actors make it interesting,
and it’s fun to watch. John Ford’s characters
talk a lot, too, but they mostly talk about
the situation they are in, and the world as
they see it. There’s a lot more moralizing
in Ford’s films.
You’ll also see the other signature techniques
in Tarantino’s films like the zoom into
a close up, the long shot montages, and the
graceful camera moves. Unfortunately you’ll
also see some of the bad aspects - like insignificant
female characters. Kill Bill is about a female
protagonist strong enough to survive death
multiple times. But in the end, when she meets
the man she is after this whole time, she
caves like a puppy and gives him a death he
doesn’t deserve. What’s even more strange
is why she didn’t go after him immediately.
As a side note, notice how the first and last
to die both use children as a shield. She’s
hardcore, but stereotypically mommy soft.
What about Tarantino’s stereotypical depictions
of asians, and anybody who is not white? Samuel
Jackson is never morally right. In Django
Unchained, a film seemingly about racism,
the main protagonist is black, but for some
strange reason the main antagonist, the one
who is more evil than Calvin Candie, is black,
too. In Pulp Fiction the main black character
gets sodomized, and must be saved by a white
man. When you see patterns over an entire
career, they are not accidents. John Ford
took a lot of flak for his depiction of women
in film and anybody who was not white. He
tried to make amends in later films like The
Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,
but they were baby steps. Times were different
back then, but what’s Tarantino’s excuse?
Back to the great John Ford. John Ford moved
the camera when the actors moved. When they
start moving, the camera starts, and it stops
moving when they stop. This is a classic camera
movement technique that David Fincher follows
to a T. It helps hide the movement and keeps
it graceful. This can be done for longer shots
as well as simpler, quicker shots. Ford hated
to move the camera unless he had to, so the
intentions are quite clear.
Then there’s the change from shallow depth
of field to deep focus. John Ford hardly used
closeups. Or should I say: he hardly abused
closeups? The closeups are softer, with shallow
depth of field. Otherwise we have a lot more
depth in the frame. David Fincher does the
same. When they use closeups, both directors
make it special. It has to mean something.
That’s not all. John Ford hardly moved the
camera during dialogue scenes. They’re typically
mid shots and long sequences of dialogues.
He once famously advised John Wayne to have
one dialogue scene, and follow it up with
scenery, or a visually striking scene, and
then keep repeating that formula. Fincher
keeps his camera steady and simple, and lets
the scene play out by itself.
After a dialogue scene the next one is a visual
scene of some sort. The wide shots are classic
frames without any virtuoso camera technique.
At most a simple pan of the camera. You get
the idea. Whether they know it or not, all
these directors are the beneficiaries of the
John 
Ford style.
One aspect of John Ford’s style that’s
not often talked about is his use of the dissolve.
If Kurosawa is known for his wipes, John Ford
should be known for his fade to blacks and
dissolves. A fade to black is not fashionable
in modern cinema, because a lot of people
think it draws too much attention to itself.
One of the best uses of the fade to black
I’ve seen is in The Grapes of Wrath. Every
time it happens, its effect is emotionally
powerful. John Ford knew how and when to use
dissolves. It’s a great lesson, that everything
in filmmaking is useful when done tastefully.
And that brings me to John Ford’s characters.
It is the aspect none of the other directors
in this list have matched. Some have come
close in a few movies, like Spielberg in Schindler’s
list or Munich, or Kurosawa in Ikiru, High
and Low, etc. But typically these directors
focus on characters who are larger than life.
You won’t see them in real life, any more
than you’ll see a spiderman or an Ironman
or
a T-Rex.
John Ford's characters could be giants like
Wyatt Earp or Abraham Lincoln, but somehow
you can relate to them. But that’s not why
his characters’ are special. What is most
special about John Ford’s characters is
that they are kind. They have kind faces,
they have kind eyes, they talk kindly, and
behave like human beings. They believe in
doing right, and even if the villains are
the epitome of evil they just want to be heard,
most likely you’ll feel empathetic to their
cause. It is a casting and writing decision,
spanning a hundred plus movies over several
decades. Just like brilliant camerawork, or
editing, or amazing chase scenes, or deep,
rich frames and world building, it took work
and never happened by itself. The casting
and writing choices clearly show the inner
workings of the kind giant known as John Ford.
