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Ben Johnson, Someone to remember


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> {quote:title=fredbaetz wrote:}{quote}

> I already have my order in at Amazon and waiting with a worm on my tongue {baited breath}

 

Can I borrow that phrase, fred? I like it. I just got word that mine is in the mail. Woo hoo! Tuesday at the latest. I bet you get your notification tomorrow.... and your copy by Wednesday! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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Oooh, that's lovely! I love the composition. Was it in the commentary, or did I just read it? I can't remember, but Ford said he ALWAYS had an eye for composition, that he wanted to be an artist.

 

It kills me that you can't learn something like that..... I would dearly love to be able to compose a shot like that, but I just don't have it in me. You are born with it or not, I guess. The sad thing is, I can recognize it when I see it, but cannot do it myself.

 

The thing that's amazing to me is that Ford could do that, but not just with still moments, his compositions move. The set-ups never looks forced or stagy. Actors move into position in the most sensible way possible, and just manage to end up in shots like that one.

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Bon matin, Mrs J!

 

> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}

> Oooh, that's lovely! I love the composition. Was it in the commentary, or did I just read it? I can't remember, but Ford said he ALWAYS had an eye for composition, that he wanted to be an artist.

>

 

Yes, he says that in one of Pete's clips.

 

> It kills me that you can't learn something like that..... I would dearly love to be able to compose a shot like that, but I just don't have it in me. You are born with it or not, I guess. The sad thing is, I can recognize it when I see it, but cannot do it myself.

>

 

You did stagecraft, though, did you not? And you definitely have an eye for composition

when you see it in movies---therefore, you DO have it, my dear. All you'd need is the

practical experience, just as Papps gained it by those years working for his brother.

 

And don't you just love how Ford gave his brother Francis the lion's share of the

credit for teaching him what he knows, and for pioneering many techniques other

filmakers "discovered" so many years later? Ha, after being very close to the vest

about such praise while poor Francis was alive---at least to outsiders, or so they say.

 

> The thing that's amazing to me is that Ford could do that, but not just with still moments, his compositions move. The set-ups never looks forced or stagy. Actors move into position in the most sensible way possible, and just manage to end up in shots like that one.

 

I've heard that Ford had actors rehearse before a shot (important ones, anyway) and

I've heard he seldom ever rehearsed. What it seems he did do was have them not

so much rehearse as move around naturally in the set for a scene so he'd get an

idea how to block it and compose it, taking his cues from where the actors would

naturally and spontaneously move. Maybe this is why actors in his movies move

in a cinemative, yet still very idiosyncratic way that looks natural to each person.

 

Ben moves like Ben would move---in a movie---John Wayne moves as John Wayne

does move---in a movie. Same with James Stewart, Dobe, Maureen, Harry Carey, sr., etc.

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> You did stagecraft, though, did you not? And you definitely have an eye for composition

> when you see it in movies---therefore, you DO have it, my dear. All you'd need is the

> practical experience, just as Papps gained it by those years working for his brother.

 

My stagecraft class was so rudimentary, we got the basics and not much more. More than once, we ended up using our time to actually build sets!

 

> And don't you just love how Ford gave his brother Francis the lion's share of the

> credit for teaching him what he knows, and for pioneering many techniques other

> filmakers "discovered" so many years later? Ha, after being very close to the vest

> about such praise while poor Francis was alive---at least to outsiders, or so they say.

 

I was thrilled to hear him discuss Francis in such a way! He said he learned everything from Francis, and I believe him.

 

> I've heard that Ford had actors rehearse before a shot (important ones, anyway) and

> I've heard he seldom ever rehearsed. What it seems he did do was have them not

> so much rehearse as move around naturally in the set for a scene so he'd get an

> idea how to block it and compose it, taking his cues from where the actors would

> naturally and spontaneously move. Maybe this is why actors in his movies move

> in a cinemative, yet still very idiosyncratic way that looks natural to each person.

>

> Ben moves like Ben would move---in a movie---John Wayne moves as John Wayne

> does move---in a movie. Same with James Stewart, Dobe, Maureen, Harry Carey, sr., etc.

 

This is so true! I have never thought of it, but in Ford movies, the actors are so much more themselves than in any other movies..... great insight, G!

 

Wayne has that long purposeful stride, and Harry Carey, jr. seems like he skitters about 2 inches above the ground (I like to watch him break into a run). Stewart is usually a saunterer, but in Valance,Ford brings out the stolid and unmoving side of his nature.... and it works because it was inside of Stewart all along.

 

Ben has a way of moseying, even when he is deadly serious. It's quite deceptive.....because he can move like lightning (check out his swift run for the gun at the climax of Wagon Master). He was very athletic, but not showy. I think Ford was brilliant to have made him a horse trader with a somewhat shady past, a card player - because he never ever tips his hand.

 

This is the thing I like best about Ben. He has hidden depth, something that makes you want to see underneath the surface. In each movie, he seems to have something deeper that is untold, or maybe sometimes something untried. It makes him a little more fascinating in his roles as a good guy, and makes him quite scary in his bad guy roles. That depth, plus his immense inner warmth make him completely irresistible to me.

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I just did a cursory study of *Francis Ford*, who more and more intrigues me. I found that he originally worked for Thomas J. Ince at Universal, so any connection between Ford and D.W. Griffith is purely speculative on my part. Francis Ford seems to have been closer to D. W.'s generation of filmmakers, rather than studying under Griffith. Unfortunately, not much is written about Francis Ford.

 

He acted in dozens and dozens of westerns, starting his career in about 1909, but the majority of westerns he made began in 1912, when he became a director and writer, as well as an actor.

 

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