A brief bit of Tag Gallagher on Wagon Master: "Said Ford: 'Wagon Master came closest to what I had hoped to achieve.' It is 'the purest and simplest western I have made.' Wagon Master’s magic is impossible to talk about on paper, yet easy to point to on the screen. It is in the sensuality of its black-and-white photography, the way light falling on landscapes and rivers and people makes love to them. And the magic is in the music. Wagon Master is a musical, a suite of movements, extended vignettes on western subjects: The poker game. The horse trade. The hold-up. The river fording. The thirsty dessert. The river bath. The bucking horse. The Indian dance. The whipping. The promised land. And populating the vignettes are western types: outlaws, pilgrim families, cowboys, townspeople, showfolk, Indians. Wagon Master is about these types, the people within the types, and their lines of motion on the screen."
I think Wagon Master is close to a masterpiece, it's about several groups of outsiders coming together to form a community. Basically, it's Ford's America. The biggest stars in the film are Ward Bond, a minor character actor in many of Ford's films, and Ben Johnson. Ford purposefully doesn't fill the film with stars. He wants to make a film about groups of people, not a few stars. He is sympathetic to all of these outsiders, including, unusual to this day, Mormons. Wagon Master is beautiful simplicity, and beautiful in its portrait of America
I think Wagon Master is close to a masterpiece, it's about several groups of outsiders coming together to form a community. Basically, it's Ford's America. The biggest stars in the film are Ward Bond, a minor character actor in many of Ford's films, and Ben Johnson. Ford purposefully doesn't fill the film with stars. He wants to make a film about groups of people, not a few stars. He is sympathetic to all of these outsiders, including, unusual to this day, Mormons. Wagon Master is beautiful simplicity, and beautiful in its portrait of America
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