John Ford: Last News

With two days to go until Christmas, I can’t think of a better gift for film lovers or those with an interest in iconic forces in the entertainment industry than the 2022 autobiography My Place in the Sun, which chronicles the life of George Stevens Jr — now 90 and still going strong in a remarkable career that has traversed the highest corridors of Hollywood to Washington, D.C.

Near the beginning of Sean Egan’s recently-published piece in the U.K. publication The Critic, are the following assertions: “new Scorsese films are routinely an hour too long…his directorial talent has never been as great as occasional masterpieces like Goodfellas (1990) tricked us into believing it was.”

JUST IN: The Duke John Wayne suffered from ill health"I did not admire him. But he seduced me mercilessly. 'I promise you I will do the best job I possibly can,' he said.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic No director has done more to deconstruct the myth of the suburban American family than Steven Spielberg. Dissertations have been written and documentaries made on the subject. And now, at the spry young age of 75, Spielberg himself weighs in on where his preoccupations come from in “The Fabelmans,” a personal account of his upbringing that feels like listening to two and a half hours’ worth of well-polished cocktail-party anecdotes, only better, since he’s gone to the trouble of staging them all for our benefit. Spielberg’s a born storyteller, and these are arguably his most precious stories. From the first movie he saw (“The Greatest Show on Earth”) to memories of meeting filmmaker John Ford on the Paramount lot, this endearing, broadly appealing account of how Spielberg was smitten by the medium — and why the prodigy nearly abandoned picture-making before his career even started — holds the keys to so much of the master’s filmography. More similar to Woody Allen’s autobiographical “Radio Days” than it is to European art films such as “The 400 Blows” and “Amistad” (the more highbrow models other directors typically point to when re-creating their childhoods), “The Fabelmans” invites audiences into the home and headspace of the world’s most beloved living director, an oddly sanitized zone where even the trauma — which includes anti-Semitism, financial disadvantage and divorce — seems to go better with fresh-buttered popcorn.

John Wayne classics such as The Searchers and Stagecoach saw his health deteriorating terribly in the early 1970s. After breaking a hip, Ford had to get used to a wheelchair and was moved from his Bel Air home to Palm Desert to be treated for cancer. In October 1972, the Screen Directors Guild paid tribute to him and in March the following year, the American Film Institute honoured the director with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

John Wayne and John Ford collaborated on some of the Hollywood Golden Age's best-loved Westerns from She Wore a Yellow Ribbon to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Perhaps their most famous was 1956's The Searchers, which is on BBC Two this afternoon. The film saw Duke play a Civil War veteran spending years searching for his abducted niece, played by Natalie Wood.

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentThe Motion Picture & Television Fund, celebrating its 100th anniversary, might be the most active, admired — and most misunderstood — organization in Hollywood. Silent screen star Mary Pickford started the philanthropic org under the name Motion Picture Relief Fund (it was renamed in 1971).Over the century, entertainment’s biggest heavyweights gave support.

“Welcome to the 48th, 49th, and 50th AFI Life Achievement Awards,”  American Film Institute President and CEO Bob Gazzale stated as he began his welcoming remarks for Thursday night’s long awaited and long pandemic- delayed tribute to Julie Andrews, the 2022 honoree at a ceremony originally  set to take place in the spring of 2020 that now finally happened with all style and warmth so familiar to these AFI evenings ever since AFI founder George Stevens Jr. came up with the idea in 1973 when director John Ford was the first honoree (Stevens, now 90, was there and acknowledged from the stage last night). Since then there has never been a “gap” between cereomonies but now there is between 2019 honoree Denzel Washington and Andrews, but it was well worth the wait, and congratulations to the AFI, Board Trustees Chairs Kathleen Kennedy and Bob Daly as well as Gazzale (who is also Executive Producer of the show which will air on TNT June 16 at 10pm) for not letting Covid diminish the event, even if it had to come a little later than usual,and every member of the audience at the Dolby Theatre (transformed into a banquet setting for the elegant dinner) had to take a PCR test at least 48 hours before entering the building. Other than that it was just like old times and you could tell the industry crowd was thrilled to be there for a genuine show business legend. The only sad part was that Andrews’ The Sound Of Music co-star Christopher Plummer was not there. The Oscar winning actor had actually been set to appear at the tribute when it was originally to take place before the pandemic had other ideas. He died in Feburary of last year at age 91.

on Instagram. “Please keep them in your prayers. What an incredible legacy he leaves behind.”Seals & Crofts helmed the era of soft rock, with a string of hit tracks in the ’70s including “Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl” and “Get Closer,” which featured Carolyn Willis.

Steven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentNearly a half-century has passed since Elvis left the building, permanently. Australian auteur Baz Luhrmann has just unleashed “Elvis,” his big, bold, nearly three-hour biopic, at Cannes and that Warner Bros. bet appears to have paid off.

Aissa explained that the late actor largely differed from the self-confident, stoic characters he played on-screen. She said that he was largely driven by insecurity and complexity and wasn’t as straightforward as his film characters would suggest. The writer used an anecdote about Marlon Brando to convert her point. She said that, at the height of his fame, Marlon was “eyeing (my) mother”. Continuing, Aissa wrote: “Maybe she didn’t hear they’d been married, perhaps he had and didn’t care.“Brando was barely 30, gorgeous and arrogant, sizzling with success.” She explained that Marlon sent a friend over to ask John if he could have an evening with his wife. “My father said one word: ‘no!’” Aissa added that in the same evening, her father went into a “jealous rage”. “It was my mom’s first glimpse of his dark side. “She realised, only then, that my father was not the characters he played on the screen. “Men who not only had self-assurance, they reeked of it.” Aissa said that he was “more complicated than that”. He was driven by "insecurity and pride", she furthered. She further explained the relationship between Marlon and John in her book. Despite the two being major stars in Hollywood around the same time, neither of them were ever much more than acquaintances. Aissa claimed they didn’t get along very well. She said that, despite respecting his talent, “my father and Marlon weren’t friends.” Aissa added that director John Ford once wanted both actors for a film he was making. She explained that Marlon refused to be in the film because he didn’t like John Ford’s style. Aissa admitted her father didn’t like his attitude and didn’t extend the friendship. 

Clayton Davis The final voting for Sunday’s 94th Oscars has closed. What can we expect?A two-year global pandemic, which is still in progress, changed the mindset of humankind, and the Hollywood industry. The awards season seemed to be back on track but just prior to the holiday break, events were being postponed, and a familiar dark passenger started showing its face once again, under different name variants.It’s no secret that Oscar voters have been looking for a good mood.

With his 8th Oscar nomination for directing today, Steven Spielberg joins a very select group of four filmmakers who have received 8-plus Best Director nominations. They include Billy Wilder, who also has 8, his contemporary Martin Scorsese, who has 9, and the great William Wyler, who earned 11 total directing nominations.

Natalie was a child star who successfully made the transition to young adult roles, going on to lead an illustrious career. She won four Golden Globes and three Academy Award nominations in her time, starring in at least 31 films. As a teenager, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 'Rebel Without a Cause' in 1955, followed by a role in John Ford's 'The Searchers' in 1956.

Naman Ramachandran French filmmaker Arthur Harari’s “Onoda – 10 000 Nights In The Jungle” will open the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes’ Official Selection. The film tells the story of soldier Hiroo Onoda who was sent to an island in the Philippines in 1944 to fight against the American forces.

Eureka! has got in touch in regards to their upcoming release of Rio Grande, John Ford’s excellent John Wayne-led movie from 1950. The release is part of the distributor’s ‘Masters Of Cinema’ series and will arrive later this month.