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Originally Posted by TFD
What exactly do you have against Ford?
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As a man, I think he was a real cocksucker and I have no respect for him whatsoever. As a filmmaker, I think he's fine. Totally competent, and he made some decent films, but the fact that so many people over so many decades have lauded so many of his films as among the greatest ever made and the fact that so many people rank him as one of the greatest filmmakers of all-time, it just gets me riled up since I don't feel he's deserving of such praise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TFD
But they are always gorgeous to look at, and they much better capture the mythology and iconography of the American frontier; hell they are actually filmed in authentic American locations. I don't think this specifically makes them better than Leone's films, but they speak greater about the extent to which Ford captures the American West, as opposed to an Italian filmmaker's personal vision of it (this coming from the guy who loves foreign films).
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Yes, Ford captured the mythology of the American West, but Sergio Leone captured the mythology of the entire Western genre. He took everything made iconic by Griffith, by Ford, by Mann, and he touched on every last thematic element ever covered by any Western filmmaker, but he did it with a cinematic style wholly original and wholly his own, and any one of his Westerns blows any and every Ford Western off the screen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TFD
Ford just has the most gorgeous cinematography of any Western filmmaker
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Just viewing the showdowns in either
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or
Once Upon a Time in the West should dissuade you of such crazy talk
