The Lost Worlds of John Ford - Beyond the Western

List of contents

Introduction and Acknowledgements
1. John Ford: the Enigmatic Genius
2. John Ford’s Ireland
3. John Ford’s Empire
4. John Ford’s Faith
5. John Ford’s Underworld
6. John Ford’s Wars
7. John Ford’s Navy
Conclusion

About the author

Jeffrey Richards is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Lancaster and a leading authority on Victorian popular culture, the Victorian theatre and twentieth century cinema. His study of Henry Irving (Hambledon 2005) was shortlisted for the Theatre History Book Prize. He is a regular reviewer and broadcaster.

Summary

The great director John Ford (1894-1973) is best known for classic westerns, but his body of work encompasses much more than this single genre. Jeffrey Richards develops and broadens our understanding of Ford's film-making oeuvre by studying his non-Western films through the lens of Ford’s life and abiding preoccupations. Ford's other cinematic worlds included Ireland, the Family, Catholicism, War and the Sea, which share with his westerns the recurrent themes of memory and loss, the plight of outsiders and the tragedy of family breakup. Richards' revisionist study both provides new insights into familiar films such as The Fugitive (1947); The Quiet Man (1952), Gideon’s Way and The Informer (1935) and reclaims neglected masterpieces, among them Wee Willie Winkie (1937) and the extraordinary The Long Voyage Home. (1940).

Foreword

A study of John Ford's films beyond the canonical Westerns for which he is best known, through the lens of some of Ford's abiding preoccupations.

Product details

• Authors: Jeffrey Richards, Richards Jeffrey
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781350194960
• ISBN: 978-1-350-19496-0
• No. of pages: 352
• Series: Cinema and Society
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Photography, film, video, TV; Media Studies, FICTION / Westerns, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies, Films, cinema, Westerns, Adventure fiction: Westerns, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / General, Individual Film Directors, Film-Makers, PERFORMING ARTS / Individual Director, FICTION / Performing Arts / Film, Television & Radio