One of John Ford’s most Fordian films: the story of a convoy of Mormons to Utah, on their way to found a community Eden there. Based on a script by Frank Nugent, one of his favorite writers (he wrote “The Quiet Man”, “The Prisoner of the Desert” and “The Two Horsemen”, among others), Ford films the adventures of this austere caravan, and we feel, on the part of the director, a deep sympathy for these lost people. The way the filmmaker captures faces, landscapes and gestures is characteristic of his style: the whole is more important than the part, the individual odyssey turns into a historical saga, and the men lost in a wild nature determine a form of visual lyricism.
The film is literally, a visual poem
Basically, the dramaturgy of the scenario is almost non-existent, but the human relationships between the “brave” of the title are fascinating. Curiously, it was during the filming of “The Heroic Charge” the previous year in Monument Valley that Ford’s son, Patrick, learned of the Mormon Odyssey. And, once the script was completed, John Ford did as usual, he improvised, saying to his son and to Frank Nugent: “I really like your script, guys. In fact, I even flipped a few pages. »
We find, of course, Ford’s favorite actors: Ben Johnson, ex-cowboy, ex-rodeo professional, with this face which, in itself, is already a story; Harry Carey Jr., the son of Harry Carey, an early silent western actor, who had worked with Ford in the past; Joanne Dru, already seen in “The Heroic Charge”; Jane Darwell, who starred in seven Ford films (including “Grapes of Wrath”, where she is the mamma, comforter, unforgettable); Hank Worden, the most familiar of Ford’s westerns (seventeen films!), lean face and slow diction, often confined to the roles of a wise simpleton; and Movita Castaneda, one of Marlon Brando’s wives… “Convoy of the Brave” has remained one of Ford’s cherished films, with good reason: it is, quite literally, a visual poem.
Wednesday January 25 at 9 p.m. on OCS Géants. John Ford’s American Western (1950). With Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Joanne Dru. 1h25. (Multicast and On Demand).
