John Ford - The Cavalry Trilogy - A Poll

Ha! Just PVR'd these off TCM and was looking forward to settling in for a FordFest next week after my term paper was finally handed in.

i love prissy henry fonda in apache. haven't seen the others but i recorded them off tcm the other day too.

Rio Grande was the only one I hadn't seen until TCM yesterday. The 24 hours of Ford/Wayne collaborations has put my DVR to the breaking point.

Ribbon

prefer ending of Ft Apache tho

i really like dave kehr's capsule review of 'she wore a yellow ribbon':

Of all John Ford's lyrical films, this 1949 feature is the one that most nearly leaves narrative behind; it is pure theme and variation, centered on the figure of a retiring cavalry officer (John Wayne, playing with strength and conviction a man well beyond his actual age). The screenplay (by Frank Nugent and Laurence Stallings) is entirely episodic, and it ends in a magnificently sustained series of anticlimaxes, suggesting it could spin out forever. In Ford's superbly creative hands, it becomes perhaps the only avant-garde film ever made about the importance of tradition.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Fort Apache" for me

Fort Apache over SWAYR, narrowly. Saw Rio Grande recently and was taken by Wayne saying “I’ve seen things that make my sense of duty important."

yellow ribbon

Fort Apache over the other two, easily. SWAYR boasts the best Wayne performance of the three, sure, and Rio Grande is the perhaps the most breezily entertaining and watchable, but FA is the only one (thanks to that ending, mostly) that actually resonates.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

hmmm...idgi

If there were at least 2 other FA votes then I get the impression I didn't vote in my own poll.

Never apologize, Gukbe, it's a sign of weakness.

Never apologize, never explain.

the lyric aimlessness of yellow ribbon + the shots of john wayne against insane technicolor-red sunsets made me want a john ford movie of the martian chronicles

best i've seen wayne outside of red river prob, graveside stuff's lovely. god the fistfights tho.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v87/Inuxx/vlcsnap-2014-07-31-16h13m33s181_zps48b870f0.png

Fort Apache sits far above the other two imo, esp. Rio Grande. the ending is great, and what a fantastic & despicable performance by Henry Fonda.