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WAGON MASTER
1950
Director
John Ford
Starring
Ben Johnson
Joanne Dru
Harry Carey Jr.
Ward Bond
Runtime
86 minutes
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One of John Ford’s unsung masterpieces, WAGON MASTER at first seems a variation of Stagecoach, with another motley assortment of character types embarking on a perilous journey through the Wild West. But the film takes on a Fellinian picaresque quality in the almost musical combination, separation and recombination of the various groups formed when two young cowboys cross paths with a Mormon wagon train, a traveling theater troupe and a gang of outlaws.
WAGON MASTER exhibits the lyrical sense of the everyday so often encountered in postwar filmmaking and usually labeled “neorealist” not only in its episodic narrative but also in the relaxed framing of its images. Ford’s favorite of his own films, WAGON MASTER can be seen as one of the greatest classic Westerns ever made or as the beginnings of the revisionist Western in its espousal of the idea that the West was always multicultural and a haven for outcasts, individualists and the oppressed.
“This is a film where the plot takes a backseat to gesture, landscape, and character. There is a conflict and a resolution but it’s handled so swiftly and without emphasis it’s obvious Ford’s concerns are elsewhere. He’s focused on the manner in which Ben Johnson whittles a stick of wood, Joanne Dru stares from the back of a wagon, or Harry Carey twirls his hat. After watching WAGON MASTER for the first time, you’ll consider it minor, a trifle of Western whimsy. Then images will linger in your mind, and you’ll wonder why. It’s a mastery that sneaks up on you, that speaks quietly and calmly about a world within our reach. And as much as Ford could ease out the natural humor and personality of his performers, his overriding concern is always that of the community, and WAGON MASTER is his purest statement on the matter.” - R. Emmet Sweeney
WAGON MASTER exhibits the lyrical sense of the everyday so often encountered in postwar filmmaking and usually labeled “neorealist” not only in its episodic narrative but also in the relaxed framing of its images. Ford’s favorite of his own films, WAGON MASTER can be seen as one of the greatest classic Westerns ever made or as the beginnings of the revisionist Western in its espousal of the idea that the West was always multicultural and a haven for outcasts, individualists and the oppressed.
“This is a film where the plot takes a backseat to gesture, landscape, and character. There is a conflict and a resolution but it’s handled so swiftly and without emphasis it’s obvious Ford’s concerns are elsewhere. He’s focused on the manner in which Ben Johnson whittles a stick of wood, Joanne Dru stares from the back of a wagon, or Harry Carey twirls his hat. After watching WAGON MASTER for the first time, you’ll consider it minor, a trifle of Western whimsy. Then images will linger in your mind, and you’ll wonder why. It’s a mastery that sneaks up on you, that speaks quietly and calmly about a world within our reach. And as much as Ford could ease out the natural humor and personality of his performers, his overriding concern is always that of the community, and WAGON MASTER is his purest statement on the matter.” - R. Emmet Sweeney