PRINT THE LEGEND

Author of an acclaimed biography of Ernst Lubitsch (1991) and a well-regarded history of the coming of the talkies (The Speed of Sound, 1996), Eyman takes on an even bigger piece of film history: the career of John Ford. Ford was not merely a man of contradictions—a voracious reader and a student of literature and American history who disdained intellectuals, a gruff personal reactionary who was a lifelong liberal Democrat, a cinematic poet of family unity who was a terrible parent—he was an out-and-out enigma, even to those closest to him. As Eyman notes early in this lengthy book, “The point was to never let anybody know who the real John Ford was.” To that end, Ford left a genial legacy of lies, half-truths, and fantasies he spun for interviewers and would-be biographers. One of the greatest strengths of this excellent book is that Eyman finally unravels the skeins of legend to reveal the truth about Ford’s background. Legend: Ford went to the University of Maine on a football scholarship. Fact: Ford never went to college after graduating from Portland High. Legend: Ford stumbled unwittingly into the movie business. Fact: Ford came out to Hollywood to join his older brother Francis, already a silent-film star and director, and was eager to break into the film industry. Legend: Ford did all his cutting in the camera, shooting only the footage he needed to make a scene. Fact: almost true, but Ford did shoot “coverage” (alternate camera angles of a scene to be used in the editing process) on occasion. Eyman has drawn on Ford’s personal papers, his letters and notebooks, and hundreds of interviews to create the most balanced and complete portrait yet of the director of The Searchers, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Although at times inelegantly written, this is as definitive a biography as we are likely to get of one of America’s greatest filmmakers. (b&w photos)