Drums Along the Mohawk
Posted: October 13th, 2007, 1:37 pm
Last night I attended the NY Film Festival's screening of the Fox/Film Foundation's restored print of Drums Along the Mohawk at Lincoln Center.
I felt as if I had never seen it before, it was transformed into an entirely new experience seeing it on the big screen. Principally, what I never could really appreciate from seeing it on television, was the setting. I never before realised what a truly OUTDOORS movie this is. I felt I really was in the "Mohawk Valley" of the Revolutionary War days. I could see the skies changing, the blades of grass under Claudette's feet, the beautiful symmetry of the hay-ricks, the cold wetness of the snow and all the autumnal glory of harvest-time.
What a glorious film John Ford "tossed off on his way out the door", as Martin Scorcese jokingly said in his amusing and passionate opening remarks. He went on to say, relative to the oft-doubted "authenticity" of the movie in some parts, this much: "A birch tree looks like any other birch tree to this native New Yorker, and Ford's were as beautiful as any can be found and as far as I'm concerned this was the Mohawk Valley!" He went on to praise Bert Glennon and Ray Rennahan, the film's cinematographers, as well as to recount his own first experiences seeing only black-and-white prints in his childhood. He thought for the longest time this movie was a B&W film and was astonished to learn it was a 3-strip Technicolor picgture (Ford's firs).
And what colors! I can't begin to describe those skies behind Henry Fonda's foot pounding figure springing over the ridge in his mad dash from the Indians on his heels. You just can't imagine the difference between this experience on a big screen and the TV.
The other aspect of the movie that came more forcefully home to me than in previous viewings, was the beating heart of the story: the love between Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert. Because this is a love story above all. The audience is at all times completely involved with what is happening to this young couple making their way in a new and, for Claudette anyway, strange life. There is plenty to be concerned about too! One minute, I was scrambling for Henry Fonda to get out of one scrape alive and finally relax when he's safe only to start worrying over what's next happening to Claudette! There were constant trials, unceasing work, and that made the good times appear so much sweeter and stronger and of course, Ford is a master at capturing the richness of these varying textures of communal life.
Last of all, I have to share the applause and cheers that errupted from our audience when first Edna Mae Oliver "poked her long face in" the movie. What a delight to relish, and how charming it is to know so many still adore her and younger people are learning to appreciate her wise and canny presence.
Scorcese said that these screenings (Leave Her to Heaven followed this movie) were the first of a series to travel around the country, so if any of you get the chance to see Pappy's third "toss off" of the magical year 1939, please don't hesitate to go.
I felt as if I had never seen it before, it was transformed into an entirely new experience seeing it on the big screen. Principally, what I never could really appreciate from seeing it on television, was the setting. I never before realised what a truly OUTDOORS movie this is. I felt I really was in the "Mohawk Valley" of the Revolutionary War days. I could see the skies changing, the blades of grass under Claudette's feet, the beautiful symmetry of the hay-ricks, the cold wetness of the snow and all the autumnal glory of harvest-time.
What a glorious film John Ford "tossed off on his way out the door", as Martin Scorcese jokingly said in his amusing and passionate opening remarks. He went on to say, relative to the oft-doubted "authenticity" of the movie in some parts, this much: "A birch tree looks like any other birch tree to this native New Yorker, and Ford's were as beautiful as any can be found and as far as I'm concerned this was the Mohawk Valley!" He went on to praise Bert Glennon and Ray Rennahan, the film's cinematographers, as well as to recount his own first experiences seeing only black-and-white prints in his childhood. He thought for the longest time this movie was a B&W film and was astonished to learn it was a 3-strip Technicolor picgture (Ford's firs).
And what colors! I can't begin to describe those skies behind Henry Fonda's foot pounding figure springing over the ridge in his mad dash from the Indians on his heels. You just can't imagine the difference between this experience on a big screen and the TV.
The other aspect of the movie that came more forcefully home to me than in previous viewings, was the beating heart of the story: the love between Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert. Because this is a love story above all. The audience is at all times completely involved with what is happening to this young couple making their way in a new and, for Claudette anyway, strange life. There is plenty to be concerned about too! One minute, I was scrambling for Henry Fonda to get out of one scrape alive and finally relax when he's safe only to start worrying over what's next happening to Claudette! There were constant trials, unceasing work, and that made the good times appear so much sweeter and stronger and of course, Ford is a master at capturing the richness of these varying textures of communal life.
Last of all, I have to share the applause and cheers that errupted from our audience when first Edna Mae Oliver "poked her long face in" the movie. What a delight to relish, and how charming it is to know so many still adore her and younger people are learning to appreciate her wise and canny presence.
Scorcese said that these screenings (Leave Her to Heaven followed this movie) were the first of a series to travel around the country, so if any of you get the chance to see Pappy's third "toss off" of the magical year 1939, please don't hesitate to go.