John Ford Epilogue in 2 Parts: A dream and a movie by Craig Hammill
As part of our The Ford Fundamentals: John Ford Director of 2022 series, founder.programmer Craig Hammill is writing an appreciation in 12 chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue across the year.
Epilogue Pt. 1: A Dream
In the early times of our John Ford, Director of the year, 2022 series, I had a dream about John Ford.
I wanted to share it right away. But that felt premature. First, we needed to do right by the Old Man and show his movies through the end of the year. Now I feel I can share it.
But the important thing here is that it felt like a message John Ford wanted to share with you, the audience. And he just happened to be telling me through a dream. I don’t want to get too silly or ethereal about it. You’ll draw your own conclusions. But here’s the dream I had about the Old Man:
In it, John Ford and I were walking through a beautiful expansive park. It was more like a field surrounded by tall New England trees. Maybe it was somewhere in his home state of Maine. I’m not sure. Beyond the trees was a beautiful wilderness, more like the West, more like Monument Valley. Tall mountains, plateaus, rock outcroppings.
We started to walk up this grassy hill to get a better view. At the middle, I stopped, not feeling I deserved to walk up the rest of the hill with the Old Man. John Ford appeared to be in his 80’s. He had a walking cane. He seemed very serene. At peace in a way.
When he got to the top of the hill, he gestured with his cane across the expanse then pointed his cane at me. I got nervous. He wanted me to say something. I stammered out:
“We hold these truths to be self evident that all people are created equal.”
I stopped, embarrassed, not know why I said that and feeling like I had been presumptuous.
Ford pointed his cane emphatically at me to continue that actually that had been the thing he wanted me to say. I continued nervously:
“We hold these truths to be self evident that all people are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
I stopped. Ford smiled. He pointed the cane again at me. As if to say that is what he hoped people realized he had devoted his life to saying in the body of his work.
Then I woke up.
Epilogue Pt. 2: A Movie
In April of this year, my family and I took a week long vacation to Arizona. Martha, my wife, was kind enough to agree to go up to the northern most part of the state to stay at Monument Valley so we could see where John Ford shot so many of his amazing movies. We also visited Sedona and Horse Shoe Bend (other locations for Ford’s films).
What struck me about Monument Valley was that, for as beautiful as it is in so many Ford classics (Stagecoach, The Searchers, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon…), nothing can prepare you for how sacred and beautiful and unique it is when you are there in person. The rock outcroppings against the flat desert feel like God’s own cathedrals. I wondered if this was why Ford came up there so much. You really do feel you’re in a different space there. A sacred special space.
Here’s the short movie of that trip: Tribute to the Old Man (2022, 2mns 30 secs, shot on super 8mm):