When the legend becomes fact; print the legend. This line comes from director John Fords film; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; but it also serves as an epigram for the life of the legendary filmmaker.Through a career that spanned decades and included work on dozens of films -- among them such American masterpieces as The Searchers; The Grapes of Wrath; The Quiet Man; Stagecoach; and How Green Was My Valley -- John Ford managed to leave as his legacy a body of work that few filmmakers will ever equal. Yet as bold as the stamp of his personality was on each film; there was at the same time a marked reticence when it came to revealing anything personal. Basically shy; and intensely private; he was known to enjoy making up stories about himself; some of them based loosely on fact but many of them pure fabrications. Ford preferred instead to let his films speak for him; and the message was always masculine; determined; romantic; yes; but never soft -- and always; always totally "American." If there were other aspects to his personality; moods and subtleties that werent reflected on the screen; then no one really needed to know.Indeed; what mattered to Ford was always what was up there on the screen. And if it varied from reality; what did it matter? When you are creating legend; fact becomes a secondary matter.Now; in this definitive look at the life and career of one of Americas true cinematic giants; noted biographer and critic Scott Eyman; working with the full participation of the Ford estate; has managed to document and delineate both aspects of John Fords life -- the human being and the legend.Going well beyond the legend; Eyman has explored the many influences that were brought to play on this remarkable and complex man; and the result is a rich and involving story of a great film director and of the world in which he lived; as well as the world of Hollywood legend that he helped to shape. Drawing on more than a hundred interviews and research on three continents; Scott Eyman explains how a saloon-keepers son from Maine helped to shape Americas vision of itself; and how a man with only a high school education came to create a monumental body of work; including films that earned him six Academy Awards -- more than any filmmaker before or since. He also reveals the truth of Fords turbulent relationship with actress Katharine Hepburn; recounts his stand for freedom of speech during the McCarthy witch-hunt -- including a confrontation with archconservative Cecil B. DeMille -- and discusses his disfiguring alcoholism as well as the heroism he displayed during World War II.Brilliant; stubborn; witty; rebellious; irascible; and contradictory; John Ford remains one of the enduring giants in what is arguably Americas greatest contribution to art -- the Hollywood movie. In Print the Legend; Scott Eyman has managed at last to separate fact from legend in writing about this remarkable man; producing what will remain the definitive biography of this film giant.
#4601604 in eBooks 2012-04-05 2012-04-05File Name: B007XVQTXG
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