Is John Ford Overrated?

the grapes of wrath
the searchers
stagecoach
fort apache
mister roberts
young mr lincoln
she wore a yellow ribbon
how green was my valley
the man who shot liberty valance
my darling clementine


i would say he is not overrated.

No he’s not.
Now get the f*ck out of my office!


[none]

Not at all, The Searchers is one of the greatest Westerns ever and it, along with The Quiet Man are my favorite Wayne movies.

Ethan is violent, racist, abusive and determined to track down and murder his own niece, who had the audacity to be kidnapped and presumably bedded by the dreaded Comanche! Being touched by an Indian sullies her and he won’t abide that. He’s what could be called a flawed hero if viewed through a modern lens.

Not many directors would have the guts and ability to tackle this material but Ford not only makes it work, he makes it one of the best of the genre even nearly 70 years later.

Just looking it up now it seems Ford and Wayne did 14 big pictures together. That too is a sign of a great director, knowing the talent you want on your team and building a network of trusted people. That’s smart business.

The man was a top shelf director.

"The Grapes of Wrath" is the one great movie I've seen of his. Too many of his movies seem the same to me.

Not really my type of movies.

"Overrated" and "underrated" are meaningless terms. That said, Ford is a director who has a long established filmography of titles achieving both critical acclaim and commercial success. That seems like a well earned status to me.

I don't thing he's overrated, I think he's a damn good solid director who knew what he could do well and did it well, and isn't that more or less how he's regarded today?

I admit my opinion is colored by the fact that his movies aren't generally my cup of tea... as Ford didn't make movies for people who love tea, did he.

No. He's one of the greats.