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That was an excellent one.

hyped garbage

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Rather depressing film, and I thought I was in Franco's Spain during his rule with all the anti-Catholicism shown.Dolores Del Rio as the woman that hunted priest finds and baptizes her baby daughter is constantly on edge throughout the film. She is devoted to the lord but in the meantime has had an illegitimate child with the general who is in constant hot pursuit of the fleeing Fonda.Both of Fonda's attempts to flee this revolutionary area in Mexico are destined to fail, solely because of his faith and his commitment to bless the dying. The ending shows the commitment of faith.

For 5 years beginning in 1926, the Republic of Mexico waged all out war against Catholic armies in several states in Mexico until 1931. The movie made by John Ford, follows the massive effect this Catholic repression had on Mexicans and their society over this time period. The baptisms, the hostage taking, the executions, the effect this repression had on all classes of Mexican society, were part of this understated but brilliant depiction of Mexico during the Cristero Rebellion.The fact that John Ford used the creme of the creme of Mexican films; Emiliano "El Indio" Fernandez, an iconic figure in Mexico's Golden Age of Cinema, as an associate producer, Fernando Fernandez, an accomplished singer in Mexican cinema, Miguel Inclan (the hostage), who would go on to achieve fame as the blind man in Bunuel's "Los Olvidados", Gabriel Figueroa, by far the most accomplished Mexican cinematographer of all time, Delores Del Rio and Pedro Armendariz, two of the top stars of Mexican films, to support one of America's finest movie stars Henry Fonda, speaks volumes on John Ford's efforts to craft a movie for the ages.This film has the angst found in German films, the methodical cadence characterizing films from Great Britian, the lights and shadows of Mexico, with a good helping of an American western, thanks to another great tough guy performance by Ward Bond. The lighting, camera angles, scenic shots; Gabriel used Mexico's two most important and sacred mountains in his scenery, Popocatepetl, and Iztaccihuatl. In closing, for all you film buffs, there is a triangle relationship between this film and one of the greatest films (if not the greatest) of all times, Citizen Kane. Everyone knows that Delores Del Rio was having a relationship with Orsen Wells, during the filming of Citizen Kane. The cinematographer of Citizen Kane, Gregg Toland, was a mentor for Gabriel Figueroa in Hollywood during the 1930's!

Move over, Harrison Ford; your namesake John got here first. While comparisons with Andrew Davis' action-packed 1993 thriller are inevitable in discussing 'The Fugitive (1947),' the two films – aside from the similarity described in their shared title – are completely unrelated, and about as different as two films could possibly be. Unlike many of the Westerns that brought director John Ford his greatest fame, 'The Fugitive' is entirely unconcerned with any form of action or dialogue; Ford's film-making is so concentrated on establishing the correct emotional atmosphere for each scene that it occasionally strays into tedium. However, it was obviously a very personal project for the Ford – who once called it "perfect" – and it's difficult to criticise a film into which the director poured so much passion and resolve. The story was adapted from Graham Greene's 1940 novel, "The Power and the Glory" {a.k.a. "The Labyrinthine Ways"} and concerns the plight of a victimised Christian priest, in an unnamed Latin American country where religion has been outlawed.Perhaps the film's greatest weakness, from my reasoning at least, is that it is so concerned with painting each character as an icon or ideal (few characters are afforded names, and are instead credited with indefinite articles; "a fugitive," "a lieutenant of police," "an Indian woman") that it's hard to sympathise with them. Fortunately, while consistently attempting to maintain each character as a "timeless" figure in the film's ageless story, Dudley Nichols's screenplay avoids the usual stereotypes to which most amateur filmmakers would inevitably resort. The Fugitive (Henry Fonda) is not a courageous, humble pillar of human decency, but a misguided clergy driven by an unconscious self-pride; his adversary, the Lieutenant of Police (Pedro Armendáriz), loves his country and its people deeply, but, guided by a fierce blind patriotism and an illogical hatred of religion, he is often misled towards acts of sheer barbarity. The Police Informer (J. Carrol Naish) is a Judas-like character, betraying The Fugitive to the authorities, and becoming inescapably repentant at the thought of his inhumanity.Despite not being particularly religious myself, I was sufficiently moved by Christianity's noble plight for survival, though I wasn't overly fond of the film's ultimate assertion that the lieutenant's hatred of religion stems directly from his secretly believing in God but being unwilling to admit it. Nevertheless, if you're going to watch 'The Fugitive,' it will most certainly be for the photography, which is, captured by Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, indescribably breathtaking. The opening sequence, in which The Fugitive returns to his former church, the light streaking through the windows as though God himself is reaching into the forsaken depths of the building, is spellbinding in its beauty. While Armendáriz is charismatic, and even slightly sympathetic, in his role of the antagonist, Henry Fonda largely looks awkward in the lead role (though you could argue that this uneasiness is integral to his character), and most of the other players – perhaps due to a language barrier – are similarly stilted. A visual masterpiece this film may be, and certainly an overall interesting watch, but 'The Fugitive' remains inferior Ford.

This is a strange one: a John Ford film that looks more like some failed experiment by Orson Welles (something he toyed with before growing bored) with a turgid, meandering plot that, for the most part, stubbornly refuses to engage, and a leading man who looks as uncomfortable as he does ridiculous.Henry Fonda plays the fugitive of the title – a catholic priest in a Latin American police state determined to eliminate all traces of religion – with all the enthusiasm of a seven-year-old forced to attend Sunday school. Perhaps it's the fact that all the characteristics that drove the priest in Grahame Greene's source novel (i.e. drinking, womanising, doubting of God's love) have been ruthlessly whitewashed from the screen version leaving us with a blank canvas that still somehow contrives to be pious in the extreme. Fonda doesn't know what to do with the part, and Ford's heavy-handed, over-sentimentalised treatment doesn't help him one bit. Ford ladles it on – especially early on when we get a crippled child hobbling into church on his crutches, and subjects us to a number of intimate lingering shots of Dolores Del Rio's Mary Magdalene figure who blinks so rarely that I at first thought she was supposed to be blind. She really becomes quite frightening after a while, and I found my attention to what plot there is evaporating as I entered into some perverse kind of staring competition with her each time she appeared on screen.The film looks great, thanks to Gabriel Figueroa's cinematography and the location shooting, but the film goes nowhere as it hammers home its message: a soul lacking religion will quickly become corrupt and debauched, and trying to deny your faith to yourself will lead only to frustration and self-loathing. Pedro Armendariz as the tortured police captain and Ward Bond as a criminal fugitive bag the best roles, although Bond's is somewhat underdeveloped, meaning his protection of the fugitive priest in the corn field appears a little puzzling. Presumably he identifies with the priest's plight, but we are told too little about him to understand why.Bottom line: this is one of Ford's misfires, and not very interesting at that.