The Wagon Master (1950)

This blog has been on hiatus for a good while now. I watched The Wagon Master at MoMa just before I left New York. It's an entertaining Western movie that may appeal to those who are not really into western movies. John Ford knows how to make a good movie. What is so fascinating about The Wagon Master is that it barely has a story. We are introduced to these free-wheeling horse traders who are no family men, but not drinking men either. When these horse-traders meet a group of Mormons, they are offered a place with these people as wagon masters. Hesitatingly, they go along with the idea of travelling westward with people whose religion they do not seem to related to in one way or another. Other people join the group, and from this is created a miniature picture of American outsiders. Outsiders of belief, outsiders of society and outsiders of the law. But the film is not so much driven by ideas as it is driven by images of the ordinary and sometimes extra-ordinary challenges of everyday life on the road (and many type of rituals that form a part of everyday life). Ford's film is wistful, romantic and scruffy. It is a film that latches on to the tradition of evoking an image of the "promised land" and the things that has to be sacrificed in getting there. I have a hard time understanding why, but I found this film very entertaining, it is simply a well made film that does not pretend to be anything beyond what it is. It is not a film of pretension, which is maybe what I liked the most. Some have called it sincere and I wouldn't think twice of agreeing to this. (Structurally, this is one of the more unusual western films that I have seen.) One of the striking things about the movie is that it does not trade on the usual image of intolerant pious people. Religion, here, is not given any specific meaning. The Mormons are rather portrayed as a group who have quite complex relations amongs themselves and who take different attitudes towards outsiders of different stripes. As I said, this is a film about encounters among different sorts of outsiders which makes the notion of "beloning" all the more complex. Lastly, I want to add that it is a visually stunning film and that YOU should watch it if you have the chance.