"Thesis on John Ford's US Cavalry Trilogy" Topic

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Came across this Military Masters Thesis looking at John Fords US Cavalry Trilogy looking at how true to life they were

Nice find.

Thanks. I look forward to reading it and re-watching the films discussed.

Movies first, I think.

Thanks DW!

I acquired a very nice PB copy of Bellah's "Reveille" a few years back and read it on my porch across several Fall mornings a few years ago.

A "VERY" different style of pacing and writing that I never encountered before, but I adjusted to it quickly enough and greatly enjoyed the stories within, several of which were based on fact.

A lot of un-said "Saids"; clipped, precise and concise narrative and pacing and no soft sell or glamour.

In turn, it's amazing how well John Ford expanded and enriched these short stories to the classic films that exist today from the bare bone skeletons they were, while keeping to the very spirit and essence of Bellah's verbiage.

Much thanks for this, very enjoyable. Ford gets the credit, but the acting was also excellent. Fonda was compelling in FA and Wayne felt his all time best performance occurred in Yellow Ribbon. He was made for these films. Incredible supporting casts. Classic, enduring, and now confirmed for me as historical.

If only I'd known as a teenager one could obtain a master's degree by watching old Westerns and commenting on them! I'd have got a Phd years ago, and much more pleasurably than ploughing through legal textbooks for my own degree…

Ford made the trilogy as a condition for getting backing for The Quiet Man. The deal was for 3 John Wayne cavalry westerns to cover the loss the studio expected to incur in making The Quiet Man, which actually made money. Fort Apache was Ford's rendition of The Little Big Horn and Custer. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon is about officers facing retirement. Rio Grande is about defending the southern border against Indian attacks. All 3 deal with the reintegration of former Confederate soldiers into the U.S. Army. All 3 depict life in the cavalry. Above all they are all entertaining, if not totally historical, and for Hollywood that is the bottom line. Entertaining movies make money.