20 Best John Ford Movies, Ranked (original) (raw)
Published Dec 8, 2023, 9:30 AM EST
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Considered one of the greatest American filmmakers of Hollywood's Golden Age, John Ford had a remarkable directing career, with a body of work impressive for both its size and consistency. He began making movies during the silent era, with many of his earliest films tragically being lost to time, given how poorly films were preserved. Some estimates put the percentage lost as high as 75%, with even Ford's early works not being safe to this unfortunate statistic.
But given his directorial career went well beyond the silent era, his non-silent feature films are all available, and many hold up surprisingly well. He made feature films until was in his early 70s, ultimately passing away at the age of 79 in 1973. He left behind almost too many good movies to count, with the following being an attempt to celebrate the best of the best, with such highlights being ranked below from great to greatest.
20 'The Last Hurrah' (1958)
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, and Dianne Foster
Image via Columbia Pictures
Not to be mixed up with an underrated 1979 martial arts movie called Last Hurrah for Chivalry (by the master of action movies, John Woo), 1958's The Last Hurrah is instead a John Ford-directed political drama. It explores the then-rising popularity of journalism/news on TV, and also sheds light on how powerful, wealthy groups try to manipulate a mayoral election.
Its honest look at politics and how it can be corrupted might make it comparable to the films of Frank Capra, given more than a few of his movies dealt with similar things. It's an underrated and solidly made film, with the always-magnetic Spencer Tracy giving a compelling lead performance. It's a surprisingly straightforward drama film by the standards of John Ford, but it's a well-constructed and well-acted one, making The Last Hurrah worth a watch.
19 '3 Godfathers' (1948)
Cast: John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey, Jr.
colorized still of John Wayne as Robert Hightower, Harry Carey Jr. as William Kearney holding a swaddled infant and Pedro Armendáriz as Pedro Roca Fuerte standing next to each other in a desert in 3 Godfathers
Image via MGM
There's another John who's often talked about in the same breath as Ford: John Wayne. These two Johns collaborated on a total of 14 feature films, so going through Ford's filmography is naturally going to lead to plenty of mentions of the other John, because Ford's interest in casting Wayne never seemed to wane, and Wayne could just about always a-Ford to be there (sorry).
One such collaboration was 3 Godfathers, which is about three men taking an infant across the desert to safety after its mother dies. It's the sort of reliable premise that was used at least once in the Zatoichi film series, and it also inspired Satoshi Kon's underrated anime film, Tokyo Godfathers. It's used well here, too, and makes for an engaging Western.
18 'How the West Was Won' (1962)
Cast: Carroll Baker, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, and Debbie Reynolds
Richard Widmark as Mike King riding a horse in front of a train in How the West Was Won (1962)
Image via MGM
It might be cheating to include How the West Was Won as a John Ford movie, because in actuality, this rather remarkable Western epic is split into five chapters, and had three different directors. Ford directed one chapter, George Marshall was responsible for another, and Henry Hathaway undertook directing duties for the other three.
Still, it's a unique and oftentimes impressive film, so it's worth highlighting, especially because Ford is at least one of the credited directors (and it all might've been too much for a single filmmaker to make). It follows one family over multiple generations, spanning from the 1830s until near the end of the 1800s, all shot on a massive scale and with one of the widest aspect ratios ever - it's all overwhelming and visually quite stunning in the best way.
Release Date
November 1, 1962
Runtime
164 Minutes
Director
John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall, Richard Thorpe
Main Genre
Western
17 'Mister Roberts' (1955)
Cast: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, and Jack Lemmon
James Cagney and Henry Fonda in Mister Roberts
Image via Warner Bros.
In some ways, it's easy to see the DNA for the hit TV show M*A*S*H in Mister Roberts. It's set during World War II instead of the Korean War, sure, but it presents a surprisingly comedic look at getting by during war, and shows military personnel using humor to cope with the boredom and stressfulness of life in a dangerous situation.
Mister Roberts is also unafraid to get bittersweet, with drama combined with comedy to striking effect... and that's something M*A*S*H did very well, too. But when it comes to Mister Roberts, it's really the performances that make it shine - Henry Fonda and James Cagney are both very good, but it's Jack Lemmon who steals the show, and it's not surprising that he ended up winning an Oscar for his role here.
16 'Rio Grande' (1950)
Cast: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, and Ben Johnson
John Wayne in Rio Grande
Image via Republic Pictures
John Ford obviously didn't just make Westerns, but it's his work within the genre that tends to get most remembered to this day. He's one of the most famous American directors to explore the Western genre, and it's hard to imagine what that once-vital (and still mostly appreciated) genre would've looked like without him - it could well be completely different, given how many he made and how good they generally were.
And Rio Grande is most certainly one of his many good ones, and it has John Wayne in a starring role to boot. It blends a story about defending settlers against Apache attacks with some family drama for good measure, and though it's not one of Ford's most consistent or timeless Westerns by any means, it largely satisfies and marks another solid collaboration for the two Johns.
15 '7 Women' (1966)
Cast: Anne Bancroft, Sue Lyon, and Margaret Leighton
Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Not related to a certain movie with Seven Samurai by any means, despite the similar name, 7 Women is notable for a couple of key reasons. One is that it was John Ford's final feature film, as his only credit after this was for a 47-minute documentary called Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend, which was made in 1970 and released in 1976. Another key reason is that this film centered on female characters (unsurprising, given the title), whereas most of Ford's well-known movies had male leads.
The film takes place in 1935, and is set in China, with a premise revolving around a group of female missionaries who are being targeted by a Mongolian warlord and his forces. It's a tightly paced film at just 87 minutes long, and a solid one for Ford's filmography to end on, with it also certainly benefiting from a strong lead performance by Anne Bancroft.
14 'The Informer' (1935)
Cast: Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, and Preston Foster
A man and a woman cheek-to-cheek looking ahead in The Informer - 1935
Image via RKO Radio Pictures
The Informer is an interesting title within the filmography of John Ford, being something of a crime/drama with a limited scope that remains as compelling as his bigger films nonetheless. It centers on a former member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and follows his conflicted feelings when he has the chance to escape his downbeat life, though he has to betray a current member of the IRA (and close friend) to do so.
It's set during the 1920s, and takes place in the wake of the Irish War of Independence, but has retained a certain amount of tension and relevance over the years, owing to the fact that conflict in Ireland continued for much of the 20th century. The Informer's unapologetically straightforward, but mines a good deal of drama out of its simple premise, and is one earlier John Ford movie that's certainly worth seeking out.
13 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon' (1949)
Cast: John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, and Ben Johnson
John Wayne and Ben Johnson in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Image via RKO Radio Pictures
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is yet another acclaimed film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, and it once again can be most easily classified as a Western. The premise here sees John Wayne playing a character who'd perhaps be right at home in a trope-heavy cop movie, as he's not far from retirement (though he's a captain out on patrol during Old West times, making him pretty far removed from a 20th or 21st century police officer).
The "She" of the title is a young woman named Olivia Dandridge who's under the protection of Wayne's character during the aforementioned patrol, and also finds herself in the sights of two younger soldiers who've taken a fancy to her. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon manages to blend Western/adventure thrills with a dash of romance for good measure, ending up as a crowd-pleasing and undeniably solid film that's well worth watching for fans of old-fashioned Hollywood entertainment.
12 '3 Bad Men' (1926)
Cast: George O’Brien, Olive Borden, and Lou Tellegen
Image via Fox Film Corporation
3 Bad Men is not related to 3 Godfathers, in any way, even if both movies have titles that begin the same way, and (obviously) share a director. The plot sees three outlaws deciding to help a young woman, as her father has just been killed, with their "badness" ultimately being seen as significantly less serious than other more powerful and corrupt forces in the Old West.
It's noteworthy because it's one of the rare silent movies John Ford directed that survives intact, and given it's in the public domain, it's one of those movies that, interestingly enough, is available to watch on Wikipedia, of all places. Because of its age, it's not one of his best-known Westerns, but that also makes it one of the more underrated movies in the genre out there, and certainly worth a watch for fans of silent cinema.
11 'Fort Apache' (1948)
Cast: John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Temple
John Wayne in 'Fort Apache'
Image via RKO Pictures
While he doesn't go into full-on villain mode the way he memorably did in Sergio Leone's masterful 1968 Western Once Upon a Time in the West, Henry Fonda's role in Fort Apache still feels quite far removed from what you'd expect. He plays something of an antagonist here, or at the very least, it's easy to say his character's not exactly likable.
Fonda plays a military man named Owen Thursday, and he clashes with other men at the post he commands, with a particular self-destructive determination to wipe out an Apache chief threatening to be his undoing. It takes a surprisingly balanced look at the Apache Wars (making it something of a great war movie and a great Western simultaneously), and does ultimately get more critical of American forces than one might expect, mainly through Fonda's flawed yet interesting character.