Quick: who holds the record for the most Oscar wins for Best Director? It isn’tFrank CapraorWilliam Wyler, who each capped off with three victories. Nor is itDavid Lean,Steven Spielberg,Billy Wilder, or any of the other filmmakers who managed to snag two. The answer, as any Oscars fanatic well knows, isJohn Ford, who won four out of his five nominations in the category. Ford, whose career encompassed more than 100 feature films, was best known for his Westerns, especially the ones that starredJohn Wayne. Yet surprisingly enough, none of his four Academy Award victories came from titles in that genre, revealing a bias against popular entertainment that persists to this day.
John Ford Was an Oscar Darling Throughout His Career
Ford, whose career began in the Silent Era and ended at the dawn of the New Hollywood, won his first Oscar for directing 1935’sThe Informer.Set in Dublin during the Irish War of Independence, it’s a moody drama about a man named Gypo (Victor McLaglen) who turns on a friend wanted by the police in order to collect a bounty. Employing expressionistic, atmospheric cinematography, it also took home prizes for McLaughlin forBest Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Score, losing Best Picture toMutiny on the Bounty. Four years later, Ford was back in the awards race for 1939’sStagecoach,a Western thattook the genre to new artistic heights. The adventure yarn about a stagecoach traveling through dangerous Apache territory made Wayne a star and won trophies forThomas Mitchellas Best Supporting Actor and for Best Score. Ford lost his bid toVictor Fleming, director of that year’s Best Picture bohemith,Gone with the Wind.
The next year, Ford snagged his second Best Director Oscar for the 1940 dramaThe Grapes of Wrath,adapted fromJohn Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Ford took an almost documentary approach to telling Steinbeck’s story of an Oklahoma family making the trek to California during the Dust Bowl, with cinematographerGregg Toland(ofCitizen Kanefame) cloaking the images in dark shadows. The film lost Best Picture toAlfred Hitchcock’sRebecca,althoughJane Darwelldid win the prize as Best Supporting Actress. The following year, Ford won Best Director forHow Green Was My Valley,which famouslybeatCitizen Kanefor Best Picture. The sentimental drama about an Irish mining family took home five prizes in total, including wins for cinematography, art direction, andDonald Crispas Best Supporting Actor.
This Lost John Ford Western Has Been Found After 100 Years
‘The Scarlet Drop’ is one of Ford’s earliest films.
Ford’s final trip to the Oscars was for one of his few collaborations with Wayne that wasn’t a Western ora war movie. Set in Ireland in the1920s,The Quiet Manstars Wayne as a retired boxer who falls in love when he returns to his hometown. The 1952 release won Ford his fourth and final Oscar, and took home an additional prize for its lush Technicolor cinematography. It lost Best Picture toCecil B. DeMille’sThe Greatest Show on Earth,long consideredone of the worst Oscar winners in history(althoughnot bySteven Spielberg).
John Ford’s Westerns Were Just as Worthy of Oscar Consideration
Missing from the list of films Ford received Oscar nominations for areThe Searchers(perhaps the most influential Western ever made),My Darling Clementine,The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,Fort Apache,She Wore a Yellow Ribbon…the list is so long as to almost be embarrassing. Although Ford’s Westerns — which he began directing in the Silent Era with titles likeThe Iron Horseand3 Bad Men— were populist hits, they were likely considered too commercial to warrant Oscar consideration. These are “genre entertainments,” after all, not serious artistic statements, andthat Academy bias towards genre movies— be it against Westerns, horror, sci-fi, or fantasy — exists to this day.
Yet for all of their populist appeal, Ford’s Westerns were just as worthy of artistic consideration as any of the films that brought him Academy Awards. Just look atThe Searchers,which inspiredMartin ScorseseandPaul Schrader’sTaxi Driverand has ranked high in the annualSight and Sound Polland theAFI’s Top 100. Oscar voters might not have understood its greatness at the time — nor the greatness of any Ford Western save forStagecoach—but time has been the ultimate judge.
Stagecoachis available to watch on Max in the U.S.
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Stagecoach
Stagecoach follows a diverse group of passengers traveling through dangerous territory under the looming threat of attack. As they face external perils on their way to Lordsburg, each character’s personal story unfolds, revealing hidden depths and forging unexpected connections, ultimately shaping their shared journey and individual destinies.
