I guess it is not a coincidence that in another John Ford movie I have found one of the best performances from an actor on screen. James Cagney, hailed by all, and for good reason with his multifaceted ability to sing, dance, and behave in accordance with a script and with his own jerky gestures and inflection intact, completely blows my mind in one defining scene as a soldier dies in his arms. How do you relate the tremors of death, the last instance of life before it flitters away
into the intangible ether? How do you show what this physical tragedy does to a person emotionally and intellectually without sledging them over the head with sentimental rhetoric? I guess if you're John Ford you don't say much at all, and hold the scene in long shot as you watch James Cagney's character clench his teeth so hard, and in complete silence that the moment almost becomes separated from space. This is how Ford works, with a hyper-masculine minimalism that strips the scene from emotional elements like weeping and tears and replaces it with a physical thing so heavy you can't look away. What Price Glory is gory and violent, at least by the standards of 1952 that never come close to the limb-loss, decapitations, and rivers of blood and wormy intestine spills that define war movies of late. Even better, the film subtly hints at the grotesque as Ford chooses to show us the faces of his characters, their reactions to the gore, instead. This is how the violence in The Searchers works as well, with Ethan (John Wayne) playing the canvas on which the macabre is
expressed across his face; Ethan's subsequent bitter eruptions among his fellow cowboys (and remaining family members) is also the abstract expression of the human slaughter he witnesses. As previously mentioned in notes on 3 Godfathers, Wayne has the same platform to relate a complex matter, uncut and organic, with time provided by a long-take to show us how his character works through his thought; the expression changes on his face multiple times and the camera holds steady and shows each of Wayne's facial twitches and blinks. Recently I viewed Peter Bogdanovich's Directed By John Ford (1976/2006), a testament from all of Ford's regular actors, including Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda, that the director kept up a high pressure atmosphere accented by an acerbic attitude that seemed to denote that if you couldn't perform to Ford's expectations you were a personal failure. Apparently, Ford had this mental power over his players, and for better or worse, with performances like Cagney's (and the uncountable moments with Wayne), it worked.
What Price Glory takes place in 1918 France during the first world war, and gives Ford the additional credit of an author who is aware of the enemy's face as much as those of his protagonists. There are numerous shots (some I believe in close-up) that show German soldiers behind barbed-wire trenches, and later the actual capture of a German Colonel. The enemies in this film are given character, which makes the muddy rubble of mortar rust and blood all the more devastating, and certainly more real. There are sound tools Ford uses, as well, that shape the gloomy mood of the soldiers' lives: from the start of the film faint rumblings of explosions linger through the ambiance; as the story progresses the explosions become louder, until finally the characters are in the depth of battle. Finally, and what is perhaps the singularly best shot of the film, is Ford's overhead camera that holds on a yard of American soldiers exercising to the cadence of their uniform chant, which then in one smooth motion pans across the fence to a separate yard of French school girls as they sing and stretch together. With all of its violence, What Price Glory is a war movie where people coexist peacefully.
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