About this item

Responsible for some of the greatest films of the 20th century - The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, and The Quiet Man among others - John Ford was best known for motion pictures that defined the American West and the face of wartime military. A Hollywood celebrity, Ford lived his life against the background that Twentieth Century-Fox fashioned for him. As he did, the facts of his life merged with - and became inseparable from - his multifaceted legend, fostered by Hollywood's studio culture and his own imagination.In The Westerns and War Films of John Ford Sue Matheson offers an engaging look at one of America's greatest directors and the two genres of films that solidified his reputation.Drawing on previously unreleased material, this volume explores the man, the filmmaker, the veteran, and the legend - and the ways in which all of those roles shaped Ford's view of America, national character, and his creative output.



About the Author

Sue Matheson

Sue Matheson is an Associate Professor at the University College of the North. She teaches in the areas of American Film and popular culture, Canadian literature, and Children's literature. Western film is one of her research specializations. Her interests in film, culture, and literature may be found in more than forty essays published in a wide range of books and scholarly journals. She is the editor of Love in Western Film and Television: Lonely Hearts and Happy Trails (Palgrave 2013) and has co-edited volumes of essays regarding Canadian literature, culture, and the North: The Fictional North: Ten Discussions of Icons and Stereotypes Above the 53rd Parallel (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2012) and Horizons North: Contact, Culture and Education in Canada (2014) .

Matheson is the book review editor for The Journal of Popular Film and Television (Taylor & Francis) . She is also the editor of the quint: an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north (www.ucn.ca/sites/academics/facultyarts/programofferings/arts/humanities/Pages/Humanities-Journals.aspx) .

She received her doctoral degree from The University of Manitoba in English Literature, focusing on cultural failure and counterculture literature in Canada, the United States, and Britain. Her master's degree in English Literature, focusing on magic in C.S. Lewis' children's stories, was also earned at The University of Manitoba.



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