Drums Along the Mohawk
June 12, 1:30pm
Harvard Exit

No one captured the Old West on film better than John Ford. His iconic images of vast plains and rugged landscapes still inspire storytellers grappling with the frontier justice and Indian wars of the late 19th century. But here, Ford reaches farther back in history and farther east—to 1770s upstate New York. Drums Along the Mohawk is the story of Gil Martin (Henry Fonda) and his wife Lana (Claudette Colbert) who move from civilization to a remote cabin in the Mohawk Valley, where their idyllic homestead life is buffeted by the bellicose times. With the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the settlers face hostility from the British and their Indian allies. When Gil and Lana’s farm is burned to the ground, they take refuge with wealthy widow (Edna May Oliver), but the horror of war continues to impinge. Ford’s portrayal of Native Americans became more nuanced in later films, but here Indians (and their British instigators) are pure evil. Considering it was made in 1939, Ford’s impassioned plea for a strong military may have had less to do with Revolutionary-Era America than the contemporary Nazi threat. History aside, Ford’s first color film contains some of the most beautifully composed scenes on celluloid. Restored by the Academy Film Archive in cooperation with Twentieth Century Fox, with funding provided by The Film Foundation.

To read more about the screening, please visit: http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=43296&FID=166