Reviews

It might be one of the saddest movies I've ever seen. Sam Peckinpah, second to none in western filmmaking shows us a protagonist, a lonely and kind hearted prospector Cable Hogue and western genre generally to the end of their days. We never see Hogue's death also he's buried deep in the soil and we know also that there lies the movie genre entertaining generations through half a century. We are sad when everyone departs to leave kind old Hogue and his memory behind.

John Ford's lesser known masterpiece, full of expressionist touches, The Fugitive might be an allegorical warning for communist rule and its story conclusion might be too predictive, nevertheless the film contains a great cinematography by legendary cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa, excellent performances from all participating actors/actresses and the great sincerity in the manner, which the story is told.

Henry Fonda is magnificent as always as cowardly priest, who wants to be a martyr, but has an irresistible impulse to stay alive, almost no matter what. He tries to avoid authority of unnamed Latin country, where the priests are executed and tries to escape by steamboat. A boy approaches him, calls "father" and asks him to follow. boy's mother is dying. Boy's words are muted by steamboat's whistle. The priest overcomes the impulse and follows him, but has no wine and goes out to get it. He purchases wine from bootleggers. The priest watches two men, while they're drinking the wine, which meant to be used for sacraments, while somewhere boy's mother vainly waits for her last communion. He suffers spiritually, because he can't tell who he is.

Dolores del Rio, which was a silent movie's Latina beauty, plays an Indian woman, Maria Dolores. Despite the fact, that she's good-looking yet, Ford is not interested in her sexuality. While she dances before sergeant, in order to hide the priest, her dance is not seductive for us. Ford portrays the scene from low angle. Dolores' bare feet are visible (visibly, middle-aged woman's feet), but they don't belong to seductress, they belong to martyr, in a sort of way. At the story's end, Fonda's character overcomes his fear of death and calmly follows his executioners. The governor is satisfied. At last, they caught the last priest in the country, as he says. In the church, Women are praying for the priest, someone knocks on door, women turn their heads toward the source of noise. The door opens, enters the man and says: "I'm your new priest..."

Ford had a Catholic upbringing and faith, which is obvious in his many films and in this one too. He tried to show, that man's faith is stronger, than even the fear of death. The movie contains religious symbolism, sometimes trivial, but essential to the story and the main character's development.

In conclusion, I can say, that every admirer of John Ford and the cinema generally, should watch this beautifully staged and photographed drama.