[March 26, 2017] I’ve profiled a lot of leaders here in theLeaderMaker.com blog but never have I written about a film director. Leadership can be found in the strangest of places but directing a movie is exactly where it can be seen for what it really is all about. John Ford, the winner of four Academy Awards for Best Director1, is considered one of the greatest directors of all time.
Only a great director can pull together the many parts (script, actors, operations, technology, etc.) that a movie requires and then to infuse the artistic talent necessary for the audience to enjoy. Few would disagree that John Ford makes it seem easy. His successes are so clearly above and beyond others that he is widely recognized in America and abroad as the best of the best.
It is certainly no accident and not by coincidence that a man such as Ford was able to make so many movies that are now considered classics. Born as John Martin “Jack” Feeney, he grew up in the state of Maine and was a prominent football fullback and defensive tackle in High School. He earned the nickname “Bull” from his style of football play. He later moved to California and in 1914 began working in film production.
John Ford was able to successfully transition his silent movies to “talkies” without difficulty. Fortunate for all of us who love great movies, he was able to entice the best actors to return in other films he directed; proof of his ability to connect with people of all types. He was also known for using a “stock company” of actors; many appearing in several of Ford’s films – actors such as John Wayne, Will Rogers, Henry Fonda, Maureen O’Hara, James Stewart, to name only a few of the big-names of the times.
Ford invented they hybrid form of movie, the “cavalry picture” but also made several “Irish” pictures too. He made Navy films and documentaries (of Korea and Vietnam) and won fame by producing a technique of lighting and focus on the actor’s eyes. His works are the essence of simplicity; Ford was able to make the audience forget they were watching a movie.2
And, John Ford was fully in charge of the entire movie program from pre-production through distribution. His efficiency of film to use ratio (about 1 to 4) was the standard in efficiency; meaning he shot less but produced more useful footage.
Orson Wells called Ford the greatest “poet” the cinema has given us. John Ford’s leadership has transitioned time through his movies.
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