TWO RODE TOGETHER
US, 1961, 109 minutes, Colour.
James Stewart, Richard Widmark, Shirley Jones, Linda Cristal, Andy Devine, John Mc Intyre, Harry Carey Jnr.
Directed by John Ford.
Two Rode Together is a standard John Ford film. It is not as strong as some of his masterpieces like My Darling Clementine or Fort Apache or the cavalry films with John Wayne. It is similar in some ways to the first half of The Searchers, his classic of 1956.
James Stewart is an ageing alcoholic marshal and Richard Widmark is his upright first lieutenant. They have to go in search of Indians in order to buy back white prisoners. The film has the military setting familiar from many a John Ford film.
The film preceded The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and Cheyenne and How the West Was Won, both of which featured James Stewart.
The film was written by Frank Nugent who wrote eleven screenplays for Ford ranging from Fort Apache to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Wagon Master, Mister Roberts as well as The Searchers.
1. How enjoyable a western was this? How conventional? How well did it use Cavalry and Indian conventions? Critics were hostile in view of John Ford's career. Were they justified? The use of action and the holding of interest?
2. The importance of the title and the interplay of Mc Cabe and Gary? The relationship of the two men - Gary's sense of duty, his Cavalry code, his ideals, his disgust at Mc Cabe, his forcing him to the mission, his attitude towards money compared with Mc Cabe’s, their chatter and their friction, the reasons behind this, Gary's attitude
towards people, his hardness broken by Marty and his experience, the impact of the Indian camp, the mission, how did he change? How did he compare with Mc Cabe as a lazy marshal, James Stewart’s personality, as self-interested, the money, the refusal of the mission, his attitudes towards danger, his courage and skill, his humanity in the Indian camps the rightness of his decisions, his expectations of people, his shooting of Stone Calf, his saving of Elena, his response to the people's snobbery at the dance, his future with Elena? What made Mc Cabe change? The quality of the experience the two men shared? The contrast of duty and slackness? The humanizing effect of a dangerous mission? The reality of principles, truth and deception?
3. How interesting was the picture of the west ? Its dangers, pioneering, the role of the Cavalry, outposts and outpost life, Indian raids, the effect on families, memories etc.?
4. The picture of western outpost society - principles, pioneering, joys and sorrows, the hypocrisies of any society, curiosity towards Elena, ugly behaviour, the life in the wagons? The role of the Cavalry, the example the Major in this community?
5. How interesting was the portrayal of the Indians? Their humanity and inhumanity? The reasons for their raids, their capturing white people, assimilating white people into their own way of life?
6. The importance of our seeing the survivors - the reality of the survivors, their way of Indian life, the old lady not wanting to leave, the boy the equivalent of an Indian with his knife, Elena wanting to escape? The decisions about what was best for each person and for the families waiting? The irony of the ultimate lynching of the boy and his identity?
7. The social and human comment on the dance sequence? The people’s behaviour towards Elena? Their curiosity and snobbery?
8. The quality of the romance between Gary and Marty? The importance of the lynching and its effect on them both?
9. How different a view of the west did this film offer? An authentic view? An interesting one?
10. How enjoyable a western? What values did it stand for?
