John Ford

The first intelligent, informed, and informative critical study in English on one of the only American directors who was also a poet.

~Peter Bogdanovich

Extraordinarily fine... an achievement as close to classical ease in critical writing as some of Ford's films are in cinema.... If I had to choose only one book on Ford... this is the one I'd choose.

~Roger Greenspun, Film Comment

The best book yet written on the master.... The old curmudgeon might even have liked this book.

~Film Quarterly

An important and engrossing study.... There will be other books on Ford, but this one will not be superseded.

~Gavin Lambert, Films and Filming

A pioneering critical study, greatly enhanced by McBride's updates and second thoughts a half-century later.

~Jonathan Rosenbaum

McBride and Wilmington's classic work of Ford criticism has been wonderfully expanded by McBride, who is also Ford's definitive biographer. Packed with new information and insights.

~James Naremore, author of The Magic World of Orson Welles

McBride has been a screenwriter, a film historian, biographer, and, most importantly, shared the company of John Ford. In short, McBride provides an inside narrative while pursuing his work as a scholar who teaches at San Francisco State University. This new edition retains a focus on 14 key films, but adds material about Ford's silent films and treatment of his Irishness and comedy, as well as an expanded version of an interview with Ford conducted on the day in 1970 when he decided to retire.

~Carl Rollyson, New York Sun

This isn't a light overview of the life of John Ford (1894-1973). It's a scholarly look at key films in Ford's career with analysis of themes and insights....The essays are smart and give perspective to Ford's filmography.

~Cinema Sentries