Bon Iver

Sergeant Rutledge

"Apart from serving as one of the key inspirations and reference points for Pedro Costa’s digital Portuguese masterpiece Colossal Youth (2006), this unusually expressionistic western by Ford—centered on the trial of a black cavalry officer (Woody Strode) accused of rape and murder, and structured around a good many flashbacks—is especially notable for its very theatrical lighting schemes. But it’s also potent, above all, because of the rare emotion that Strode brings to the title part. The political incorrectness that seems inextricably tied to some of Ford’s finest insights and moments comes to the fore in Strode’s climactic scene at the trial. Even if some other aspects of this film are labored and formulaic, this is a far more plausible attempt by Ford to deal with ethnic persecution and racism than his lamentable Cheyenne Autumn (1964)—which purports to make amends for Ford’s earlier treatment of Native Americans and then ultimately avoids dealing with them at all by treating them like ersatz Holocaust Jews." - Jonathan Rosenbaum

aqui: ten underappreciated John Ford films