Article

Commentaries on John Ford’s humanism

Abstract

We depart from a humanism which favors the human being, and in which through his deep knowledge promotes him, impelling him to be better. Thus, we have gone to cinema to see him focused on arts (different from productions that have a sole commercial purpose). Within the film industry as an art, we have paid attention to those great movie directors in which humanism can be found. As an example, we have chosen John Ford. We feel sorry for not having been able to address to other great ones such as Frank Capra, Sergei Eisentein, Ingmar Bergman, Charles Chaplin, Elia Kazan, Akira Kurosawa or other remarkable directors. John Ford is a great film director who goes for the human being; he deepens in him in such a way that he obtains a deep balance in his vision of the misery and the human greatness, avoiding, therefore, any kind of reductionism. He presents us with a view of the human life in anxiety, in search of something that extinguishes his infinite thirst; in that vital plot he highlights the heroism, the passion and the strength on the truth, on authentic things, on the good.

Keywords

Humanism, John Ford, art, values, identity, maturity, temporality