The Safari Films of John Ford and Howard Hawks
John Ford and Howard Hawks are very tempting to lump together when talking about great American directors. And indeed, their careers roughly parallel each other in length and time period, they are without question two of the greatest directors of Westerns (and if you catch me early enough in the morning I might even admit they have just as much to do with my idolization of John Wayne as he does), and they could easily share a page in the dictionary next to the entry for “Hollywood Auteur”. Yet, anything past a cursory examination reveals that the similarities are only superficial. So, I thought I would take a look at a “Safari” film (Ford’s Mogambo and Hawk’s Hatari!) by each director and see just what they show about their director’s respective styles. That or I just wanted an excuse to post the totally awesome covers to these two movies in my blog.
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