3 Godfathers
Tags: allegory

Plot synopsis:
Cattle rustlers Robert Hightower (John Wayne), Pedro "Pete" Rocafuerte (Pedro Armendáriz), and William Kearney (Harry Carey, Jr.) rob a bank in the town of Welcome, Arizona, but William is shot in the shoulder and they have to flee into the desert, pursued by a posse led by Sheriff Buck Sweet (Ward Bond), who shoots a hole in their water bag (that they do not notice until after all the water has leaked out). They eventually lose their horses in a desert sandstorm and end up walking. Desperate for water, they head for a water hole, which has, however, been destroyed by the misguided efforts of a bumbling tenderfoot, who then chased after his lifestock and did not return.
In a covered wagon left nearby lies the man's wife (Sheriff Sweet's niece), who is about to give birth. With the help of the trio, she has a boy, whom she names Robert William Pedro after her benefactors. Before dying, she extracts a promise from them that they will take care of him. Moved, the three desperadoes try to keep their promise despite the acute lack of water.
William is certain a higher power guided them there and likens their situation to the Three Magi finding the baby Jesus in a manger. He convinces the others to head for the town of New Jerusalem, which lies across a wide expanse of desert. While crossing a salt flat, William dies; later, Pete falls and breaks his leg. He asks Robert to leave him his pistol, for "protection from coyotes." As Robert walks away, he hears a single gunshot.
Finally at the end of his strength, Robert nearly loses hope, but in his delirium, the ghosts of his two friends appear and refuse to let him give up. He contemptuously tosses away the woman's Bible, then goes back for it and reads a passage telling of the appearance of a donkey and a colt. Just then, the animals actually show up. With their help, he finally reaches New Jerusalem and enters a cantina where people are singing Christmas carols (it being Christmas or Christmas Eve), and then collapses just as Sheriff Sweet catches up with him.
Robert is arrested, but because of his heroism and refusal to give up custody of his godson to the Sweets (whom he has now befriended), he is viewed by the townspeople as a hero even before the trial comes to its conclusion. In the end, he is sentenced to the minimum of a year and a day and, as he leaves to serve it with a promise to return, he is given a rousing farewell by the entire town.

Review: This one has to rank at the top of John Wayne's films.Wayne and fellow outlaws Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey, Jr. arrive at the town of Welcome, Arizona and after a brief chance meeting with the marshal, Ward Bond, proceed to rob the Welcome bank.In pursuit of the robbers, Bond shoots the waterbag draped across Wayne's saddle.
The three wise men setting out with the infant in their charge to the nearest town which happens to be New Jerusalem, Arizona.I said on another review of a Wayne film that John Wayne had one of the greatest faces for movie closeups ever.
The filming, the performances -- this is one of Wayne's best  it's quite overlooked that this guy could act: The desperation, the confusion, the exhaustion, it's all just amazing.It's more of a character study than anything else, with the characters facing desperate thirst, an aching empty land, relentless sun, and the movie shows how these men deal with it, all the while they are attempting to care for a child.
Having already made a version of the story in 1919 as Marked Men with Harry Carey, John Ford clearly had a kink for this delightful redemption parable.
Opening with a touching tribute to his friend and mentor Carey, who had sadly passed away the previous year (and who also starred in the 1916 version of The Three Godfathers), it was also the first out and out Ford Western to be made in colour.The story tells of three outlaws - Robert Hightower (John Wayne), Pedro "Pete" Fuerte (Pedro Armendariz) and The Abilene Kid (Harry Carey Junior) - who after robbing a bank in the town of Welcome, are on the run from the law led posse.
Redemption is the keyword to many a Ford work:this is perhaps the most convincing effort in a remarkable career for that matter.Like all the great auteurs,western is only an alibi for Ford to convey a message:God is the only way,the Bible is the only book for Man's education (as Dr Whatsisname's infant care manual for the new human being).If you do not know anything about the screenplay and you expect a traditional western ,you may be disappointed:actually it might as well be a Xmas tale.Actually ,only the beginning and the ending are what you expect from a western.The central part is Robert's (Wayne) road to Damascus.His two pals do believe in God,he doesn't.The desert and the quest of water are a metaphor for the emptiness of his heart.In the second part of the movie,he's like the baby,busy being born.Ford's movie is a visual splendor:the three men filmed against the sunlight near the mother's grave;the grave shot in close-up as the three men go away.The desert itself becomes an almost alive entity,filmed with a unique sense of space .Narration avoids readiness:when Wayne meets the mother,Ford does not show the scene:he lets his character tell it to his friends.The mother briefly appears for one short scene but she makes all her words count.Singing is very important:when the mother is buried ,William sings over his grave but he cannot finish his canticle because he cannot remember the end:thus Ford avoids pathos and melodrama;when he rocks the baby,he sings "streets of Laredo",an ominous choice(but lullabies are sometimes strange and even cruel,aren't they?);the final choir "bringing in the sheaves" signals a brand new life for Robert.
Towards the end ,the movie verges on fantastic ,which is extremely rare in the western genre.Biblical quotations abound,but anyway,they are everywhere in Ford's work from the earlier works (the informer) to the later ones (seven women).In the eighties,Coline Serreau made a shameless rip -off "trois hommes et un couffin".It wasn't a western ,the action taking place in Paris 1985,but a lot of ideas were taken from Ford .Besides,her three characters were despicable machos:One wishes it had not come from a woman .The movie was such a huge success that the American felt compelled to redo it (three men and a baby).Forget these mediocrities and do watch the Master 's tale of redemption..
Directed by John Ford as a remake of his silent film "The Marked Men" (1919) which had already been made twice before the 1919 version, lol.
It was also John Ford's first Technicolor film and its somewhat unique in that it actually doesn't use Monument Valley as its location.It stars a lot of Ford's stable of actors, John Wayne, Harry Carry Jr., Ward Bond, Hank Worden, Ben Johnson, and actor Pedro Armendáriz who is just great in the role of one of the title's godfathers, Wayne & Carry Jr. being the others.This film is now up there with "The Searchers" as my favorite Ford film.
It doesn't have that "knock you over the head civics lesson" sermonizing that a lot of Fords films have, its got a little bit of schmaltz and melodrama in very small dollops that you can swallow & which is OK.But don't get this expecting showdown gunfights, there aren't any, and the film still works.Basically the story line: Three men ride into the town of New Jersusalem, Arizona to rob its bank.
Its like GBU in that it becomes more than just a Western, you'll see what I mean.The second thing that stood out is the great performance of Pedro Armendáriz what a great Mexican Actor who should have been a main character in a lot of Westerns, whats up with that, not only will he remind you a bit of a "nice" Tuco but it even looks like he's wearing Tuco's hat (the one he gets from the gunsmith), or vice versa lol.The town sets are again spot on, and there is some great steam locomotive footage, all in all a beautiful and enjoyable film..
First-rate Western masterfully directed by the great John Ford that results to be a marvelous retelling of Peter B Kyne's saga dealing with three desperate who take a newborn baby in the desert , as the group come across a dying woman and her infant child and they promise the woman that they will take care of the child and get it to safety, even though none of them knows anything whatsoever about children or babies .
After robbing the local bank , three outlaws named Robert Hightower (John Wayne) , William Kearney (Harry Carey Jr) and Pedro Roca Fuerte (Pedro Armendariz) on the run to evade the local Marshal (War Bond) and his posse .
Three outlaws (John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, Harry Carey Jr.) rob a bank and are chased into the desert by the local sheriff (the always great Ward Bond).
Before she dies, she names the three men the baby's godfathers and makes them promise to take care of him.This is a story that has been made many times before, although this version is the best in my opinion.
Here old Papa Ford relates his Christmas parable against the background of the searing heat of the Arizona desert as Duke Wayne struggles against the odds to deliver orphan child Robert William Pedro to safety, bang on, wouldn't you know it, Christmas Day. All the usual Ford staples are here, the panoramic scenery, male camaraderie, bawdy humour and of course big John Wayne himself in yet another barnstorming lead role.
Noting that the film is Ford's own remake of his earlier silent movie production of the same story would help explain why some of the scenes are somewhat static and staged tableau-style.
A really touching, naive, heart-warming Christmas movie, even if it may be quite a tear-jerker, especially at it's end: great cinematography - watch out for the wonderful impressions of the desert (the director of cinematography started with documentaries) -, great direction and one of John Wayne's best performances - this man was not only a big star, he was a wonderful actor, too!!!
Each in turn tries to outsmart the other, in very plausible fashion.It is also, by this point, a survival movie, with the three outlaws having to fight the harsh desert as well as keep ahead of the law.Then Ford adds another layer, a human drama, with the introduction of a woman and, later, her baby.The baby, and how the three outlaws try to cope with it and look after it, also provides many funny and poignant moments.This layering and depth is incredibly revolutionary for a western, and makes the movie incredibly engaging.
Also revolutionary for the time was the addition of a Mexican (Pedro Armendáriz) among the lead characters, alongside John Wayne and Harry Carey Jr.Good performances by all three.
Three bank robbers in the old West, played by John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey Jr., run from the sheriff of Welcome, Arizona (Ward Bond).
Have never viewed this film and never realized that John Wayne would ever play a role like this character he did in this Western!
Sweet, but his wife calls him Pearly.The three men are John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr.
3 Godfathers is beautifully directed, as are most of John Ford's pictures, but I wonder how much the story benefits from having all of the Jesus/Christmas/3-Wise-Men allegory attached to it.
What makes it work isn't so much the religious connotations, which if anything are actually depicted by Ford as hallucinations and mirage-like visions (the bit where Duke comes across the mule at the end of the cavern is one such moment), but in how the supposed 'bad-guys' are humanized through their arduous trek through the desert and lack of water and through the simple act of taking care of a newborn.
Robert William Pedro Hightower (because, you see, the mother named the baby after the three men around her as she faded from life), it surprises how touching some of this really comes off, and how the usual 'bad guys will have to get justice' is kind of turned on its head in the face of innocence.Wayne, Harry Carey Jr. and Pedro Armendariz are bank robbers who unintentionally blow their cover to a friendly Marshall, and are tailed by them more or less as they run out of town into the desert.
This could be handled really contrived by any other director, but John Ford takes his time with the direction, drawing out shots of the long walking stretches and tired but determined faces of Duke and Carey and Armendariz, and the sparse setting they're in, and it's sometimes really breathtaking film-making.The only problem then, from my perspective, is the occasional spouts of sentiment, sometimes verging into flat-out sentimentality, peppered by the obvious religious allusions.
And yet I can't disregard how well crafted 3 Godfathers is, how (dare I say it) John Wayne fills in this role better than usual, if about as good as he could get with 'Pappy' Ford at the helm, and some really juicy, memorable cinematic moments in the Western genre.
John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr. happen upon a wagon in the middle of nowhere on a vast salt desert, and find a woman about to give birth but in bad shape.
The three men promise, and the rest of the film is about their struggle to get the baby to the nearest settlement.Very sentimental and very much in the Ford style, this is a movie that usually shows at Christmas since it has biblical overtones, i.e., the 3 wise men and the infant Jesus.
I compare this to the best of John Ford's....it just does not get much notoriety.The men against the wilderness and the eventual reclamation of the human spirit is a wonderful story.The film does a great job showcasing each stars talent...Ward Bond does his usual excellent job.
Though 3 Godfathers doesn't get talked about as much as other classic John Ford/John Wayne collaborations such as The Searchers or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it's tale of desperate bank robbers Wayne, Pedro Armandariz, and Harry Carry Jr.'s redemption through an act of selflessness, is compelling entertainment made quite poignant by it's tragic, emotional final act.With Ford at the helm, you don't me to tell you that it looks fantastic too, with it's breathtaking scenery in gorgeous Technicolor and great performances all around.
John Wayne gets a windy monologue in the second act that doesn't come off too well, but he's in good spirits and ably shares the screen with cohorts Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr. Even better is Ward Bond as the Arizona sheriff (named 'Perley') who is slyly introduced to us working in his garden before putting on his badge (the best-directed sequence in the whole picture).
John Ford's biblical western is certainly beautiful to look at and has a lot of comedy elements but it is overlong and takes an age to get going.Three bank robbers are fugitive from a chasing pack led by Sheriff Perley Sweet who they met earlier as they rode into town.
As they make their escape from the desert, Robert (John Wayne) William (Harry Carey Jr) and Pedro (Pedro Armendariz) come across a dying woman with a newborn baby.
Fugitive bank robbers Robert (John Wayne) William (Harry Carey Jr.) and Pedro (Pedro Armendariz) stand at a desert grave.
3 GodfathersIf America had authored the Bible the three wise men would also be bearing arms.Proof positive is this oater about the legendary magi.A band of bandits (John Wayne, Harry Carey, Jr., Pedro Armendáriz) abscond into the desert after a botched robbery with the relentless sheriff (Ward Bond) in hot pursuit.Approaching dehydration, the trio stumbles upon a dying woman who makes them promise to escort her newborn son to the safety of New Jerusalem.Reluctant, but motivated by the biblical comparison, the outlaws continue their perilous journey across the arid wasteland.
Full of the usual desert beauty but lacking the climatic battles, cavalry charges, high-speed wagon chases, or gunfights typical of the director, Ford's 'Christmas' western is a charming tale of redemption riffing on the Biblical tale of the three Wise Men. In one of the few films in which John Wayne is a 'bad guy" (or at least a malefactor), the Duke and his pardners in crime Pedro (Pedro Armendáriz) and William (Harry Carey Jr.) knock over a bank in 'Welcome' Arizona and then hightail it into the desert with a posse in pursuit.
Sweet, presumably after hearing Wayne's full story, takes an entirely different attitude toward him, beginning to treat him like a prodigal son.This was John Ford's first color film, he generally preferring B&W.
Kyne's oft-filmed story of three outlaws finding redemption, has been hailed by some critics as an unsung Ford masterpiece; while I wouldn't go quite THAT far, it is an exceptional western, with Ford's 'Stock Company', headed by John Wayne, offering warmly sentimental performances.The film was created as a 'tribute' to legendary actor Harry Carey, who had passed away in 1947, and had been young Ford's mentor, starring in his first version of the tale, "Marked Men", in 1919.
Again,master director John Ford never fails to disappoint,here's a another solid classic from Argosy Productions,it's a tale of life and how beautiful it is,and it's a tale of death,and of how harrowing and destroying it can be.The 3 godfathers is a flawless masterpiece and it's right up there with John Fords other classics like THE SEARCHERS,CHEYENNE AUTUMN,SERGEANT RUTLEDGE,RIO GRANDE and THE HORSE SOLDIERS.The main part of the plot involves a baby and it's birth,(representing life),the scene in which the baby is born and it's mother dies is one of the most exquisite,beautiful and tear jerking scenes in classic cinema and you will be in tears as you watch it.The rest of the story involves three men doing what any decent human being would do,fulfilling a mothers dying wish and taking care of her defenceless baby,this is extremely plausible,in the end it's sad to see the baby being taken into care and you get the feeling that the three men have failed,but they haven't.The men take the baby through dry,blisteringly hot deserts and mountains and still manage to take excellent care of the child,but in the process,two of the men,William and Pedro,die when they cannot go on any longer,the latter committing suicide,these scenes are also very sad and quite harrowing to watch and although the characters are outlaws,you come to like them and that thought will nearly bring tears to your eyes.The death of William and Pedro represent death,Robert meanwhile goes on with the child and finally reaches a nearby town,but gives himself up and is arrested.The storyline is excellent and perfect,we see a transformation in the three outlaws as they change from dangerous criminals to loving fathers and their mission is to no longer escape the sheriff but to take care of the baby.The characters are brilliantly put together and there's something lovable about them,John Wayne,Pedro Amadariz and Harry Carey Jr. are all brilliant as the three lawless men who have a job to do.Ward Bond is great as the relentless Buck Purely Sweet and he's probably one of the most lovable lawmen to be seen in a western.Some say this is a Christmas movie,it's not really,apart from a few Christmas references and a tree up in a saloon,this is just a normal western drama and can be enjoyed at any time of the year.Thers's a lot of funny lines from the main characters,and to find out that Robert's middle name is Marmaduke really made me laugh,Purely is also a cracker of a name.The scenery,as usual in a John Ford western,is absolutely stunning and the theme music is wonderful,the film is dedicated to veteran American actor Harry Carey(father of the man who plays William in the movie,Harry Carey Jr.) This isn't one for the action fans(you'll have to settle for a few gunshots and a horse chase),this is an excellent film,in the tradition of other cinematic classics like HOW THE WEST WAS WON,THE LONGEST DAY,THE ALAMO,CAST A GIANT SHADOW,SABATA,LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and THE GOOD,THE BAD AND THE UGLY,SEE IT,RELISH IT,REMEMBER IT,one of the greatest motion pictures ever made,highly recommended to anybody.A legend of a movie and a must see before you die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..
The Ford stock Company of John Wayne, Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jr., Mildred Natwick ,Mae Marsh, etc.