Synopsis
TOGETHER...THEY RODE INTO A THOUSAND DANGERS!
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
Two tough westerners bring home a group of settlers who have spent years as Comanche hostages.
James Stewart Richard Widmark Shirley Jones Linda Cristal Andy Devine John McIntire Paul Birch Willis Bouchey Henry Brandon Harry Carey, Jr. Olive Carey Ken Curtis Chet Douglas Annelle Hayes Woody Strode John Qualen Jeanette Nolan Anna Lee Ford Rainey O. Z. Whitehead Regina Carrol Chuck Roberson Tracey Morgan Chuck Hayward David Kent
Dos cabalgan juntos, Cavalcarono insieme, Les deux cavaliers, Zwei ritten zusammen, Les 2 Cavaliers, Együtt vágtattak, Terra Bruta, Два всадника, Två red tillsammans, 马上双雄, He ratsastivat yhdessä, Двамата яздиха заедно, Dwaj jeźdźcy, دو نفر با هم تاختند, Οι δύο ιππότες της κολάσεως, Dva jeli spolu, 투 로드 투게더, Dos cavalquen junts
"Go home, Mr Knudsun. Go home. Go back to Minnesota. Forget you ever had a daughter."
This is a great, great film. It's Ford's bitterest, most cynical, pessimistic, despairing. Yet no other film to my mind so captures the pain of disillusionment. As mentioned by others, there are almost twisted revisings of previous Ford films, such as My Darling Clementine or Wagon Master. But here there are no myths, no stone structures, no poetry. It's Ford's least spiritual film. All of the trees are dead. The clouds are the only thing left, and even that seems so far from this expose of how violent and hypocritical a community can be. The film it resembles most is The Searchers, in a…
Ford at his most determinedly materialistic - more film noir than western, with the bleakest worldview one would ever find in one of these films. Both a remake and sequel to The Searchers with myth - both literately and dialectically - removed. The most dialogue heavy Ford, civilization is beyond repair, white society is predisposed to mass hysteria and psychopathy. If McCabe ultimately becomes the messianic figure the white citizens hope for, it is by a series of accidents - his knowledge of this ultimately informs his rejection of society, as well as it's open racism and hypocrisy. Those who think the Searchers is a racist film (or Ford's at least, post-48 work) should watch this and then revisit those!…
"Don't buck me Jim..... don't buck me." - McCabe,
- Ford: boxd.it/dtooC
Jimmy Stewart fucking rules.
Sorry, I need to vent a little. I find films that can be qualified as "progressive for their time" to be fascinating. I think this is because people that act like the present is somehow the epitome of tolerance confuse and occasionally frustrate me. Don't get me wrong, I find objectionable stereotypes in films just as annoying as the next historically under-informed keyboard warrior, I guess I've just never felt like I was above these movies in some substantive or innately moral way. The past was a racist time (as is the present) and racism is so much more complicated than simple attitudes and…
The Searchers walked so that Two Rode Together could drunkenly stumble about before ignominiously faceplanting in the road.
A cynical Marshal (James Stewart) and a tenacious Army officer (Richard Widmark) are sent to recover people taken by the Comanches years before, but discover that things aren’t as clear-cut as they first appear, in John Ford’s western co-starring Shirley Jones, Linda Cristal, John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan in supporting roles.
It has a similar initial premise to The Searchers, but despite some poignant moments I don’t think it was ever as powerful as that film, lacking its urgency and impact. A lot of this is to do with the narrative, which feels unfocused, trying to juggle too many ideas and tones. The broad comic relief that is scattered throughout doesn’t match the rest of the story, detracting from the more…
Cinematic Time Capsule
1961 Marathon - Film #23
There goes another man with simple wants…
Eight beers.
John Ford’s lighter variation of The Searchers lures you in with folksy humor that’s as casual as two fella’s yapping on a riverbank, but then proceeds to stab you in the heart with a final act that’s bleaker than a smashed music box.
As for me, the real joy is the chance to watch Jimmy Stewart playing against type as the morally questionable scoundrel, Marshal McCabe.
Thank you, Marshal.
It’ll be a pleasure drinking to your health.
Coming soon to They Shot Pictures.
Anyone who thinks John Ford endorses the racism he depicts in The Searchers needs to see this film. It might be the angriest movie he ever made. And the bleakest, after 7 Women.
References to other John Ford movies:
The Searchers - Most obviously, being about rescuing white children kidnapped by Comanches
Wagon Master - The drooling Southern bible-thumping family (bearded father and two sons, played by Ken Curtis and Harry Carey Jr) are named the Cleggs, after the villains in the 1950 film in which Carey played the young hero.
My Darling Clementine - The opening scene establishing Jimmy Stewart as marshal is ripped straight from the earlier film, from his leaning back…
Ford felt he did it better with THE SEARCHERS, and he was right, but TWO RODE TOGETHER changes things up so we're not trapped with a living embodiment of racism but instead placed among a community that displays prejudice in a more realistic, social way. That shift from the hostages' families greeting Guthrie's first arrival with ecstasy, then recoiling with fear when he brings back changed relatives, says everything. I love the way Ford uses his deep focus to call attention to the mass of people whose heads turn in unison toward these threats to their status quo. Great late-career Ford, but then, all late-career Ford is great.
You'd think a Western directed by John Ford, and that starred both James Stewart and Richard Widmark would have a higher profile here on LB than just 5K views? This is Ford, Stewart, and Widmark for God's sake, these are the guys, who, alongside John Wayne, helped shape my Western world as a youngster. My grandmother loved Richard Widmark, and I idolized him after my first watch of The Alamo, mainly because of that jacket he wore during the film, and he matched Wayne's Davy Crockett shot for shot in the heroic stakes too. My first experience with Ford would be The Quiet Man, and I vividly remember sitting on my grandfather's lap watching in awe at that legendary fist…
I don't think Ford is an example of classical cinema in its purest form; these are already films where there's a more or less conscious play – deliberate, in any case. And if we've "discovered" Ford in recent years, it's because it's only been in the last few years that we’ve become aware of the way Ford played games within this supposedly traditional space; and we've only been able to become aware of this through so-called "modern" films, which flaunted this play, pointed it out, whereas Ford, or Renoir, don't make a display of it.
– Jacques Rivette, 1969
the western corrupted by evil, anti-mythological in every respect. john ford destroys all we take for granted -- everyone here is motivated by money, opportunity, cynicism, both the white settlers and the comanche trade human lives for cash and guns, families no longer recognize their sons, and the mission our 'heroes' accomplish is shown to be a hypocritical waste. i didn't think it was possible to get any darker than the searchers, but two rode together is a clear indicator of the western genre's implosion in the 60s well before leone and peckinpah got their hands on it.
“These people - they smile at me and show their teeth, but it's the eyes that bite.”
One of several under appreciated and often overlooked Westerns from the master - John Ford. It’s just as brutish, cynical and intense as any other James Stewart Western of the era, but it’s no surprise it was still deemed lighthearted when compared to the likes of The Searchers. I always enjoy reading about different filmmakers’ directing styles and behaviors onset, and Ford is no exception. Whilst filming Two Rode Together in particular, Stewart - starring in his first Ford feature, picked up on the director’s knack for keeping emotions tense during production by holding most of his actors in the dark about certain…