A No-Bull Kind of Guy
An interview with Biographer Glenn Lovell on Director John Sturges.
By: Henry Cabot Beck 01/01/2009
John Sturges was not a great filmmaker. At least he’s never been placed up there in the top branches with the certifiably best directors—Ford, Hawks and the like. No one would argue that he belongs there, not even his staunchest champions.
But the fact that he does have passionate defenders who are more than willing to argue his many merits is a clue as to why he has a significant place in film history, and that place is due almost entirely to his Westerns.
In the course of his career, which lasted more than 30 years, Sturges made a wide variety of pictures, from low budget suspense films early on to huge Action movies like Ice Station Zebra (1968) and The Eagle Has Landed (1976). But it’s agreed that his Westerns were the best of the lot, several of which will always be found among the top 10 or 20 Westerns of all time. That’s all the defense Sturges will ever require.
Sturges paid his dues, working his way through the Hollywood system, making war films and eventually gaining permission to shoot features. He had no talent for comedy, that was clear, but he developed a great eye for composition, and he managed to get terrific performances from actors. He had a genius for managing ensemble casts, which is why The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963) are so powerful, all these many years later.
Sturges will be remembered for the way he made stars of actors who were peripheral at the time. Were it not for Sturges, it’s unlikely that James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen and James Garner, who were doing almost exclusively television work at the time, would have risen as quickly or gotten as far as they did in feature film work.
With the publication of Glenn Lovell’s biography Escape Artist, Sturges is finally getting the measure of credit that he deserves. For people who recognize the value of his best movies, Bad Day At Black Rock (1955), The Magnificent Seven, The Law and Jake Wade (1958), Gunfight At the O.K. Corral (1957), The Great Escape, Last Train From Gun Hill (1959) and Escape From Fort Bravo (1953), the films speak for themselves. Most of the pictures on this list are of the sort that fathers have been passing to their sons for several generations; few other Westerns, even the most critically honored, can make that claim.
Comments (1)
I greatly enjoyed this article about one of my all-time favorite film directors. Personally, I would rather watch a John Sturges Western over and over again than a Western by John Ford. But, I have said the same thing about the Westerns of Budd Boetticher and Sam Peckinpah.
I once told L.Q. Jones that I would rather watch a Budd Boetticher Western than a John Ford Western any old day of the week----and L.Q.'s eyes bugged out and he said, "Well, I wouldn't go that far..but, Budd was certainly good!"!
I might be the only person on earth, but I would definitely put Sturges up there with Hawks, Boetticher, Peckinpah, Leone, Mann, and...OK, if I have to..John Ford.
Wonderful article, Mr. Beck!
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