John
Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, and Harry Carey, Jr are desperate bank robbers low on
water being pursued across the desert by wily marshal Ward Bond. While searching for water, they come across a
pregnant woman and help her give birth. They make her a deathbed promise
to care for the baby and set off across the harsh desert hoping for a miracle.
3
Godfathers is one of John Ford‘s best films. You really care about the characters, and each
of them, though flawed, prove themselves heroic in the face of impossible odds. John Wayne gives one of his best performances
as the ringleader of the bank robbers. He’s rugged and tough on the outside,
but inside there’s a caring, loving, and protective father figure waiting to show
itself. Armendariz and Carey both have
their moments too and there is a tremendous amount of chemistry between the
three leads. Bond is equally good as the
marshal in hot pursuit.
Even
though Ford is a rough-and-tumble manly man’s director, he still has a knack
for pulling at your heartstrings. He
does so in such a subtle manner that the emotional core of the story slowly sneaks
up on you. By the end of the movie, you’ll
be simultaneously holding back the tears while grinning from ear to ear. Unlike many of Ford’s films, he does not
linger much on the vast landscapes of the old west (although there is some of
that during the elongated salt flats sequence). He’s less concerned with mapping the
characters’ progress across the desert and more with mapping the expressions on
the characters’ faces as they transform from wanted outlaws to protective
guardians.
