When one thinks of the classic Western film, one has to inevitably think of director John Ford as its greatest practitioner. Films such as Stagecoach and The Searchers are not only great westerns, but iconic films which transcend the genre. Ford was, more than any other filmmaker, the man responsible for making John Wayne’s career as an actor. Because of the many films he made with Ford, Wayne became the personification of the American West, a sort of mythic figure.

John Ford was most famous for making films about the US Cavalry of the late 19th Century. More than any other film maker, he was able to depict the personalities and the culture of these small units scattered across the American West which attempted to keep to peace between White and Indian, not all the time successfully. In the pre Dances with Wolves era, Ford’s movies were not apologetic about the winning of the west. However, unlike many movies of the era, he endowed the American Indian with a certain dignity and honor that made one respect them, not as hapless victims, but as fierce warriors, worthy opponents who fought hard to maintain their way of life, even though that fight was doomed to fail.