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Drums Along the Mohawk
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $13.95
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Product Details
- Starring: Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, Eddie Collins, John Carradine
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- Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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- Binding: VHS Tape
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- Director: John Ford
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- EAN: 9786301798709
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- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
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- ISBN: 6301798708
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- Label: 20th Century Fox
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- Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
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- Number of Items: 1
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- Product Group: Video
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- Publisher: 20th Century Fox
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- Release Date: 1998-09-01
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- Studio: 20th Century Fox
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- Theatrical Release Date: 1939-11-03
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- Title: Drums Along the Mohawk
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- UPC: 086162138232
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: Nineteen thirty-nine is often proposed as the movies' halcyon year, and three reasons why were directed by John Ford: Stagecoach, Young Mr. Lincoln, and Drums Along the Mohawk. In that exalted company Drums... would have to be accounted "merely superb"--even if it's the best film ever made about the American Revolution and, oh, only about eighth-best picture of its year. Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play newlyweds in New York's Mohawk Valley at the time of the Revolutionary War. That war is more a distant rumor than a direct concern of people with cabins to raise, crops to harvest, and firstborn on the way. When it comes to their valley, in the form of hitherto-peaceable Indians whipped up by a gaunt Tory with an eyepatch (John Carradine), life changes as though with the passing of a cloud shadow. In this, his first color film, Ford created indelible images of the dawning of America: a lone wagon making its way through acres of long grass rippling in the wind; the Indians, at the onset of their first raid, seeming to materialize out of the mist, out of the very trunks of trees; a ragged line of farmers with flintlocks passing along a split-rail fence, then resolving into a column, an army, marching toward a distant horizon. (Utah's Wasatch mountain country stands in persuasively for upstate New York in pioneer days.) Edna May Oliver scored a best-supporting-actress Oscar nomination as a memorably crusty frontier widow, while Ward Bond--oddly omitted from the opening credits--claimed a place of honor in the John Ford Stock Company playing Fonda's best friend. --Richard T. Jameson
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Customer Reviews
"Drums" Pound a Shallow Beat
Not much of a fan of John Ford. After viewing Drums Along the Mohawk it didn't change my opinion. Still don't know why some film buffs hail Ford as the demigod of the western genre. Drums Along the Mohawk is filled with melodramatic dialog, sub par acting by Henry Fonda and Colbert, and poor camera work that didn't utilize the sprawling greenery and hilltops that beautify upstate New York. Colbert wears way too much eye makeup and doesn't look like a frontier woman living in the 1700's. Ford gratuitously places his friend Ward Bond in a supporting role, but it is Edna May Oliver who steals every frame that Ford allows her to be in. The sappy soundtrack is misplaced, more suited to the silent film era and not much historical realism is used to legitimize the struggle among settlers, British loyalists, and Native Indians during the 1700's.
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John Ford and the American Revolution
Based on Walter D. Edmonds' historical novel, "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939) remains among the few memorable films about the American Revolution. Director John Ford's first Technicolor production benefits immeasurably from the Oscar-nominated cinematography of Bert Glennon and Ray Rennahan. Though episodic and slow moving in its narrative structure, Ford doesn't shy away from the brutal savagery of frontier life. Henry Fonda and Edna May Oliver deliver standout portrayals, thus compensating for a miscast Claudette Colbert - the weak link in an otherwise excellent ensemble. Not top-drawer Ford, but entertaining nonetheless.
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Entertaining but beyond its years
The movie was entertaining but there are better movies of the era (Northwest Passage) or new films (Last of the Mohicans and Patriot). The film and plot is fair but not one of my favorites.
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Drums Along the Mohawk
This is the original version, strongly remembered from my childhood. I had watched a remake some time ago, disappointed in it. Now, I have the one I recall.
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Drums Along the Mohawk
ESSENTIAL MOVIE!!! The movie stars Claudette Colbert & Henry Fonda. It's based on a novel by Walter Edmonds of the same name. The period takes place at the outbreak of the American Revolution, one of the most poorly covered period of American history by Hollywood. Fonda & Colbert are husband & wife, Colbert coming from a well-to-do family. They moved to the Mohawk Valley in western New York to do farming. Of course, they are unprepared for the hostilities that break out with the Indians. The cinematography (nominated for an Academy Award) is beautiful & so is the color (nominated for an Academy Award). The film is directed by the great John Ford, one of America's best directors.
There aren't any bonus features in this version but it's a high quality product. Enjoy one of the few good movies ever made by Hollywood that involve this period of American history.
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