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starring: Claudette Colbert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, Eddie Collins, John Carradinedirected by: John Ford
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301798709
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
ISBN: 6301798708
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: September 01, 1998
Running Time: 104 minutes
Sales Rank: 11502
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: November 03, 1939
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Five Star Movie but Four Star Commentary
I purchased this edition of the movie specifically because it included an audio commentary about the movie. This movie is one of John Ford's and Henry Fonda's best. Unfortunately I found the audio commentary to be inconsistent. It was at its' best when addressing movie history but lacking when both addressing the history of the times and when exploring the commentators' own views of history.
I will not address the movie itself because many of the commentators have already done so. I ... Read More
Rating:  - "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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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.
Rating: - 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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