michael thompson I've just watched this film, and want to write a review, but don't know what to say, yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!John Ford and John Wayne, a recipe for success, and was it ?, yes it was.Read no further if you don't want to know more details about this film.With around 15 to 20 minutes of this film until the end, if you aren't on the edge of your seat, and crying your heart out, you ain't human.John Wayne is left in charge of a baby, he stumbles and falls after a trek through the desert with his bank robber friends, who die from thirst on the way with him, he reads from a bible then throws it away. Wayne should have got an Oscar for these scenes.As John Wayne stumbles, her carries the little baby in his arms because he made a promise to the baby's dying mother.Then John Wayne comes to a town, places the baby wrapped in clothing on the bar.Its a great and very human film people, watch it, and be prepared to cryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

grantss Wonderful, sensitive, emotional, intelligent and vastly underrated western. (The middle three qualities might explain the first and last ones).Certainly not your average western. Starts conventionally enough, with three cowboys robbing a bank and then being on the run from the law. However, from then the depth and intelligence of the plot, and John Ford's direction, start to show. The movie doesn't become a straightforward good guys-chasing-the bad guys action drama, it becomes a cat-and-mouse between the law and the outlaws. Each in turn tries to outsmart the other, in very plausible fashion.It is also, by this point, a survival movie, with the three outlaws having to fight the harsh desert as well as keep ahead of the law.Then Ford adds another layer, a human drama, with the introduction of a woman and, later, her baby.The baby, and how the three outlaws try to cope with it and look after it, also provides many funny and poignant moments.This layering and depth is incredibly revolutionary for a western, and makes the movie incredibly engaging. Also revolutionary for the time was the addition of a Mexican (Pedro Armendáriz) among the lead characters, alongside John Wayne and Harry Carey Jr.Good performances by all three. John Wayne shows a rare sensitive side here, and does so very convincingly. Good work too by Ward Bond as the Marshall.

Bill Slocum I feel guilty about not liking "3 Godfathers" more, a testament to director John Ford's overall brilliance as well as his overlush sentimentality and heavy-handedness. There is much to admire here, but you have to sit through a pretty tedious story to get to it.Three rustlers decide to try their hand at bank robbery in the Arizona town of Welcome, which gets them on the wrong side of Sheriff Buck Sweet (Ward Bond) and eventually lost in endless desert, seeking water. They find instead a pregnant woman (Mildred Natwick) who, while dying, enlists them as godfathers and presses them to see her infant son to safety."And when he's a fine, big, brave man, like his godfathers, tell him about his mother, who so wanted to live for him," she says.It's an affecting scene, one of many in this movie. A key problem in "3 Godfathers" is how Ford's ability to deliver affecting scenes like this is pushed to eleven; with heavenly choirs and soughing violins. Ford was never subtle, but he was usually craftier than this.John Wayne stars as the leader of the godfathers, Robert Hightower, and it's a breakout performance from the Duke. A pair of scenes, one where he explains a situation involving a wrecked watering hole, the other when he takes on the surprisingly arduous task of greasing down his new godson, demonstrate Wayne's supple talents both for tense dramatics and comedy; they deserve placement in any highlight reel of Wayne's greatest moments in cinema.Pedro Armendáriz as another of the godfathers, Pedro, is at times even better, with his vim and cagey Spanish asides, but the third godfather, Harry Carey, Jr. as the Abilene Kid, is more than a bit of a weight. It's not his fault; Ford forces him to deliver the most mawkish dialogue in the movie, nursing a wounded shoulder and a sense of mission that comes off way too labored. As he quotes from the Bible, explaining a larger purpose to bringing the baby to safety ("You think it's just chance?"), he lifts his eyes to heaven and holds his pose until everyone in the theater gets how much a martyr he is."If I, I whimper for water, Pete, don't, don't give it to me, promise..." the Kid says at one point late in the movie.I'd call this the nadir of the film, yet it is followed by an even weaker scene of Hightower stumbling through a cave talking to echoes and looking ridiculous. Others criticize the religious sentiment; I just find it way too troweled on.In another review here, planktonrules makes a point with which I wholeheartedly agree. You are never sold on the moral reclamation of Hightower or his buddies, the film's purpose, because they are way too good. There is a moment when Hightower regrets picking up the kid, ("Why didn't somebody stop me before I promised that woman?") but it's never sustained. Say what you will of the 2001 animated remake, "Ice Age," at least that one presents some doubt as to the intentions of one of the three godfathers. Here they are just too good to warrant anything more than pity.The visual compositions of "3 Godfathers" are often breathtaking. Cinematographer Winton C. Hoch gives us a foretaste of what is to come in his later Ford collaborations, "The Searchers" and "The Quiet Man." Even the Kid's big final scene, mawkishly written as it is, grabs you with its visuals of light and shade. The Mojave Desert becomes the film's most vibrant character.I felt especially let down by the ending, which goes for chuckles and completely buries its potential for a big confrontation between Hightower and the sheriff. There are good moments, like a Christmas scene in a bar featuring a number of amusing Ford types, but by then I was itching for the film to wrap things up with something more befitting all the sacrifice that had been inflicted upon me. Bond goes from vengeful wraith back to amiable fellow too quickly, and the wrap-up scenes in the courtroom and after are too much lily- gilding for me.Watching a Ford movie is almost always an experience, and there's enough here for me to respect if not enjoy. But I came away feeling that in his attempt to make a classic, Ford overshot the mark and left us with a movie where his ambition got away from him.

magicmyth505 I had not seen this film for some time and I had forgotten what a lovely film it is. I feel this one should be up there with John Ford's masterpieces for the photography and the wonderful performances by the actors. Especially Pedro Armendiaz and John Wayne. This is another film that goes in the category of why do people think John Wayne can't act because when you see him in something like this you just know he is a wonderful actor. When he screams "Steal a man's burro in this county. They string ya." You feel all the agony of that walk. And that long scene Wayne does almost without a break "That ain't the worst of it." It takes a real actor to be able to do that without even a cut away and to show how much frustration. And when Bob and Pete walk away from the kid's unburied body, it just hurts. The pain almost comes off the screen like the sun.Wonderful moments in this film. Harry Carey singing. The whole caring for the baby scenes. The expression on John Wayne's face when Pete and the kid read from the book that the NURSE should grease the baby and they both look at Wayne. John Wayne sitting uncomfortably on a chair to small for him, trying not to cross his legs as he holds the baby. Pete sitting on the edge of the wagon after he delivers the baby, just dying inside because he cannot save the mother. The argument between Bob and Pete over not breaking their promise to a dying woman. Lots of nice foreshadowing there when they both talk about growing long white beards in Yuma penitentiary and then later Bob's confident belief he can do twenty years standing on his head. And more foreshadowing when they find the woman and Bob declares it can rain "until I get religion", meaning forever and of course he gets religion.There are some great tributes to Harry Carey and in not jokes exactly but moments. Ward Bond blows the smoke away from the rifle he fires at the water bag, just like Harry Carey did. In the scene where the ghosts of Pete and the Kid walk with Bob, Pedro calls Bob a saddle tramp which is the role Harry Carey most played. And the way Wayne asks for a cool cool beer "for me" is almost a mimic of Harry Carey.Also the names of towns, clearly biblical Damascus, Jerusalem and Cairo. Also the Marhall mentions Dobe ( Harry Carey Jr's nickname) and (I think) Tres Hermanos ( three brothers).Its also pretty clear where MarmaDUKE comes from. I would bet that Pearly is an in joke too but don't know that one.It also rather fun to try and see when it really is John Wayne's hands with the baby. The baby is not much bigger than his enormous hand. (Check the size of them when he hold's Mildred Natwick's hand in his) Pretty sure its him greasing it. Sounds like the sort of thing Ford would make him do. And also him in the barroom at the end where the baby holds his finger.