Young Mr. Lincoln

With John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln scheduled for Turner Classic Movies I just wanted to recommend the 1970 Cahiers du Cinema article on the film, a collective text by the editors:
http--isites.harvard.edu-fs-docs-icb.topic235120.files-CdCLincoln.pdf and other sites. 

I suggest that if you have an aversion to the jargon of academic writing you skip part 1 and go directly to part 2, where the analysis begins.  This piece is a complete analysis of the film and its social and political context, emphasizing not only Ford's elegant direction but the role the studio, the producers and others played in the film.  But it also analyzes how we see the film as we watch it, constructing our changing views within the classical narrative. When I was an art history student I shared this article with some of my fellow students and they were amazed how the techniques of close reading could be applied to a film just as effectively as they could be applied to a painting. A great film, like any great work of art, can be enjoyed at a number of different levels.  What particularly impresses me about Young Mr. Lincoln is how effectively Ford can combine romance, comedy, melodrama, suspense and mythology, something he does in all his best films.