Drums Along the Mohawk

New York, 1776. Gil and Lana have just married. They leave Albany for the north, for the Mohawk valley, where they will set up a small farm. Lana grew up in the city and knows nothing of country life. On the first night a Native man comes to the house and she is terrified; he is in fact their neighbour. They clear the land, sow it, take a first harvest. Then the war comes. The war of independence reaches this valley too and groups moving with the British burn the farms. Everyone takes shelter in a fort. John Ford directs. Henry Fonda plays Gil and Claudette Colbert plays Lana; Edna May Oliver is in the cast. The source is Walter D. Edmonds's novel. It is Ford's first film in colour. Edna May Oliver was nominated for an Oscar for the part. The matter it treats is the war behind the line; the narrative does not show the battle, and Gil comes back and describes what happened. Its strongest section is the siege of the fort, and the part women take in it is shown directly. It is one of several films Ford made that year; he was working continuously in that period. Its limit is viewpoint; the Native peoples are largely shown as a threat and the narrative is problematic by present measure. Another limit is register; it slides into comedy at times and that does not fit the war sections. Who it is for: viewers who like classic Ford and stories of the American founding period. Who it is not for: the representation is a problem, the pace uneven, and the viewpoint one directional.