Clint Eastwood’s Favorite John Ford Movie Surprisingly Isn’t A Western, But It Actually Makes Sense

While Clint Eastwood’s most-loved John Ford movie might not be a Western, it is still no surprise that this classic topped the list of the director’s favorites. Ford was a legend in the Western genre, and Eastwood even called the filmmaker one of his favorite directors. Eastwood became a major mainstream star shortly after Ford’s career came to a close, meaning that the pair never got to work together. However, Eastwood did praise Ford as a “pioneer” when he won the inaugural John Ford Award, admitting he grew up on the director’s work (via Irish America).

Since Eastwood and Ford are both seen as two of the greatest Western directors of all time, viewers might assume that Eastwood was referring specifically to Ford’s many great Westerns with these comments. However, that was not quite the case. Although Ford made many classic Westerns, such as The Searchers, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, he named a non-Western as his favorite movie from the influential Ford. Even more surprisingly, the movie Eastwood referenced is not often listed as Ford’s best non-Western, like 1940’s adaptation of Grapes of Wrath or The Quiet Man.

Clint Eastwood’s Favorite John Ford Movie Is How Green Was My Valley – Is It Ford’s Best?

Eastwood named How Green Was My Valley as one of his favorite movies in an interview with AFI. This was a striking decision, as the 1941 library adaptation was not considered Ford’s best work, especially compared to the director’s more famous offerings. While Ford’s The Searchers was a massive influence on Eastwood’s revisionist Western Unforgiven, How Green Was My Valley is a very different sort of story for the filmmaker. For one thing, the valley of the title is in Wales. How Green Was My Valley is a rare Ford movie that is set entirely in the United Kingdom, but despite this, the movie won over a young Eastwood.

The story of a working-class mining family in a small Welsh village, How Green Was My Valley is told from the perspective of their youngest child. Based on the novel of the same name by author Richard Llewellyn, How Green Was My Valley is a nostalgic drama that doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of blue-collar life in the Victorian era. Instead, it manages to find both humor and pathos in the difficult circumstances that its heroes face. While Eastwood’s many Western movies made him famous, his love for this lesser-known Ford movie proves that the director’s interests run beyond stories of gun-slinging cowboys and the Wild West.

How Green Was My Valley & John Ford’s Influence On Clint Eastwood’s Career

For Eastwood as an actor, How Green Was My Valley is an obvious influence. Ford’s adaptation makes characters who live in harsh, unsentimental conditions feel charismatic and easy to root for, something that Eastwood has managed countless times throughout his career. In How Green Was My Valley, Ford never frets about making the audience love his characters, and Eastwood’s infamously aloof, taciturn screen persona is borrowed from this successful approach. As a director, How Green Was My Valley’s influence on Eastwood is harder to track. However, some of the filmmaker’s work betrays a fondness for Ford’s movie in terms of plot and themes.

In Gran Turismo, Eastwood follows the story of a family who faced hard times but never lost their spirit. In Eastwood’s latest Western, Cry Macho, the director tackles the story of a flawed father figure trying to teach a kid how to be a man, only to realize he doesn’t know how to do this himself. Both are themes that one can find in How Green Was My Valley, where Ford uses the clan’s hardships and successes to illustrate broader ideas about family, community, masculinity, and what people owe each other. However, Ford’s influence on Eastwood’s career extends past his favorite movie from the director, as evidenced by his output.

Ford’s filmography is echoed throughout the work of Eastwood as both a director and actor. Ford’s tough but sensitive Western heroes provided a blueprint for the many antiheroes that Eastwood played over the decades, while the director’s masterful blending of poignant drama, tension, and comic relief is seen throughout Eastwood’s oeuvre. Meanwhile, although Eastwood’s work is often credited with blurring the lines between good and evil and upsetting the easy morality of earlier Western movies, Ford was instrumental in bringing moral ambiguity to the genre after the child-friendly era of B-westerns. Thus, Ford’s influence on Clint Eastwood extends past his many classic Westerns, as he also made his favorite movie.