I've tried to like John Ford. Honestly, I have. I know the juvenile shenanigans between the male characters, the stiff dialogue, and the endless posing is charming and endearing to many people, but I have always just found them annoying. While there is no denying that Ford was a master of the craft,I've never understood why people have actual affection for his films. I guess for people who wished they lived in a more formal, less ironic world, his films must seem like a nice place to be, but I'm not a fan.
Malcolm Jones, who reviews the re-released Young Mr. Lincoln is apprently one of these people - even though he tries to deny it. He's brimming over with praise for the film, and even though it displays the usual Ford mastery of cinema, this film is the usual treatment of Linoln as semi-divine-aw-shucks-super-American. Jones tries to point out some ways that Ford has made Lincoln seem less than perfect, but that's just it - he's only slightly less than perfect and the film conditions the viewer to excuse the imperfections because he film cues us to think about what a "great" man he was set to become later in life.
In other words, its the typical John Ford film full of nationalistic fervor in a world of alarmingly simplistic characters and moral challenges. That stuff is interesting if one is 10 years old, but for grown-ups, there are so many better films out there to watch.
