I beg your problem, but Ford deserves signalling out because all through
the 1930s and 40s, he was virtually the only Hollywood director who
dealt with the subject. Ford's entire oeuvre is a protest against
intolerance, including of course racism. It is not coincidental than
the result is that people who don't know his work call him racist.

There are, putting it simply, perhaps two types of "protest" film.
Paths of Glory and Fort Apache. The former puts blacks hats on the
villains and makes you feel good by telling you over and over that evil
is evil, and so you emerge from the movie gloating over your own sublime
righteousness. The latter keeps changing the hats, confusing the
issues, showing that good people can be bad people and bad people can be
good people, and gets you involved and angry and gets you thinking.



jaketwilson wrote:

> However one defines racism, there was/is so much of it around in
> Hollywood that it seems unfair to single Ford out.
>
>