Tuesday, December 22, 2020

She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

 




One of my favorite films of any genre is John Ford’s 1949 film “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon”. This is one of John Wayne’s best acting performances IMHO. The film has a great supporting cast from the usual John Ford stable of character actors including Ben Johnson, Harry Cary Jr., and Victor McLaughlin; and of course Joanna Dru in a cavalry uniform was eye pleasing.

This would be a fun period to wargame.

From Wikipedia:

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a 1949 Technicolor Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. The Oscar-winning film was the second of Ford's Cavalry trilogy films, along with Fort Apache (1948) and Rio Grande (1950). With a budget of $1.6 million, the film was one of the most expensive Westerns made up to that time. It was a major hit for RKO. The film takes its name from "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", a popular US military song that is used to keep marching cadence.

The film was shot on location in Monument Valley utilizing large areas of the Navajo reservationalong the Arizona-Utah state border. Ford and cinematographer Winton Hoch based much of the film's imagery on the paintings and sculptures of Frederic Remington. The film won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color in 1950. It was also nominated as 1950's Best Written American Western (which the Writers Guild of America awarded to Yellow Sky).


11 comments:

  1. It is! Especially in 54mm! Toy Soldiers of San Diego used to make some great cavalry figures. Some are still floating around the internet.

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  2. The Pony Wars rules are about to be republished Peter Berry of Baccus Miniatures is driving the project. AFAIK they are for exactly this kind of setting.

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    1. Yes, I’ve been following the progress of the PW project.

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  3. One of my favourites, too, Jim, and one of my Dad's too...we both used to sing the song out loudly (much to Mum's chagrin) when I was a lad = great memories.
    Then there is "The Horse Soldiers" - another cracking film, and almost enough to get me to buy some Perry ACW figures! I also love Gary Owen in "They died with their boots on"
    ! must also remember the game that sort of got me into wargaming - "The Battle of the Little Big Horn" with cavalry and Indian figures and what would later be called area movement.
    Merry Xmas, Rohan.

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    1. Hmm, gaming LBH with SYW troops instead of Custer and Sitting Bull.

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    2. Now that would be a great disguised scenario - perhaps Prussians as 7th Cav and Russians (all those Hussars & cossacks) or Austrians (Croats & Hussars) as the Native American forces. Or perhaps French Dragoons (mtd with option of dismount) as the 7th and Prussian FK as the opposition?

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    3. Now that would be a great disguised scenario - perhaps Prussians as 7th Cav and Russians (all those Hussars & cossacks) or Austrians (Croats & Hussars) as the Native American forces. Or perhaps French Dragoons (mtd with option of dismount) as the 7th and Prussian FK as the opposition?

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  4. One of my favorite movies also. I could be mistaken but I believe Wayne thought it was his best work.

    John

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