Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

CinePete This is one of several films that John Ford adapted from well-regarded novels, as The Informer and The Grapes of Wrath, but lacking the depth or power of those earlier works. The film moves too far from the source novel. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene is a morose, introspective tale, intensely personal and psychological. Ford turns it into a pictorial allegory, with more allegiance to Eisnestein's Que Viva Mexico and the Mexican film Maria Candelaria than to Greene's novel.The film is allegorical to a fault. Even if many sequences of The Fugitive are beautifully composed, on the whole it is an empty canvas. There never seems to be much urgency in the storyline, nor is there sufficient human dimension to the characters.I wonder if the Production Code stripped the narrative of any objectionable elements. Ford tones down the novel's moral dilemmas, particularly the self-deprecating, intensely bitter character of the priest, full of shame for his sins and his failure as a priest. The sanitized version eliminates any mention of his illegitimate offspring or the local designation as a "whiskey" priest as in the novel. The priest, stripped of his human dimension, is now merely a fugitive, and not much else.The pacing is slow, almost inert, and the fugitive, on the run from Mexican police during an anti-Catholic purge, does not engage us in his plight. Henry Fonda lacks any deep material to develop his personality. Similarly, Dolores del Rio has little opportunity to move beyond the static Madonna figure posturing. Some interest derives from J. Carroll Naish as a groveling Judas figure, and Ward Bond as a gringo renegade also running from the police. It is the formidable Mexican actor Pedro Armendariz who has the most vigorous presence as the officer in charge of the pursuit.An insistent musical score, loud and grating, fails to heighten emotions, and may be partially responsible for turning us away from the priest's dilemma.This is one of several films that employed distinguished Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, noted for The Pearl and later for Luis Bunuel's Los Olvidados. The abstract backdrops of arches, town squares, rays of light streaking into abandoned churches, shawled peasant women and police officers on parade give The Fugitive a visual dynamic that is not reflected in the drama itself.

Jose Garcia For 5 years beginning in 1926, the Republic of Mexico waged all out war against Catholic armies in several states in Mexico until 1931. The movie made by John Ford, follows the massive effect this Catholic repression had on Mexicans and their society over this time period. The baptisms, the hostage taking, the executions, the effect this repression had on all classes of Mexican society, were part of this understated but brilliant depiction of Mexico during the Cristero Rebellion.The fact that John Ford used the creme of the creme of Mexican films; Emiliano "El Indio" Fernandez, an iconic figure in Mexico's Golden Age of Cinema, as an associate producer, Fernando Fernandez, an accomplished singer in Mexican cinema, Miguel Inclan (the hostage), who would go on to achieve fame as the blind man in Bunuel's "Los Olvidados", Gabriel Figueroa, by far the most accomplished Mexican cinematographer of all time, Delores Del Rio and Pedro Armendariz, two of the top stars of Mexican films, to support one of America's finest movie stars Henry Fonda, speaks volumes on John Ford's efforts to craft a movie for the ages.This film has the angst found in German films, the methodical cadence characterizing films from Great Britian, the lights and shadows of Mexico, with a good helping of an American western, thanks to another great tough guy performance by Ward Bond. The lighting, camera angles, scenic shots; Gabriel used Mexico's two most important and sacred mountains in his scenery, Popocatepetl, and Iztaccihuatl. In closing, for all you film buffs, there is a triangle relationship between this film and one of the greatest films (if not the greatest) of all times, Citizen Kane. Everyone knows that Delores Del Rio was having a relationship with Orsen Wells, during the filming of Citizen Kane. The cinematographer of Citizen Kane, Gregg Toland, was a mentor for Gabriel Figueroa in Hollywood during the 1930's!

ccthemovieman-1 You know Henry Fonda was a good actor when he can play a priest, and actually look pious. It was an odd sight to see him in this role, the patriarch of one of Hollywood's most liberal families giving the sign of the cross and other such playing-against-type Fonda gestures. It must have pained him to play this role and, with his reputation, made his character in here - watching this film for the first time in the 1990s - have no credibility. In 1947, before his kids became famous Left Wingers, Henry's role in here was more believable to audiences. Nonetheless, the main problem with this movie isn't Fonda - it's the script. This is a boring film. It's too slow-moving. The only worthwhile aspect is seeing John Ford's direction and the cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa. It was filmed in Mexico and there are some nice photographic touches in here.Maybe I am just not a fan of Graham Greene's overly melodramatic writing but not many other people liked this depressing tale, either. This bombed at the box office, and it's easy to see why. It's just too depressing

bkoganbing When Herbert J. Yates of Republic Pictures made a deal with John Ford to produce The Quiet Man he first made Ford agree to do one of his cavalry epics with John Wayne because he wanted a surefire moneymaker before taking a chance on The Quiet Man. The cavalry picture was Rio Grande.He must have been talking to the folks at RKO who lost their collective shirts when the public stayed away in droves from The Fugitive. It got great critical acclaim and no box office at all.My guess is that The Fugitive was sold all wrong or was made a year or two too early. If it had been sold as an anti-Communist as opposed to a pro-Catholic film it might have done better in those beginning years of The Cold War.The Fugitive is based on a Graham Greene novel The Power and the Glory and it is about a priest in an unnamed South American country who is a fugitive because of his calling. An anti-clerical government has taken control of the country and they are doing their best to drive the Catholic religion out of the country.Henry Fonda turns in a good sincere performance as the cleric, but he's about as convincingly Latino as Toshiro Mifune. The other members of the cast are well suited for their roles.The best performance in the film is from that chameleon like actor J. Carrol Naish who could play any kind of nationality on the planet. He's the informer who rats out Henry Fonda to the police. Very similar to what Akim Tamiroff did to Gary Cooper in For Whom The Bells Toll and Naish's own performance in another Gary Cooper film, Beau Geste.This was the first of three films Pedro Armendariz did with John Ford in an effort to broaden his appeal beyond Mexican cinema. Dolores Del Rio as his estranged wife was already familiar to American audiences from the silent screen.The original novel by Greene had the priest as somewhat less than true to all his vows. He's a drinker and a womanizer. Del Rio's character is also quite tawdry. And this from Greene who was a well known Catholic lay person. But this Hollywood in the firm grip of The Code so a lot of what Greene wrote had to be softened by Ford for the screen. It lessened the impact of the film.And with the whitewashing of Fonda's character came some rather heavy handed symbolism of Fonda as a Christlike figure.Still The Fugitive might be worth a look for Ford, Greene, and Fonda fans.