Weeks 10-13: John Ford, Fifth Graders, and John Ford

So, I've been continuing my work on the John Ford exhibit.  The five movies we're focusing on are Stagecoach, Fort Apache, The Searchers, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.  When I began work on the exhibit, I had not seen a single John Ford film.  I had to read Becky's books about Ford to know anything about these movies.  I have now seen eight and have enjoyed them all.  The exhibit is meant to go along with the opening of the IU Cinema next term.  As part of its inaugural season next year, the Cinema will be doing a John Ford series, including all five of the films we're featuring in the exhibit.  I may have to go see a few of them on the big screen!  For those who are interested, you can find the Cinema schedule for next year here.

Working on John Ford's Westerns keeps making me think of the M*A*S*H episode "Movie Tonight."  To improve morale, Col. Potter gets a hold of his favorite movie, which he describes as having the three things that make a movie great, "horses, cowboys, and horses."  It's John Ford's My Darling Clementine .  The whole company gets really excited to see it, and they all cheer when Henry Fonda comes up o the screen (see above).  That's always been one of my favorite episodes, but it now give me some perspective on just how influential Ford and his films were.  I don't know if any troops in Korea actually watched Ford films there, but I know that the people who wrote the show did their research.  If they chose a John Ford film, it was likely representative of what was popular at the time.

A surprisingly fun break in my normal round of work came a few Mondays ago.  I gave two tours of the current exhibit to two groups of fifth graders.  I was pretty nervous in advance, not being entirely certain that I would be able to get fifth graders interested in medieval manuscripts.  I was pleasantly surprised.  They were some of the most inquisitive, interested kids I had seen in a long time.  They had heard of a Gutenberg Bible before and were suitably impressed that we had one.  They were astonished by all of the writing done by hand, particularly the really small writing.  A lot of them asked questions, many of them very good questions.  I think all of the students' favorite piece, which I saved for near the end both times, was the giant psalter.  It has the advantage of being both huge and being music.  Both groups were able to give really good answers when I asked them what made it different from modern music.  I have to admit that I am a bit cynical about the modern technology age and children.  These kids restored my faith.  I was so energized after working with both groups that going back to doing work on John Ford was anti-climactic.

It's experiences like that that make working at the Lilly such a treat.  Where else could I show off such rare and valuable items to fifth graders, and be able to tell them that they could come back any time with their parents and actually touch the things they were looking at?  This truly is a special place.