One of my favorite images in all of Cinema — John Wayne in John Ford’s 3 Godfathers (1948), shot by Winton C. Koch. He’s holding a baby (Robert William Pedro Hightower) and keeping the sun out of a dying friend’s eyes.
To me, this is a Christmas movie. To some, it just happens to take place around the holiday. There’s no snow, no Christmas trees, but the drunks in New Jerusalem sing “Silent Night.”
What do you think? Is 3 Godfathers a Christmas movie?
A much more in-depth, proper post on 3 Godfathers can be found here.
Of course, it is a Christmas movie — about nothing other than the birth of our savior; baby Jesus, of little Robert William Pedro. A parallel?
….or little Robert William Pedro…Sorry about the typo.
Indeed, it is…and one of the finest Christmas movies. The imagery is invested with the wonder and symbolism of Christmas and the Birth of the Christ Child.
Kyne’s story of sacrifice and redemption could be nothing but a Christmas movie.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
You have it exactly right.
I would agree it’s a Christmas movie for many reasons including those listed above. As opposed to a movie like Die Hard that I watch after Christmas prior to New Years.But lately I’ve been a bit of a thread ender – and as the great Burt Kennedy wrote – “Some things a man can’t ride around.”
Have a MERY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone and HAPPY TRAILS.
Toby and all the readers of this wonderful site. We wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Yes, the 3 GODFATHERS is an outstanding religiously themed Christmas movie.
Hey there, Walter! Good to hear from you. Hope things are going well.
Every Christmas I feel the urge to watch 3 Godfathers. I love it. Love the way it looks, how the guns sound, John Wayne’s hat, the weird old baby bottles, how dusty the train gets, Hank Worden wrestling with the pack mule, even the goofy “miracle” of the two burros turning up to lead Wayne into New Jerusalem. I’ve always felt it was a symbolic Christmas movie, whether it was a literal one or not — and it puts its redemption theme right up front, bigger than any other Western I can think of.
And Ford’s sentimentality — which seems almost over the top in this one, I love that, too.
Weird side note: I’ve always thought it would be cool to have three dogs (they’d be Boston terriers at our house), and name them Robert, William and Pedro. (And if you had only two, well, they’d be Reed and Malloy after Adam 12.)
Merry Christmas, y’all.
Definitely a Christmas movie … perhaps even more so than the Trail of Robin Hood!
[…] One among many collaborations between director John Ford and actor John Wayne, this colorful Western reimagines a famous Bible story. Three rugged bank robbers double as stand-ins for the three Wise Men, who must bring a newborn baby to New Jerusalem. It takes place around the holidays and features a rendition of “Silent Night.” […]