I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Rather depressing film, and I thought I was in Franco's Spain during his rule with all the anti-Catholicism shown.Dolores Del Rio as the woman that hunted priest finds and baptizes her baby daughter is constantly on edge throughout the film. She is devoted to the lord but in the meantime has had an illegitimate child with the general who is in constant hot pursuit of the fleeing Fonda.Both of Fonda's attempts to flee this revolutionary area in Mexico are destined to fail, solely because of his faith and his commitment to bless the dying. The ending shows the commitment of faith.

Fugitive, The (1947)*** (out of 4) Henry Fonda plays a priest in Central America who finds himself on the run after the government bans all religion. Fonda manages to go from town to town with religious folks willing to protect him but soon he runs into a crooked police informer (J. Carrol Naish) who might be giving information to the Lieutenant (Pedro Armendariz) who will stop at nothing to clear the streets of the evil religious figures. This film was a notorious flop when it was released and I'm fairly positive it would flap in any year in any decade. That's not because it's a bad film because it isn't but the film is so depressing that you can't help but feel most people wouldn't want to sit through it. The film contains some absolutely breath-taking cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa, which ranks as some of the best I've seen from this era. If you think the noir genre was good at using shadows and darkness then you haven't seen anything yet. As I said, this movie is 100% depression and what really fits the mood is the cinematography because it paints the perfect atmosphere. There are countless memorable scenes including the final shot with a cross as well as an earlier one where Fonda is hiding in a church and many parents from the village come in to get their children baptized while they have the chance. Another major plus working for the film is Ford's direction, which is top-notch as usual. I'm really not sure why this film would appeal to him but it's always amazing to go through Ford's career and see how many times he would direct something outside his range and pull it off. Ford does a terrific job building up this sad atmosphere and I really enjoyed the fact that he didn't pull any punches by adding fake comedy or just trying to lighten up the mood. Then, of course, there's Fonda who once again delivers the goods. The way Fonda walks here makes it seem as if he's a feather blowing in the wind because he's obviously a weak man who is struggling with being hunted. I thought the actor did a tremendous job showing the frailty of the character and the inner struggles he's having with the religion. Naish made a career out of playing snakes and once again he delivers an excellent performance and I'm sure by the end you'll be wanting to kill this guy yourself. Dolores del Rio plays a disgraced woman who is befriended by the priest and is excellent as well. Leo Carrillo, Ward Bond and Robert Armstrong add nice support as well. It's Armendariz who steals the show however as the truly tortured soul who is fighting to keep the religion out of his streets but is doing so due to some secret issues. THE FUGITIVE has all the right elements but it's still lacking something. Perhaps the film is just too laid-back for its own good but it never really crosses the greatness mark.

In his interviews with such well-meaning young aesthetes as Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford always chose to play dumb --portraying himself as a tough no-nonsense, hard-drinking old Irishman who just happened to "make Westerns." That lovable wise man with his mono-syllabic answers to their solemn questions, the drink in hand, the patch over one eye, pretended to have no idea whatsoever what those intellectuals from film school and glossy magazines were talking about. But as this film demonstrates, under that gruff exterior old man Ford obviously had once had a hidden desire to do what all the kids were trying to do a generation later -–i.e. make Cinema Art with a capitol "C" and a capitol "A." This film made under the banner of his own Argosy Productions is, sad to say, not Ford at his best. It's too bad because at his best, at his greatest, he was a supremely gifted visual story-teller who rarely drew attention to himself and his effects. This ponderously paced film, aglow with the heavenly light created by the Mexican cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa, and the syrupy old-fashioned symphonic score by Richard Hageman is always on the brink of sentimental piety and artistic pretension; often it falls flat on its face or over the edge. Figueroa who started as an Edward Tisse's assistant on Eisenstein's Mexican experiment "Che Viva Mexico" indulges in the same lined-faces of the noble peons style of photography that we see in that arty Russian film. How different then is the work of Ford's occasional collaborator, the great Greg Toland (said to have mentored Figueroa as well) who photographed "Long Voyage Home" and "Grapes of Wrath," as well as Welles' "Citizen Kane." In those films, the shadows and light serve the story, but in this one Figueroa's photography, however beautiful to see, simply overtakes the film by exaggerating all the absurd Sunday School symbolism.

As usual, John Ford is able to provide an appropriately dark vision for the material here, with careful use of shadow work and lighting. The film is a grim and harrowing tale, but this is the type that Ford handles well - there are reminders of his earlier bleak masterpieces, 'The Lost Patrol', 'The Informer' and 'The Grapes of Wrath'. The politics are not too well explained, it has some overbearing religious imagery, and the whole religious side of the film is not too well executed, but otherwise it is very well done. The film has interesting ideas about doing one's duties, and the effects of extreme loyalty to one's cause. Panning cinematography is well used throughout, and the music choices are excellent. The film is often maligned for the religious side that it pushes, but Fonda's character can represent any type of man who feels obligations and therefore makes sacrifices. It does not have to be tied in with Christ symbolism.