“My name’s John Ford. I make Westerns.“John Ford, one of the Western genre’s greatest influences, spoke these words at a Directors' Guild of America meeting toCecil B. DeMille, considered one of thefounders of American cinemaand the mostcommercially successful producer-directorin film history. In a conversation between two cinema greats, John Ford’s words couldn’t be more accurate.The director with the most Academy Awardsunder his sleeve, surprisinglynever won an Oscar for a Western movie. But his name lives on through his immaculate films. Some were controversial, for which he received his fair share of criticism, particularly for his portrayal of Indigenous Americans and other people of color. In the final decade of his career, however,he made films that seemed to undo the stereotypes his critics had cited that his earlier films propagated. One such movie was a Western that broke the record of being the first ever major studio film in the genre to cast a Black actor in the lead role. That film was 1960’sSergeant Rutledge,with lead actorWoody Strode.
Sergeant Rutledge
Respected Black cavalry Sergeant Brax Rutledge stands court-martial for raping and killing a white woman and murdering her father, his superior officer.
John Ford’s ‘Sergeant Rutledge’ Subverted the Western Genre
Sergeant Rutledgeis the story of First Sergeant Braxton Rutledge of the all-black 9th U.S. Army Calvary, also known as Buffalo Soldiers, who is accused of a double homicide and rape. The movie is told through flashbacks as Rutledge’s trial is going on at a court-martial. His charge sheet reads that he murdered his white commanding officer, and raped and strangled the officer’s daughter. Though he admits being responsible for the officer’s death, he argues that it was in self-defense after the officer shot him when he found him at the scene of his daughter’s death, believing he was the one who killed her. Rutledge’s witnesses at the trial include Constance Towers (Mary Beecher), a young woman whose life he saved during an Apache attack at a railroad station, and her boyfriend, Lt. Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter). Rutledge faces an overzealous, racist prosecutor and lynch-mob-calling spectators who are hell-bent on getting the court-martial to find him guiltyregardless of the evidence adduced.
BeforeSergeant Rutledge, major Western movies had depicted Black people as slaves, servants, or cooks for white people.Sergeant Rutledgewas also the first major studio Western to have Black people portrayed in respectable, prominent roles— as soldiers, and, one can argue, cowboys. John Ford boldly allowed Rutledge toexpress the Black Americans' experiencesof the time, with lines like “I walked into something none of us can fight — white woman business,” while explaining his predicament following the rape charges against him, and “It was Mr. Lincoln to say we were free, but that ain’t so. Not yet. Maybe one day, but not yet.” However, he also seemed hesitant to push too hard on the real situation in South Western America, where the film is set. Perhaps reducing potential conflict and letting the characters share their experiences was his approach to tackling this sensitive issue cautiously.
Warner Bros. did not want to cast Strode as Rutledge, preferring the established actorsSidney PoitierorHarry Belafonte. But Ford, having witnessed Strode’s talent on the set ofLewis Milestone’s 1959 war film starring Gregory Peck,Pork Chop Hill, fought for him, stating that the two weren’t tough enough for the role,writes film researcher R. Emmet Sweeny. The film was never promoted as if Strode was the lead, with the official promotional materials including the trailer, the poster, and the opening credits relegating him among “the other cast members.” Nonetheless, Sergeant Rutledge became Strode’s biggest career role. Ford and Strode would collaborate on three other films: 1962’sTwo Rode Together,The Man Who Shot Liberty Valancealongside John Wayne, andSeven Women. Their relationship extended beyond the set, andWoody Strode would be the caregiver of the legendary auteurin his final days.
Still, John Ford’s ‘Sergeant Rutledge’ Took a Cautious Approach to Racism
Even with the perceived progress made bySergeant Rutledge, John Ford still failed to capture the magnitude of the racial tensions of the time in the film. Although he positions Rutledge as the hero,his depictions of the entire cast steal away that shine. Besides the small, angry crowd spectating the proceedings and the pushy prosecutor, Ford portrays the rest of the white people at the trial as genuinely seeking justice for Rutledge. The racism of the time is placed solely on the shoulders of the prosecutor, who appears to charge the prejudiced spectators. Towers, the delicate white woman Rutledge saved, is depicted as an all-through innocent girl in love, as are the judges, who are all portrayed as just. With Rutledge is his white public defender, Lt. Cantrell.
When the film reveals the offender as a white man ready to frame his deceased son, his sudden dramatic show of remorse diminishes Ford’s seemingly genuine efforts. This is problematic, considering that in real-life America, 16 years before the movie’s release, a 14-year-old Black boy namedGeorge Stinney Jr.was executed for murderafter being convicted in a faulty trial that took just 10 minutes. And just five years before the film,Emmett Till, another 14-year-old Black boy, had been abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi after being accused of offending a white woman at a grocery store.
Another problem with John Ford’sSergeant Rutledgeis that,as it seeks to address the racism faced by Black Americans, it perpetuates another stereotype of Indigenous Americans.In the film, Indigenous people are portrayed as solely hostile and war-like, lacking diverse perspectives on their experiences. The film depicts Black soldiers, led by Sergeant Rutledge, participating in the US Army’s conflicts with Indigenous tribes, raising concerns about perpetuating harmful stereotypes and neglecting the complex realities of these historical encounters.
Idris Elba and Regina King on ‘The Harder They Fall’ and Why They Loved Making a Black Western with Director Jeymes Samuel
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John Ford’s Films Weren’t Always Sympathetic to People of Color
John Ford’s filmsfrom his early career were widely criticized for their stereotypical portrayals of people of color. Notably, his portrayal of Indigenous Americans in films likeStagecoach,which introduced the unassailable Hollywood duo of the Johns— Ford and Wayne.The Searchers, among others, alsodrew significant criticism. His 1930s films faced criticism for how he portrayed Black characters, particularly his use of Black actorStepin Fetchitfor degrading roles like the slow-witted characters inJudge PriestandSteamboat Round the Bend. Interestingly, an adaptation of a series of short stories,Judge Priestoriginally contained a scene depicting an attempted lynching of a Black boy, but 20th Century Fox removed it. Two decades later, in 1953, Ford revisited the same stories inThe Sun Shines Brightand chose to have the Judge Priest defuse the situation, ultimately leading to the boy’s exoneration. This marked a significant step in Ford’s evolution towards more nuanced representations, as evidenced in his later filmSergeant Rutledge.
Perhaps motivated by a desire to redress past misrepresentations, Ford dedicated his last film,Cheyenne Autumn, to Indigenous Americans.This is according to his biography,Print the Legend: The Lives and Times of John FordbyScott Eyman. This sprawling epic, starringJimmy StewartandCarroll Baker, offers a sympathetic portrayal of the real-life Northern Cheyenne Exodus in the late 1870s. The film depicts the Cheyenne people’s journey back to their ancestral lands, a trek perceived as an act of rebellion by the pursuing Union soldiers.
Early Hollywood Westerns often portrayed the West as devoid of people of color, despiteevidence suggesting up to 25% of the population were non-white. The 2021 Western,The Harder They Fall, directed byJeymes Samueland featuring an all-Black cast, revisits this era to tellthe real-life stories of Black cowboys, long absent from the big screen. A 1921 silent five-reeler,The Bull Dogger,was the first ever Black Western and featured a real-life Black cowboy,Bill Picket.Picket was portrayed inThe Harder They FallbyEdi Gathegi. While B-movies starringHerb Jeffriesoffered glimpses of this reality, their narratives and Jeffries' mixed heritage remained largely untold for decades.As quoted by Jet Magazine, Jeffries himself grappled with racial identification, stating, “My mother was 100% white. My father is Portuguese, Spanish, American Indian, and Negro. How on earth can I identify myself as one race or another?”
Who Was Woody Strode?
Woody Strode wasa professional wrestler, a football star who was also one of the first Black American players in the NFL, and an actor. In his multifaceted career, Strode juggled between the cowboy hat, the guardian cap, and the ring, seamlessly transitioning between professions. His early roles included a groundbreaking appearance as a native police officer inHenry Hathaway’s 1941 war film,Sundown. He took on a string of smaller roles before his big break inSergeant Rutledge, but his filmography boasts gems likeSpartacus,The Last Voyage,andSergio Leone’sepic,Once Upon a Time in the West.He even graced the screens of Western television series such asThe QuestandHow the West Was Won, a show inspired by the 1962 epicA-list cast member film starring John Wayne, Henry Fonda, and Jimmy Stewart, that John Ford helped to direct.
The Western genre has evolved to reflect the sensitivities we hold today. While many Westerns deserve criticism for their portrayals, they also represent the raw realities and prevailing attitudes of the era.Sergeant Rutledge’s groundbreaking casting of Woody Strode as the lead was a significant step forward. Similar to John Ford’s evolution throughout his stellar career,it reminds us that our perceptions change over time. Perhaps critics should consider the context before judging the most decorated director too harshly. After all, asJohn Ford once said, “I am a hard-nosed director. If I get a script, if I like it, I’ll do it. If I don’t like it, I’ll turn it down. But Jesus Christ, I am not carrying messages or anything.”
Sergeant Rutledgeis available to rent on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.
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