Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

One thing you got in post-war Hollywood, as the studios began to lose their grip, was frontline directors setting forth with their own independent production companies. John Ford turned down a juicy deal from Twentieth Century Fox and, with his old pal producer and sometimes director Merian C. Cooper, formed Argosy Pictures. The Fugitive, a kind of Catholic adventure flick, was their first picture.This is the sort of thing John Ford really believed in. It probably wasn't pictures like this that he had the most fun with, but you can tell the amount of reverence he had for the subject matter. The Fugitive has a similar look to the Informer, a tale of honour, betrayal and drunkenness set during the Irish Civil War, the cause of Irish freedom probably being the only thing Ford held in higher esteem than the Catholic Church. Like the Informer (an excellent picture by the way), the Fugitive has a kind of stark simplicity to its images, giving the characters and locations an iconic look. There are long wordless sequences, as if to give the events a sense of quiet dignity.While not really a Western (some call this sub-genre a Zapata Western), Ford uses some of the tricks from his horse operas to ratchet up the tension and sense of danger. He keeps interiors very Spartan and small, yet with the outside world visible through doors and windows, making them look like fragile places of sanctuary. Exteriors on the other hand are vast and open, leaving our hero vulnerable to attack. A crafty moment is when Henry Fonda first gets followed by J. Carrol Naish. The wilderness is framed in a series of ruined arches, which gradually peter out, as if to say, "You are now leaving civilization – you're on your own now buddy." This isn't just symbolism by the way, there is a real psychological impact on the audience, because once we know the set-up we will be wondering if the hero is safe, and where his enemies might be lurking, and the way locations are presented to us enhances this sense of danger.For all this effort to make us believe in the cause and fear for the hero, there is however a dreadful feeling of insincerity. Henry Fonda, who was a brilliant Tom Joad in 1940, is rather ho-hum here. The trouble is in the character. Whereas Tom Joad would stand up and punch a man if the need arose, this priest is an all-out goody-two-shoes Christian. This is odd because in the Grahame Greene novel on which this is based the priest is an alcoholic womaniser, and besides screenwriter Dudley Nichols should have known better than to create a character without flaws. I guess the real culprit is the production code, which was still very much in force, but still the character has no bite. And neither does Fonda's performance. It wouldn't have been against the code to give the priest a bit of fire and passion, but instead all we get is cheek-turning meekness.It doesn't get much better when you look at the supporting cast. Fonda's countrymen are a clichéd bunch of humble, hat-holding peons (© every Mexican-set Hollywood movie until about 1963), and Naish's informant is just a dull ham act. Ward Bond, on the other hand, does the only bit of good acting in the whole thing (in fact it's some of the best acting of Bond's whole career), and I love his "El Gringo" character, but I can't help feeling he's in the wrong film. Meanwhile, the police lieutenant, in spite of an attempt by Nichols to make him human and multi-faceted, as portrayed by Pedro Armendariz is little more than a pathetic pantomime villain. I keep expecting him to start rounding up priests in a caravan that turns into a cage on wheels. And then Dick van Dyke would turn up in a flying car. Or something.John Ford was certainly a great director – one of the best. But he had a stampede of Achilles heels. One of these weaknesses was the seriousness with which he sometimes took the material, which blinded him to how corny and pompous the whole thing looked. It's a flaw he shared with Cecil B. DeMille. Ford's confidence in having established his own studio probably didn't help. The Fugitive is all po-faced symbolism and Sunday school sermonising. With a little dash of humour and humanising (ironically things that Ford usually spent a lot of time on) he could have really made the story connect to the audience. As it was the public of the time stayed away, and I'd recommend the public of today do the same.

Henry Fonda plays a priest on the run from the government after brainwashing people into believing god exists, in fact he actually believe he is right. this has to be the worst John Ford movie ever. it had absolutely nothing going for it. boring crap all the way. the religious glorification made me sick to my stomach. i usually don't react that way too those kinds of movies. but this one was just barfing out loads of holiness and made the priest look like the messiah or some crap. avoid at all costs! especially if you like john Ford's movies, because this film was so beneath him that i suspect he was brain damaged by alcohol during the shoot. ignore the ghastly reviews that says this is a so called masterpiece. IT'S NOT!!!

This excellent and dramatic movie , a co-production US-Mexico , is based on Graham Greene novel and written by Dudley Nichols . It starts when a priest (Henry Fonda) attempting to flee from a Centroamerican country , because Christianity being pursued by a totalitarian govern . He encounters help by an Indian woman (Dolores Del Rio) with a baby . She gives him direction to port where he could embark towards freedom . Meanwhile , he finds a mean countryman (J Carrol Naish) craving reward and is pursued by an authoritarian officer (Pedro Armendariz). Furthermore , his existence runs parallel a bank robber , The Gringo (War Bond) also relentlessly pursued .Magnificent movie featuring awesome performances by complete casting . The film develops some John Ford's usual themes , as the sentimental nostalgia , sense of camaraderie , religion , and abound touching scenes . Henry Fonda in a larger-than-life role as a good priest is top-notch , Pedro Armendariz as a nasty general is perfect and War Bond as outlaw wanted by totalitarian police is cool . Fonda (Grapes of wrath , Drums along the Mohawk , Young Mr. Lincoln) and Pedro Armendariz (3 Godfathers , Fort Apache) played several films for John Ford . Besides , there appears Ford's habitual friends , someone uncredited , such as Jack Pennick , Rodolfo Acosta , John Qualen , Fortunio Bonanova , J Carrol Naish, Mel Ferrer's first film and the opening narration is by Ward Bond , who also plays an important role in the film . Luxurious cinematography in lights and darks by Gabriel Figueroa (usual of director Emilio Fernandez , here also producer) . Enjoyable musical score by Richard Hageman , adding Mexican songs with emotive dance included in charge of Dolores Del Rio . The picture shot in Mexico , was produced by Ford's Argosy Production Company , RKO pictures and Merian C. Cooper . Rating : Better than average , well worth seeing for John Ford enthusiasts .

Move over, Harrison Ford; your namesake John got here first. While comparisons with Andrew Davis' action-packed 1993 thriller are inevitable in discussing 'The Fugitive (1947),' the two films – aside from the similarity described in their shared title – are completely unrelated, and about as different as two films could possibly be. Unlike many of the Westerns that brought director John Ford his greatest fame, 'The Fugitive' is entirely unconcerned with any form of action or dialogue; Ford's film-making is so concentrated on establishing the correct emotional atmosphere for each scene that it occasionally strays into tedium. However, it was obviously a very personal project for the Ford – who once called it "perfect" – and it's difficult to criticise a film into which the director poured so much passion and resolve. The story was adapted from Graham Greene's 1940 novel, "The Power and the Glory" {a.k.a. "The Labyrinthine Ways"} and concerns the plight of a victimised Christian priest, in an unnamed Latin American country where religion has been outlawed.Perhaps the film's greatest weakness, from my reasoning at least, is that it is so concerned with painting each character as an icon or ideal (few characters are afforded names, and are instead credited with indefinite articles; "a fugitive," "a lieutenant of police," "an Indian woman") that it's hard to sympathise with them. Fortunately, while consistently attempting to maintain each character as a "timeless" figure in the film's ageless story, Dudley Nichols's screenplay avoids the usual stereotypes to which most amateur filmmakers would inevitably resort. The Fugitive (Henry Fonda) is not a courageous, humble pillar of human decency, but a misguided clergy driven by an unconscious self-pride; his adversary, the Lieutenant of Police (Pedro Armendáriz), loves his country and its people deeply, but, guided by a fierce blind patriotism and an illogical hatred of religion, he is often misled towards acts of sheer barbarity. The Police Informer (J. Carrol Naish) is a Judas-like character, betraying The Fugitive to the authorities, and becoming inescapably repentant at the thought of his inhumanity.Despite not being particularly religious myself, I was sufficiently moved by Christianity's noble plight for survival, though I wasn't overly fond of the film's ultimate assertion that the lieutenant's hatred of religion stems directly from his secretly believing in God but being unwilling to admit it. Nevertheless, if you're going to watch 'The Fugitive,' it will most certainly be for the photography, which is, captured by Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, indescribably breathtaking. The opening sequence, in which The Fugitive returns to his former church, the light streaking through the windows as though God himself is reaching into the forsaken depths of the building, is spellbinding in its beauty. While Armendáriz is charismatic, and even slightly sympathetic, in his role of the antagonist, Henry Fonda largely looks awkward in the lead role (though you could argue that this uneasiness is integral to his character), and most of the other players – perhaps due to a language barrier – are similarly stilted. A visual masterpiece this film may be, and certainly an overall interesting watch, but 'The Fugitive' remains inferior Ford.