Director John Ford was always intrigued by the expressionistic movement emerging out of Germany in the 1920s, especially when German director F. W. Murnau was hired in 1926 by the same studio he was working. Ford was able to personally witness Murnau's techniques while directing his first Hollywood movie, "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" (1927). Ford's observations were put to good use in his World War One drama, February 1928's "Four Sons." Based on a short story by I. A. R. Wylie, "Four Sons" contains elements of expressionism that would remain with the director throughout his career.
Three particular visual scenarios stand out in "Four Sons" to reflect Murnau's influence on Ford. Set in Bavaria before the Great War, a widowed mother is given a letter by a mailman who appears as a spitting image of actor Emil Jannings in Murnau's 1924 "The Last Laugh." The mailman twists his long mustache in the same manner Jannings did as a hotel doorman. The letter is from one of her son's friends who has invited him to America for a job. The mother funds her son Joseph's trip by giving him all of her life savings without telling him where the money came from.
Another expressionistic element is the film's use of shadows, so reminiscent of Murnau's 1922 "Nosferatu." As her two sons, now in the German Army, are leaving her for the Russian front, Ford uses the shadow of the mother's hands to show her caressing their faces, a premonition of what lies ahead for the brothers. Later, when the postman delivers mail informing her the two sons have died, the mail carrier is shown in a long shadow and not as the jovial man portrayed earlier.
A sequence that imitates Murnau's "Sunrise" famous camera movement through the marshes following actor George O'Brien, Ford uses the exact Fox Studio set with the same moving camera suspended from the ceiling to track Joseph on the front lines. Joseph runs in front of his fellow soldiers to answer the call of a wounded German crying for his mother. Coincidentally, it is the fourth brother, Andreas, who Joseph stumbles upon, setting up a highly-emotional farewell between the two brothers, all bathed in expressionistic lighting.
The tale is not anti-German but an anti-war message of the needless killing of young men. Ford still retains his sentimental touch in "Four Sons." The director uses his soft focus during the highly-charged emotional scenes, he frames busy backdrops with the sharp focus foreground of his main characters, and he includes the portrayal of the vulnerable in a sea of humanity (the New York City scenes used the same city sets Murnau constructed for his "Sunrise".). But "Four Sons" also witnesses a new Ford with his camera moving much greater than in the past, his use of shadows and his sharper contrasting lighting, all gleaned from the stylistic elements he learned from the German director.
Three particular visual scenarios stand out in "Four Sons" to reflect Murnau's influence on Ford. Set in Bavaria before the Great War, a widowed mother is given a letter by a mailman who appears as a spitting image of actor Emil Jannings in Murnau's 1924 "The Last Laugh." The mailman twists his long mustache in the same manner Jannings did as a hotel doorman. The letter is from one of her son's friends who has invited him to America for a job. The mother funds her son Joseph's trip by giving him all of her life savings without telling him where the money came from.
Another expressionistic element is the film's use of shadows, so reminiscent of Murnau's 1922 "Nosferatu." As her two sons, now in the German Army, are leaving her for the Russian front, Ford uses the shadow of the mother's hands to show her caressing their faces, a premonition of what lies ahead for the brothers. Later, when the postman delivers mail informing her the two sons have died, the mail carrier is shown in a long shadow and not as the jovial man portrayed earlier.
A sequence that imitates Murnau's "Sunrise" famous camera movement through the marshes following actor George O'Brien, Ford uses the exact Fox Studio set with the same moving camera suspended from the ceiling to track Joseph on the front lines. Joseph runs in front of his fellow soldiers to answer the call of a wounded German crying for his mother. Coincidentally, it is the fourth brother, Andreas, who Joseph stumbles upon, setting up a highly-emotional farewell between the two brothers, all bathed in expressionistic lighting.
The tale is not anti-German but an anti-war message of the needless killing of young men. Ford still retains his sentimental touch in "Four Sons." The director uses his soft focus during the highly-charged emotional scenes, he frames busy backdrops with the sharp focus foreground of his main characters, and he includes the portrayal of the vulnerable in a sea of humanity (the New York City scenes used the same city sets Murnau constructed for his "Sunrise".). But "Four Sons" also witnesses a new Ford with his camera moving much greater than in the past, his use of shadows and his sharper contrasting lighting, all gleaned from the stylistic elements he learned from the German director.