100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #102: 3 Godfathers (1948)

Directed by John Ford. Starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, Harry Carey Jr.

John Ford is perhaps best known for his westerns, despite not winning any of his six Academy Awards for them. Ford was known as a painterly filmmaker, one who studied the compositions of the masters to craft the best and most beautiful images he could for his films. And his westerns are his most magnificent canvases. The stark beauty of the American west, especially Monument Valley where Ford filmed many of his best works, provides a wonderful backdrop for Ford’s stories, which are always just as stark and just as beautiful.

3 Godfathers is not, perhaps, one of Ford’s most prominent westerns (see Fort Apache, The Searchers, My Darling Clementine, or Stagecoach for that), but it is one of his most poignant and beautiful films. Starring Ford’s frequent collaborator John Wayne, 3 Godfathers tells the story of three bankrobbers, Bob Hightower (Wayne), Pete (Pedro Armendariz) and Will “The Abilene Kid” (Harry Carey Jr.), who are chased into the desert after an unsuccessful heist. The kind-hearted but wily Marshall Perley Sweet (a magnificent Ward Bond) is able to shoot a hole in their water skin during the chase, so he stakes out all the wells and water tanks in the area, forcing our heroes to choose between turning themselves in for water or hiding out, free but thirsty, in the Arizona desert.

And yes, I did call the bank-robbers our heroes, for their actions after the robbery are truly heroic. They travel to a waterhole, only to find it destroyed by a tenderfoot who abandoned his wagon to try and chase his livestock. Inside the wagon is a woman about to give birth, alone and thirsty in the wilderness. The three men work together to help deliver the baby and find the woman water by squeezing it out of the barrelhead cactus they find near the ruined tanks. When the baby is delivered, the exhausted woman dies but names our three misfits the baby’s godfathers, christening him Robert William Pedro. In an extremely touching and tender scene, they promise the woman to take care of her son and raise him to be a good man, then bury her as they sing Shall We Gather By The River.

Once again left alone in the desert, the men have to decide how to proceed, this time with a baby in tow. Inspired by a chance passage from the Bible, they decide to set out for the nearby town of New Jerusalem, there to start a better life with their godson. The road is perilous and through pain and suffering for the good of this child our heroes will be transfigured from bank robbers and cattle rustlers into truly noble and saintly men, willing to give their all for this innocent baby.

There are many explicit religious overtones in the film, with characters quoting or reading from the Bible, looking for signs of Divine Providence, singing hymns, and questing for New Jerusalem. In this respect it becomes almost a parable; indeed, some have compared it to the Nativity story, with the three Godfathers playing the part of the Three Wise Men. The movie itself draws this comparison in passing, and the three can fill the traditional roles of Magi imagery: Bob Hightower as the older, leading wise man, The Abilene Kid as the younger one, and Pete (a Mexican) as the darker skinned foreigner. However, it would be imprudent to look for a straight allegory in this film, instead appreciating it as a story of redemption through self-sacrifice for our three heroic criminals. Ford, though unapologetically Christian in this narrative, refuses to proselytize or make the narrative too easy for us to interpret. Instead, he invites us to wonder: at virtue from vicious people, at mercy offered to the guilty, at water in the desert, at the marvelous providence of God.

Another aspect of many of John Ford’s films which is spectacularly present in 3 Godfathers is the necessity of community. Unlike other westerns, where the town is presented as dysfunctional and full of saloons and brothels, Welcome Arizona is a pretty, welcoming place, full of families, rule of law, and the good things that come with civilization. It is our outsider cowboys who bring evil with them as they plan to rob the bank, even after a very friendly encounter with Marshall Perley and his wife. Through their transgression, the three Godfathers are cut off from that community (excommunicated, if you will) and must flee to the desert to wander in the wilderness. It is only through the sacrifice and community building that comes through bringing a child into the world that the three begin to hope for redemption. And none of them can do this task alone; it takes all three of them to keep the baby alive on the journey across the salt flats to New Jerusalem. Even when Bob Hightower is ostensibly all alone with the baby to continue his journey, the other two reassert their presence in a tender and comforting way. In the end, by bringing the child safely to New Jerusalem, the robbers are welcomed back into the community, and after doing penance for their sins the viewer is left with the hope that they will once more be safe and happy in communion with others.

There are many other beautiful aspects of 3 Godfathers, including the recurring motif of water and salvation echoing the baptismal significance of the title, the beautiful shots of newborn Robert William Pedro (enough to melt this father’s heart), and the righteous rage but quick forgiveness of Marshall Perley Sweet. All in all, it is a poignant film, one which is never bombastic and has no pretensions to greatness but in which greatness nevertheless shines through every frame. It is steeped in Christianity without being preachy, it is tender and beautiful without feeling trite, and it is powerful in its simplicity and all-around goodness. Ford’s films exude a genuineness and commitment to excellence that is refreshing in this modern age, which gives his works a timeless quality. 3 Godfathers may not be his most famous or acclaimed film, but this simple film holds the keys to some of his greater and more oblique works. Illustrious filmmakers from Orson Welles to Steven Spielberg have credited Ford as being one of the greatest masters of the art of cinema, and in 3 Godfathers as much as in Grapes of Wrath or How Green Was My Valley, their high opinion is proven correct.