A-Ford-able

Barrie Maxwell at The Digital Bits reports that one of the biggest DVD gaps -- the relative lack of John Ford movies -- is about to be filled:

There is further confirmation that a John Ford box set will be forthcoming later this year, probably in the second or third quarter. Titles likely to be included are: The Informer, Stagecoach, The Long Voyage Home, Fort Apache, The Searchers, and Cheyenne Autumn. Writer Scott Eyman is involved in some of the supplementary content (commentary, interviews) being assembled for these releases.

Stagecoach and The Searchers have been available on DVD before, but in unimpressive-looking releases; the new releases are reportedly two-disc special editions.

I'd rather have something other than Cheyenne Autumn, like, say, Wagon Master (supposedly Ford's own favorite film) but the rest of the box will make a nice mix of Ford's '30s-early '40s period as Hollywood's artiest sentimentalist (The Informer, The Long Voyage Home) and his sprawling, fascinating postwar films about the contradictions of American history/mythology (Fort Apache, The Searchers).