The Fugitive (1947)

The Fugitive is an American film first released in 1947, directed by John Ford and Emilio Fernández.  The film is based on a novel by Graham Greene and stars Henry Fonda, Dolores del Rio, Pedro Armendáriz, J. Carrol Naish and Leo Carrillo.  It has also been released under the title: Dieu est mort.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


In a Latin American republic, a young priest is on the run.  He is fleeing from militant revolutionaries whose aim is to eradicate every last trace of the Catholic religion in their country.  The priest arrives at a small town where he is well-received by the locals, until the revolutionary police arrive and begin to take hostages.  He continues his journey across country and escape from his persecutors soon appears to be within his grasp.  He is about to catch a steamship that will take him to safety when a young boy accosts him and pleads with him to administer the last rites to his father.  The priest has no choice but to stay...

John Ford considered The Fugitive to be the best film he made, and, in its day, it was one of his most critically acclaimed films, although it was not a great success at the box office.  It is not hard to see why Ford was so fond of this film.  It embraces themes which are fundamental to his oeuvre and his philosophy on life – themes such as the power of the ordinary man to rise above adversity and the relationship that exists between man and the landscape he inhabits.  The hero of The Fugitive (beautifully portrayed by Henry Fonda) is a quintessential Ford creation: a contemplative, flawed individual who achieves some measure of greatness, not through displays of superhuman courage but by adhering to his simple beliefs and doing what he knows to be right.    

The film is based on Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory (which is widely regarded as the best thing Greene ever wrote) and it is interesting to compare the two works.  Ford’s take on Christianity was markedly different to Greene’s, and this is readily apparent in his film, where his characters are idealised reinterpretations of what we find in Greene’s novel, particularly the priest.  By removing much of the complexity and ambiguity of the novel, Ford transforms it into a simple yet highly poignant passion play in which our sympathies never stray from the central character, a man who is driven to a martyr’s fate by other men who have lost the power to love.    

Today, The Fugitive may appear naive and somewhat lacking in depth, but its arresting visuals still give it an extraordinary emotional impact and make it a film that is well worth seeing.  Of all the great cineastes of the Twentieth Century, John Ford was probably the one who most appreciated the visual power of cinema and knew how to exploit this in his films.   For The Fugitive, he was particularly fortunate to work with Gabriel Figueroa, the distinguished Mexican cinematographer who would later work with Luis Buñuel on such films as Los Olvidados (1950) and El Ángel exterminador (1962).  

Figueroa’s stunning photography of the raw Mexican landscape brings to the film a kind of oppressive splendour that seems to express something of the inner struggle of the anonymous priest.  The harsh lighting of the interiors also evokes this sense of internal conflict, an agonising existential tussle between flesh and spirit.  The priest’s religious beliefs and his fear of death, the saintly and human sides of his persona, are articulated not by words but by the violent interplay of light and shadow in the world around him.  This technique of defining a character by his surroundings is pure Ford.

The Fugitive is clearly influenced by the passion of Christ.  This is most apparent in the latter sequences: the priest is betrayed by a man who claims to be his friend; he is then caught, given a mock trial and executed.  However, the film isn’t swamped by it religious symbolism and its broader humanist themes ultimately prevail over its narrow Christian subtext.  This is not a film that tries to lecture us on the glory of God or the power of faith.  Rather, it is about the resilience of one insignificant man who refuses to allow external events and his own personal failings to divert him from the course on which he has set himself.  It is a film that celebrates the strength of the human spirit, showing us that true divinity lies not in Heaven, but in the heart of man, if we only dare to look for it.

© James Travers 2008

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