Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)

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BACKGROUND

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The men fighting the American revolution in Drums Along the Mohawk are militiamen rather than professional soldiers. They are farmers and craftsmen who don’t have uniforms or know how to drill properly but are nevertheless forced to take up arms to defend their homes and community in the name of independence from foreign rule. As much bitterness as Ford felt toward the British for their oppressive treatment of the Irish and others, he appreciated that the poor and middle class people of England were standing up to their ruling class in opposition to the fascists threat. The populations of both England and America were horrified by the racist authoritarian movement and on the eve of the second world war the British were the primary challenger to the Nazi war machine. 

 

Because of this, the script for Drums Along the Mohawk was altered to focus on the Tories (Americans who remained loyal to the British) and hired Native mercenaries as the adversaries of the settlers in the Mohawk Valley when independence was declared. Frank Nugent of The New York Times, who later became one of Ford’s favorite screenwriters, called it: “a first-rate historical film, as rich atmospherically as it is in action”

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PLOT SUMMARY

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Remote settlers in northern New York are drawn into the revolutionary war as the British backed Tories attempt to cut New England off from the rest of the colonies.

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