3 Godfathers

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: January 13, 1949

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

82	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 7 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

A wonderful, sentimental western about a bad man who redeems himself. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

The great Christmas western with Duke Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr. as three fugitive outlaws, who, by caring for an abandoned baby, unwittingly become sagebrush equivalents for the Three Wise Men. [04 May 2001, p.C1]

Keith Phipps

The fairy-tale-like 3 Godfathers casts Wayne as one of a trio of outlaws charged with caring for a baby, and discovering responsibility and perhaps his soul (the two go hand-in-hand for Ford) in the process. Read full review

Bosley Crowther

It is Mr. Ford's wonderful style in picturing a frontier fable that has the classic mould. His unsurpassed talent for bringing upon the motion-picture screen the nature and the drama of the great West is in itself an art. Read full review

The Observer (UK)Philip French

This underrated picture opens with a superbly staged bank robbery, is strikingly shot in Death Valley, and is dedicated to the great Harry Carey, who starred in Ford's 1919 version of this story and died in 1947 after appearing in Red River. [22 Aug 2004, p.63]

The GuardianPaul Howlett

It's a comical sentimental reworking of the journey of the Magi, with John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr as the soft-hearted outlaws. [01 Mar 2008, p.53]

Staff (Not Credited)

The distressing Ford penchant for symbols of religiosity which had marred The Fugitive does the same disservice here. Read full review