Maybe film historians are just being lazy when they lump Drums Along the Mohawk with John Ford's other 1939 classics, Stagecoach and Young Mr. Lincoln. It's also conveniently located on Ford's résumé right before his enduring 1940 masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath. But make no mistake, Drums Along the Mohawk is a lesser effort from Ford, told in a series of standalone scenes of frontier life. Gilbert (Henry Fonda) and his wife Lana (Claudette Colbert) adjust to life in an isolated cabin in the Mohawk Valley, where he grows from timid boy into rugged American individualist and she discovers the pride and joy of harvesting crops and procreating. Ford clearly enjoys his All-American Myth Building, as farmers and frontiersmen toughen up into a firm militia to do battle against savage Indians and faceless Redcoats. His Yankees show a can-do resilience against all odds and epitomize the pluck and strong work ethic of Americana combined with a love of God and country that borders on obscene zealotry.