The Searchers (1956)
Country: US
Technical: col/Vistavision 119m
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood
Synopsis:
Returning to his home territory after the Civil War, a dried up loner, Ethan Edwards, sees his brother's homestead raided by Indians and all within perish, including the sister-in-law he secretly yearned for. All, that is, except the little girl who has been taken away to become one of the tribe. Thus begin years of searching for the missing Debbie, a search that becomes like an expiation of Ethan's own guilt.
Review:
A landmark Western, one might call it Ford's coming of age in that he first moved away from an idealisation of the West in white civilization terms. True the Indian is still demonized here, but through the perception of a mind twisted with remorse and loathing. It is beautifully shot, in Monument Valley, the colours emerging in a different way to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon's ostentatiously picturebook romanticisation, and is famous for its threshold compositions that bookend the film, not to mention a fine performance from Wayne. By excluding his character from any settled community, and condemning him to a Flying Dutchman-like fate of perpetual roaming, Ford suggests that the ruthless forces that conquered the West must give way to a softer, more conciliatory society (cf. Cheyenne Autumn). Ethan is, put another way, the unhappy price of America's 'glorious present', previously gone unconfessed in Ford's Crusade mythology of the West.
Country: US
Technical: col/Vistavision 119m
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood
Synopsis:
Returning to his home territory after the Civil War, a dried up loner, Ethan Edwards, sees his brother's homestead raided by Indians and all within perish, including the sister-in-law he secretly yearned for. All, that is, except the little girl who has been taken away to become one of the tribe. Thus begin years of searching for the missing Debbie, a search that becomes like an expiation of Ethan's own guilt.
Review:
A landmark Western, one might call it Ford's coming of age in that he first moved away from an idealisation of the West in white civilization terms. True the Indian is still demonized here, but through the perception of a mind twisted with remorse and loathing. It is beautifully shot, in Monument Valley, the colours emerging in a different way to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon's ostentatiously picturebook romanticisation, and is famous for its threshold compositions that bookend the film, not to mention a fine performance from Wayne. By excluding his character from any settled community, and condemning him to a Flying Dutchman-like fate of perpetual roaming, Ford suggests that the ruthless forces that conquered the West must give way to a softer, more conciliatory society (cf. Cheyenne Autumn). Ethan is, put another way, the unhappy price of America's 'glorious present', previously gone unconfessed in Ford's Crusade mythology of the West.
Country: US
Technical: col/Vistavision 119m
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood
Synopsis:
Returning to his home territory after the Civil War, a dried up loner, Ethan Edwards, sees his brother's homestead raided by Indians and all within perish, including the sister-in-law he secretly yearned for. All, that is, except the little girl who has been taken away to become one of the tribe. Thus begin years of searching for the missing Debbie, a search that becomes like an expiation of Ethan's own guilt.
Review:
A landmark Western, one might call it Ford's coming of age in that he first moved away from an idealisation of the West in white civilization terms. True the Indian is still demonized here, but through the perception of a mind twisted with remorse and loathing. It is beautifully shot, in Monument Valley, the colours emerging in a different way to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon's ostentatiously picturebook romanticisation, and is famous for its threshold compositions that bookend the film, not to mention a fine performance from Wayne. By excluding his character from any settled community, and condemning him to a Flying Dutchman-like fate of perpetual roaming, Ford suggests that the ruthless forces that conquered the West must give way to a softer, more conciliatory society (cf. Cheyenne Autumn). Ethan is, put another way, the unhappy price of America's 'glorious present', previously gone unconfessed in Ford's Crusade mythology of the West.