Yet, many critics damn the film with false plaudits when they praise the ‘visual poetry’ of Ford’s onscreen creation. While there is no denying the manifest beauty of many of the scenes’ backdrops, mere beauty itself is not poetry, for poetry (in the non-verse sense) connects and communicates certain ideas and emotions that transcend the mere image, beautiful or not, while beauty is just beauty. John Ford films are undeniably beautiful, but to call them poetic, visually or otherwise, is to simply not understand the term nor how it should be properly applied.
And there is even less poetry in the screenplay. It was adapted by Frank S. Nugent (Ford’s son-in-law) from Alan Le May’s 1954 novel of the same name, and simply falls flat. The actual tale was inspired by the legendary 1836 kidnapping of young Cynthia Ann Parker (mother of the great Comanche Chief Quanah Parker) by Comanche warriors who raided her family’s home. After a quarter century, her family recovered her. That ‘incident’ has inspired stories, books, and even poems, but none as vivid as the tale The Searchers tells, despite its many flaws. And while many call the film an American epic, the film clearly is not, for the term epic describes not only a tale told involving great time and space, but also great characters who somehow discover deep and powerful things within themselves. There’s not a single character in this film who ends up significantly different at its end from what they were at its start. Even Jeffrey Hunter’s Martin merely grows up and becomes a bit more assertive.
Furthermore, not only is there is no great change evident in any of the characters, but there is no change even in the film’s outlook on life. Think of films like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru. Part of what makes them great films is that the internal diegesis also changes.
2001 starts out as a primal film into which intellect seeps, then invades. That invasion soon becomes a pervasion, and the film ends on perhaps the most ineffably intellectual high note in film history. In Ikiru, the first two thirds of the film follows the gloom and despair of a dying man, and the whole film seems to be very dark. Then, there is an abrupt shift, and the main character dies, and is recounted in a hagiography we know is at odds with the man we witnessed. Yet, it works, once the revelations we know and those the internal characters know gibe. Other great films often have similar internal transitions of perspective, if not as radical as the two aforementioned. The Searchers is static, not only by comparison to those two far greater films, but even compared to films that are at its own level artistically.
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Article comments
1 - LAGirl
Should be interesting to see how Searchers 2.0 (Cox film starring Del Zamora, Fall 07) spoofs this...
2 - TWW
Well, all I can say is that you've approached the movie with pre-concieved notions about what a Western is and in particular what a John Wayne western is and nothing that happened on the screen was allowed to challenge that. Which is a pity as you are missing out on one of the best movies ever made. Certainly better than 2001 or Once Upon A Time In The West, both of which I like.
The Searchers IS poetry. It is a complex, realistic, moving, funny, dark and entertaining visual poem of metaphor about a man's journey to the door of Hades, only to pull back at the last moment from it as he has every other door in his life. Unable to enter Hades and having long lost Heaven, he ends the film where he started - in Limbo while the living get on with their lives. Far from being a flaw, the fact that he is unable to even change for the worse is one of the major points of the story. Ethan is a futile man living a futile life.
The movie carefully lays out the characters and their history without shouting about it. Why is Marhta with Aaron and not Ethan? The film tells us, slowly and subtly, through the "silly" interaction of Marty and Lauran. It seems that this sort of story telling is not "in your face" enough for your tastes, but it is sophisticated and much more powerful in the long run than having reams of exposition.
You constantly undermine the story for yourself by insisting on applying 21st Century morals to a 20th Century telling of a 19th Century story. You need to try actually watching the movie instead of trying so hard to filter what you're seeing.
The Searchers was a semi-radical film for its time - the Indians are portrayed as trapped and thrashing hopelessly, the Indian-hunter is a monster not a hero. Again, it's subtle, but this is, for example, one of the first Westerns to portry Indian women and children running screaming from the whiteman, or come to that slaughtered without mercy in their own camp. True "Native viewpoint" westerns were still to come, but The Searchers is pointing out the direction from where they will appear and doing a far more honest job of it than, say, Dances with Wolves.
Watch it again but leave your post-modern bourgeois deconstructionist theories at the door. If you still feel the same way, then my advice is to give up watching movies.
3 - Dan Schneider
1) it's called reading. My dad had preconceptions about Wayne, not me.
2) 'Certainly better than 2001 or Once Upon A Time In The West' A sense of humor is always good.
3) Paragraph 2- it is not poetry, and your paragraph, ironically, details why the film is trite in many ways. Thanks for making the argument.
4) I applied no moral filter, and this is another time you've imbued into the review things to defend weaknesses in the film.
5) Subtlety is not anything this film is, as I said in the scene where Ford has to zero in on Wayne to tell us 'he's bad.'
6) 'post-modern bourgeois deconstructionist theories' Define that. And if you can, show me anything that even remotely is deconstructivist in the review. I revile such stupid -isms. They are as silly as deliterates who want to try to explicate art.
That would be you, TWW.
4 - yayu
This is quite an insightful review. To be honest, it's refreshing to read someone who didn't automatically think TS a complete masterpiece, and poetry in motion. I agree with you complete, it was a good film, enjoying and more engaging that I first thought it would be, but I can't see why people fall head over heels in love with it.
May have to use this for my essay (with citations of course!)
Yayu.
5 - Dan Schneider
Yayu:
You can always tell bad critics and folks who love something out of proportion by the way they react to a review. Of this film I state: 'It does, however, take its place as a worthy entry in the pre-modern western canon, alongside other classics like High Noon, Shane, Red River, and Ford’s other western classics like Stagecoach and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, as a good action film.'
I use words like worthy and good, yet because I do not gush over it, and recognize manifest flaws, folk like TWW automatically get enraged. Silly, really.
6 - Jim
I myself was never partial to the old Hollywood Westerns. They're good, but they're flawed. I always prefered Sergio Leone's Clint Eastwood trilogy (the central character's much cooler than any of Wayne's characters), and especially Once Upon a Time in the West, which you mention.
7 - Fritz
I'll take love over "artistic merit" every day of the week, professor.
8 - Dan Schneider
That's why your opinion is not that enlightening.
9 - Darlene Davis
I am ahuge fan of John Wayne,The Searchers, was one of his best ever. So full of emotion.Stands out as a classic because he played the part so well.
10 - Dan Schneider
Red River's better.
11 - Josette
I only watched this movie for my cinema studies class and also required to study Ethan's hero status. My groupmates and I initially couldn't see anything heroic about Ethan since he proved himself a racist, uncontrollable and impulsive guy throughout the movie.
I also didn't like the part where Lucy screamed like a mad girl. Couldn't she have been smarter and shut up? Another disturbing part was when Martin kicked Look down the hill. That was just plain cruel!
But then, it's still an enjoyable film. Ethan's catchphrase "That'll be the day" was amusing. John Wayne's performance was all right. This is my first time watching a John Wayne movie anyway. :D
12 - Zetmoon
This article is a load of bullshit!
The Searchers is one of the greatest films ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!