As for the tale, it is so simple that I’ve already covered most of it. In 1868, Ethan Edwards returns to his clan's Texas home. No one knows where he has been the last three years. Some critics imply he was a bandit, but no evidence is given of this, even if he does seem to have done well for himself financially. Martin has been taken in by Ethan’s brother, but Ethan does not consider him kin. After the massacre, which occurs when Ethan and a posse are lured away from the home by cattle rustling claims, they spend five years looking to retrieve Debbie.
Ford does not show the murder of the family, a classic Western trope that was bettered in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West. Instead, we see Scar look down upon her, as she hides by a gravestone. He then blows his war horn, and the screen fades to black. Yet, as powerful and iconic a moment as that is, Brandon’s blue eyes reveal he is being portrayed by a white actor, and undermines much of the Take 2.0 on the film, for such casting shows that the film and its director were, again, merely embodying the worst aspects of America at the time. That Scar is as evil and vicious as Ethan also does nothing to undermine the image of Indians as a dark force of nature, and unmitigated evil.
The two hour film also hits low points in the silly side stories involving Martin and his on again, off again fiancée Laurie Jorgenson (Vera Miles), and Martin’s unwitting marriage to a fat Comanche woman, Look (Beulah Archuletta). Neither story arc contributes any significance to the film, and could shorten its length while heightening its tension were they dropped. Laurie’s father, Lars Jorgensen (John Qualen), is especially a silly character, with his hyper-Norwegian accent, and Mose Harper (Hank Worden), a borderline retard, adds nothing to the film. Ford could have simply included a black cannibal, pinhead, and midget to round out his cast of 19th century wackos.
And the dialogue is just awful. There is no realism to the way people speak to each other, nor in how they truly react to such situations. Prime in this vein is the reaction of Lucy when her mother first tells her of the impending Comanche attack on their house. She screams and gestures with her hands and face as if she were acting in an old silent film, being chased by a dastard with a handlebar mustache. While Ford imported some of the best visual techniques from the silents into his later work, too often he had his actors overact, and this film is as guilty as they come on that charge.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!