It had a formative impact on who they became, and they’ve been quoting from it ever since. Out of this terrible war, out of these terrible struggles, and yet today we are one nation. He worked in nearly every capacity on the radio before moving into Community Engagement, Marketing, and Digital Media. I think I’ve seen it 15 or 20 times, and I still sort of have tears in my eyes at several points. "[20], The New York Herald Tribune termed the movie "distinguished"; Newsweek deemed it "remarkable". A Young Jean-Luc Godard Picks the 10 Best American Films Ever Made (1963). You’ve run out of free articles. They kill the people around her, they haul her off again. Hmmmm. What you may not know is that the role John Wayne played of the driven Ethan Edwards is loosely based on another Parker character, Cynthia Ann’s uncle, James Parker. That’s where his focus is, and so he creates these two wonderful searchers. David Lean watched the film repeatedly while preparing for Lawrence of Arabia to help him get a sense of how to shoot a landscape. Ethan, who would rather travel alone, leaves without Martin the next morning, but Laurie reluctantly provides Martin with a horse to catch up. Yes, I agree with you, it really is an amazing role. ", Alvis, J. David, and John E. Alvis. In many of our contemporary narratives that involve Native Americans, they’re portrayed now as very noble people, like in “Dances With Wolves,” or Terrence Malick’s “The New World.” Back in the 1950s, when the novel and film of "The Searchers" came out, it wasn’t uncommon for Native American tribes to be depicted as exceedingly violent toward the white man, and it had been that way for quite some time. These two cultures shared nothing in common. It’s pointless to say that there wasn’t some racism involved, that there wasn’t paternalism. California couple camps in the desert. No actual rape scene is depicted, but Alexandra Heller-Nicholas in her study of Rape-Revenge Films says, "the abduction, captivity, and implied rape of Debbie (Natalie Wood) ... drives the narrative";[35] and Edward Buscombe points out a scene in which Copyright © 2013 by Glenn Frankel. He's the director of the School of Journalism at UT-Austin, and the author of "The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend.". And so Ford is giving you the racism, and yet at the same time he’s undermining it. His latest book is 2018’s Arizona Oddities: A Land of Anomalies and Tamales. [42], The Searchers has influenced many films. He did tell Bogdanovich that “The Searchers” was a “psychological epic.” He didn’t define what he meant by that, of course, he left it hanging there. Some wars, it’s two armies fighting against each other, and if civilians get killed, that’s collateral damage. In the light of morning the aliens are gone and they drive home. That kind of blend is what America is all about, and I find it to be very resonant about who we are, and how we got here. So this is something that continues on into Texas. John Ford's 1956 film "The Searchers" is one of the finest of the great director's career. [23], Critic Roger Ebert found Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, "one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created". And in the meantime, people were looking for her. scalps."). In the picture, "Amos" has become Ethan Edwards, played by John Wayne, and in the movie, he really hates the Comanche. They could be enormously kind and generous to each other, but they could be very cruel to outsiders because of this warrior culture. Well, in the Texan-Comanche wars, the families--in essence--were the targets. Ethan finds Lucy brutally murdered and presumably raped in a canyon near the Comanche camp. As I watched the John Ford films, and the way Indians are depicted in his films over time, I began to wonder what Ford’s feelings were about Native Americans, and our relationship and legacy with them. What is it that people in the 1800s were latching onto with this captivity story and captivity myth? Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Anakin massacres the kidnappers in vengeance, much like The Searchers' climactic battle in the Comanche camp. If not, what are the differences? What happens to these women when they’re taken off? to personalize content and perform site analytics. and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners She tells the men that she has become a Comanche, and wishes to remain with them. In reading the letter aloud, Laurie narrates the next few scenes, in which Ethan kills Futterman for trying to steal his money, Martin accidentally buys a Comanche wife, and the two men find a portion of Scar's band killed by soldiers. He becomes the most powerful figure in the movie, because he's played by John Wayne, but he’s a very dark figure. There’s something about being in this land and having the ‘other’ savages, these people, these natural, scary, people, come and take you, take your family, take your wife, take your children, and haul them off into the wilderness. Perhaps we can never know the full truth of what happened, but how did Cynthia Ann Parker’s story begin, and how was it modified and embellished over the decades? Older males were tortured and then killed. She never sees her Comanche husband or her two Comanche sons again. They’re forced to have sex with Indians. Then I found myself coming to Texas, and meeting with members of the heirs of her family that were still around, both the Comanche side and the Texan side. It raises all of these difficult issues. [3] Entertainment Weekly also named it the best Western. That’s just the way that people were [back then]. He shoots the eyes out of one Indian corpse, he scalps an Indian corpse, he shouts down a funeral service for the victims of an Indian raid so he can get on with his vengeance and move on, and he’s going to kill his young niece, because she’s had sex with Indians. The ending of Le May's novel contrasts to the film's, with Debbie, called Dry-Grass-Hair by the Comanches, running from the white men and from the Indians. Mel (Del Zamora) and Fred (Ed Pansullo) have it in for Fritz Frobisher (Sy Richardson)…, In 1849 Kit Carson rode as scout for a company of Dragoons in pursuit of…, Sixty years ago, John Ford and his film company left Hollywood for Goulding’s Lodge and…. And that becomes the narrative tension that drives the movie forward. Some film critics[specify] have speculated that the historical model for the cavalry attack on a Comanche village, resulting in Look's death and the taking of Comanche prisoners to a military post, was the well-known Battle of Washita River, November 27, 1868, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne camp on the Washita River (near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma). and Privacy Policy The Comanche were known to horribly mutilate their older female captives such as disfiguring their faces. [7], In 1989, The Searchers was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry; it was one of the first 25 films selected for the registry. [58], John Wayne's repeatedly used line "that'll be the day" inspired Buddy Holly to write the song "That'll Be the Day" after seeing the film in a theater in Lubbock, Texas.[59]. Ford gives us both John Wayne in all his charismatic glory and at the same time, undermining this myth all through this movie. CNN spoke with Frankel recently about his New York Times best-seller. It deals with most aspects of making the movie, including preparation of the site, construction of props, and filming techniques.[9]. In an iconic closing scene, Ethan departs the homestead as he arrived—alone—clutching his arm, the cabin door slowly shutting on his receding image.
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