| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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"Just as sure as the turnin' of the Earth"
by Wouldinya (movies profile)
Jan 31, 2009
10
of
12 people found this review helpful
I've studied film. I've written and directed films. People have asked me, "What's your favorite movie?" The answer, over the years, has become quite clear:
"Taxi Driver."
My favorite film, however, is not, in my opinion, the best movie ever made in America. For without John Ford's masterpiece, "The Searchers," there would be no "Taxi Driver." The New Hollywood, a brief movement in the 1970s, would never have happened without "The Searchers." It is difficult to believe that such a great movie could come from the "Studio Era," but, in fact, it did.
When talking about the films of John Ford, it is difficult to isolate one as his best. "My Darling Clementine" is one of the most beautiful films ever shot. The photography alone makes it a piece of visual poetry. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" is, like "The Searchers," a "deconstructionist" western ahead of its time. And how about "Fort Apache," in which Henry Fonda is the strict traditionalist and John Wayne, believe it or not, is the "tolerant, progressive" force in the narrative? John Ford is one of the few American Masters of cinema. Anyone who debates that is either ignorant or insane (probably both!)
But it is "The Searchers" that stands out even among his impressive library of work. The two central subjects of the film are racism and identity (or, to be more academic about it, 'cultural' identity.) For a film to be openly, honestly discussing these issues, especially one from the studios (never forget the brave efforts of Sam Fuller at this time! Being an independent filmmaker, however, his honesty it to be expected,) during the 1950s, is jaw-dropping. While Doris Day was tip-toeing through the daisies, John Ford and John Wayne were rattling America's rawest nerves.
The story is simple. John Wayne's character, "Ethan," has returned from questionable circumstances after the "civil" war. He is a product of the wild; he will never be part of "civilized" America. This is a profound risk taken by "The Searchers." Today, in Hollywood, no character can be introduced as a racist without completing an "arc" in which he "learns" that his ways are wrong and repents by the end of the film (see Will Smith in "I, Robot," for an extreme, absurd example of this most condescending of Hollywood trends.) Ethan will not be cured, not entirely. He will find enough humanity to recognize that family is stronger than "culture," or "race," but he will not be "tamed." The "civilization" that will eventually overtake the "wild" west will never contain Ethan.
Nor will it contain Ethan's enemy, Scar, and Scar's people, the Comanche. So unable to be "tamed" are the American Indians that they will eventually be all but wiped out by the very same fear and racism that drives Ethan.
Some might complain that "The Searchers" doesn't go far enough in detailing America's racist origins. Slavery, for instance, is not, beyond the quiet references to the "civil" war, mentioned. I'm sure this is one of the reasons Spike Lee jumps up and down and shouts about how much he hates John Ford. Interesting, considering I would put "The Searchers" in a list of films that helped eventually spawn Lee's masterpiece, "Do the Right Thing." This complaint, however, holds no water. "The Searchers" is on a mission to go right to heart of the problem. To the very beginning.
The United States of America was created by Europeans searching for an identity they were not allowed to have in their homeland. That search came at the expense of the cultures (or races, as the film puts it,) who already occupied the land. The racial divide, hence, existed long before the indentured servants from Ireland and Scotland and certainly before the slaves from Africa. The wound, essentially, had already been caused. The oppression of later arriving "races" or cultures would only deepen and enhance the wound.
One of the most interesting characters in the film is Marty, a "half-breed." Part Indian, part White. He will demonstrate humanity to the wild Ethan. He will be allowed into the emerging American community. A living example of the "melting pot" ideal.
Thus, the film posits Ethan's disgust with "race mixing" (When encountering two girls who have been living with Indians, Ethan says, in the most hateful tone, "They ain't White, not anymore") and Marty's acceptance of himself and anyone else "blended" by the rich mix of cultures that made up and will continue to make up the American community.
The majority of the film follows Ethan and Marty as they search for Ethan's niece, Debbie, who has been abducted by Scar after a raid that left the rest of the family dead. As they progress, it becomes clear that Ethan is not looking to bring Debbie home. Not alive. She has been "scarred," as it were, racially. Violated by Comanches, she is, in Ethan's eyes, no longer "White." Marty, the product of inter-racial breeding, quite obviously sees things differently.
When Ethan finally recaptures Debbie, he relents, realizing she is, above all, family. It is one of American cinema's most emotionally rousing scenes. After Debbie is returned, Ethan is shut out in the wilderness in the film's final, incredibly symbolic frames.
"The Searchers" is one of those rare movies where entertainment, intellect and esthetic construction (sound and vision) collude in such a perfect manner the argument for film as art becomes impossible to counter. Coming before the "revisionist" westerns of the late 60s and 70s, it is far, far ahead of its time.
Its brutal honesty regarding the American search for a comfortable identity makes it, simply, the greatest American film ever made. |
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