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Ethan's a complex hero which only makes him and the film richer. The Searchers came towards the end of the classic era but its complexity (relative to that era) helped pave the way for the revisionists (Penn, Altman, etc) to come along and start deconstructing the myths according to contemporary values and events. The politics of Ford's films inevitably feel problematic when judged according to values formed in light of Vietnam and the Civil Rights era, but then so do a lot of revisionist westerns feel problematic now, when we consider say their treatment of women in light of the feminist-movement. And so on.
I'm just waiting for someone to finally adapt Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Then the shit is really gonna hit the fan.
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