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Old 08.31.2014, 11:04 PM   #18217
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Quote:
Originally Posted by demonrail666
I think the propaganda angle is a bit of a red herring. Certainly as propaganda it'd have to be dismissed as an abject failure. Its message, as you argue, is far too elusive, mainly because Wayne's Ethan remain's one of Hollywood's great ambiguous anti-heroes - up there with Bogart's Rick, Welles' Kane, etc. Whatever else we might say about arch propagandists like Riefenstahl, Eisenstein, Griffith, etc, they went out of their way to avoid any of the very ambiguity that's made The Searchers' one of the most analysed and interpreted films ever. Not to say it doesn't have a political position, but no more than any other Western. Its Ethan's psychological and symbolic complexity - not even his racism is straight forward - and Ford's technical virtuosity, and subtlety and sheer intelligence of vision that I'd say contribute far more to its reputation than its political or ideological content.

oh i didn't mean that it was a propaganda piece, it's definitely not that, but i can't help to be informed by the ideology of the invader. i mean, ethan aside, all the gringos are good and wonderful people who deserve peace and prosperity. ethan in a way is their guard dog, and yes his flaws are individual but they somehow don't transfer to his fellow conquerors (the army yes but not the homesteaders). yes, he shows the dark side of the enterprise, but the enterprise as a whole remains clean, so to speak, and therefore justified.

this to me works out to something like saying: the warrior is a monster, but protecting our homes requires and justifies such monsters. those monsters are flawed but they serve a good cause. and i sort of agree with that, actually-- internal peace need monsters guarding the borders. but it's just that it's never fully shown how scar, the opposing monster, justifies his own monstrosity and child-kidnapping. he's shown attacking and terrorizing, but never protecting his own people. how come? it's the 50s in america.

meanwhile, we see the atrocities of the cavalry, the massacres and unnecessary killing, but the return home seems to justify everything in the end. doesn't it? it's not like natalie wood ever goes full native.

i get it that the searchers was a step forward in the history of westerns though, and it's a gorgeous movie, really a masterpiece, 10/10, but to me, from my contemporary perspective, the political change looks more like 1/4 step rather than a full one. hey, john ford was a genius, no doubt in my mind, but i can still grimace at the politics of his time event though he moved things forward a little bit.
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