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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
THE SEARCHERS
i had always rejected this unseen --- because i assumed it was just genocide apologist propaganda, and to an extent it is that... but not quite. amazingly beautifully shot film, great acting, compositions, dialogue-- goes from gut-wrenching to hilarious… john ford was amazing, really, and john wayne was pretty great here in spite of the often nefarious symbolism attached to his image.
i don't know how to explain this movie yet because to me it's not as clear-cut as people want it to be. it could be an acknowledgement of guilt, or it could be a justification for extermination, depending on how you read it. but it's definitely not a rah rah cowboys movie.
still, if you're willing to stomach such uncertainties for the sake of watching a masterpiece (way more entertaining than anything leni riefenstahl ever made), this is a great movie. epic in every sense. |
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.