Subtleties in The Searchers. We know it's Mose because his hat is on the donkey's head. The way Wayne's sister-in-law fondles his army coat - they're in love with each other. The 'freshly minted gold' - where's that come from? The way that when he finally picks up Natalie Wood above his head it's the same way he did to her as a child. The ending - Wayne doesn't want to come in to the house, but the door is closed on him anyway - he doesn't belong there. The way he covers the dead Indian woman - he finally has some respect.
It's an awesome looking film - Winton Hoch, second unit Alfred Gilks, in VistaVision. Great Max Steiner score also (orchestrated by Murray Cutter).
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, John Qualen, Olive Carey, Henry Brandon (Scar), Ken Curtis, Harry Carey Jr., Hank Worden, Patrick Wayne.
Edited by Jack Murray.
John Ford: It's the tragedy of a loner.
Peter Bogdanovich: The Indians are always given great dignity in your films.
John Ford: It's probably an unconscious impulse - but they are a very dignified people - even when they were being defeated. Of course, it's not very popular in the United States. The audience likes to see the Indians get killed. They don't consider them as human beings - with a great culture of their own - quite different from ours. If you analyzed the thing carefully, however, you'd find their religion is very similar to ours.
(Interviewed in 1966.)
And as an adjunct to this, I was interested to read - in 'Halliwell's Filmgoers Companion' of all places - the thought that native Indians were often the heroes and main characters in silent days - films like An Indian Wife's Devotion, A Squaw's Love, Red-Wing's Gratitude, The Vanishing American and Redskin. It seemed it was sound that somehow rendered the native American Indians villainous, until the fifties, when things turned again.
No comments:
Post a Comment