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| John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in John Ford's 'The Searchers' (1956). |
In one of our
These Amazing Shadows segments we take
John Ford's masterpiece,
The Searchers, to task for what we perceive is its racism. On occasion we have been taken to task for our take on what is often called the best western ever made. While we believe at its heart it is racist there is no doubt that John Wayne's performance is fantastic, the photography by
Winton C. Hoch is nothing less than astonishing and John Ford's direction masterful. In a huge oversight it did not receive any Oscar nominations.
One person who has a different view than ours on
The Searchers is
Corey Atad. After watching
These Amazing Shadows he tweeted that we were unfair to
The Searchers. We tweeted back asking if he would expand on his thoughts. So, he did. The following is his email unedited and in its entirety. We love exchanging ideas and talking about the movies. Thanks, Corey!
Corey is a film lover and blogger, and writer for Dork Shelf and Sound on Sight.
Corey's twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/CoreyAtad
Hi,
Just thought I'd respond to/expand on my tweet. I don't think that
the point of view presented about The Searchers is invalid, I just think
it's more complicated. The documentary follows Birth of a Nation with
The Searchers and then only seriously takes into consideration the
critique of the film's racist elements. This makes it seem like the film
is of a piece with something like Birth of a Nation which is
unquestionably a racist and historically nasty film.
I
find that what makes The Searchers interesting as a film inducted into
the National Registry is not that it's racist, but that it's complex
with regards to its approach to race. No doubt the film is very flawed,
and it does rely on nasty stereotypes and the ending has some seriously
racist undertones (especially considering the true case that inspired
the story had the girl refusing to give up the Comanche way of life
completely.)
It's also important to consider
the film in the context of its time and in John Ford's career. It came
quite late in the Western craze, with earlier films being much more
clearly racist and destructive over a long period of time. John Ford
directed many of these films. Stagecoach, another Ford western in the
Registry, could easily be criticized for the way it depicts Native
Americans as little more than a faceless enemy to the white Americans.
Rather
than simply fall into standard racist portrayals, The Searchers
attempts to confront the racism of its main character. He's not the hero
of the film by any stretch. He's a dark character and the film doesn't
really promote his racist point of view. Also, the Comanche's are
presented in an interesting way. They story requires them to be the
villains, which is unfortunate, and their visual depiction isn't quite
kosher, nor is the way they are used for comic fodder, but the brutality
of their violence upon immigrant settlers is fairly true to life.
Furthermore, the film actually gives the leader of the Comanches, Scar,
motivation beyond being the savage Indian.
The Searchers isn't a perfect film, and it does fall into the racist trappings of the
genre at the time, but it also takes them on in a manner more serious
and more complex than almost any other western at the time. In this
sense, the documentary making it seem of a piece with Birth of a Nation
is unfortunate. Where that film is quite binary, important more for its
social and technical qualities, The Searchers is an important marker in
the way race was approached within its genre and American film in
general. That is to say, not perfectly, but with complexity. I kind of
wish These Amazing Shadows touched on this rather than just using The
Searchers as a stand-in for racism in westerns.
Honestly
though, that was a tiny quibble. I loved the rest of the doc. Fantastic
work. Made me want to go through the National Film Registry and check
out all the films I've likely missed. Particularly the shorts.
Thanks,
Corey Atad
