City Honors IB Film 2015: The Searchers

Friday, December 5, 2014

The Searchers

Think about the portrayal of the American Indian and the portrayal of the whites in The Searchers. Discuss in a hearty paragraph how John Ford cinematically portrays each group. Then think specifically about Ethan and Scar and use your second paragraph to discuss how Ford cinematically portrays each of them specifically. In your last paragraph (number 3), discuss how the American Indian has been portrayed in films after watching Reel Injun on Netflix. Feel free to write as much as you want--this is a huge subject. Extra credit goes to those who comment on a classmate's comment or comments.

25 comments:

Aidan ConnollyJanuary 27, 2015 at 9:05 AM
In John Ford's film, The Searchers, Ford portrays the Indians as enemies while he presents Ethan and the rest of those searching for Debbie in a very positive light. Throughout the entire film, Ethan must search for his nieces (and eventually just Debbie) after a group of Indians razes their home. Since the film starts off placing such a negative light on Native Americans, we must assume the rest of the film will honor that viewpoint. Firstly, the Indians are always portrayed as weaker than the white men. They are significantly less advanced, choosing to fight with spears as opposed to guns. On top of that, in the fighting between the Indians and whites, having a reverend lead the fighting almost condones it in a sense. Jumping towards the end, when we see Ethan return Debbie to her home (and carry her as though she is helpless), we can see that even though Debbie was content with living with the Native Americans for quite some time, Ethan viewed what he was doing as a rescue mission, stating that he'd rather see her dead than living as an Indian.
Ethan's character can be greatly juxtaposed with that of Scar's. Both had very similar life experiences - while Ethan's mother was killed by Indians, Scar's parents were killed by white men. While he was responsible for the kidnapping of Debbie (and supposedly the rape and killing of Lucy), Ethan uses his anger towards Indians (rooted from the death of his mother) and loses sight of the search for Debbie, focusing more on his anger towards Scar. Additionally, these feelings cloud his judgement towards all Native Americans, viewing them negatively.
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UnknownJanuary 29, 2015 at 7:06 PM
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UnknownJanuary 29, 2015 at 7:07 PM
The Searchers has received a lot of criticism for it’s portrayal of native americans. Such criticisms stem from the fact that the natives are seen as the antagonists of the film. The movie makes brief, but failed, attempts at sympathizing with the natives. These come entirely in the form of a character, Matin. Martin is half native american which causes conflicts between him and other members of the cast, specifically, Ethan. The film makes Martin a very likeable character which can be seen as a slight attempt to make it appear as though the movie isn’t entirely painting native americans in a bad light. However, it becomes more like the film pities the fact that he was born half native and stresses that it is more of a disability to the character than anything else. Other natives on screen are never given time to develop as character, aside from their leader, scar. The rest of them are always filmed in groups and are seen as more of a force that the protagonists must fight against rather than human beings. The only one that is seen individually and is given time to develop is Scar. This is likely to make the native americans seem more like the antagonists that they are intended to be. the director gives us ample time to sympathize with the white characters, but never goes as in depth with the natives so that the viewer will never sympathize with them and absolutely never like them. The first time we see the antagonists in the film is a perfect example of how evil they are depicted as throughout the rest of the movie. The scene begins with Ethan’s family preparing for dinner. The mother and father are looking outside and at something offscreen. The music begins to get louder and more intense which implies danger. Eventually, the whole family begins panicking and the mother sends the youngest, debbie, outside to run away from the approaching Natives. The girl is then seen in a closeup, sitting in front of a gravestone and facing the camera. She then turns her head forward and looks past the camera as a shadow begins entering the shot, covering the gravestone. We then cut to a slight low angle of Scar, the low angle making him appear imposing and powerful. The rest is left up to the imagination and horror of the audience as this is the last we see of the family. So, the movie introduces the native americans as monsters that kill families and kidnap little white girls which makes it no wonder that the film was ridiculed for its portrayal of the native americans.
Ethan’s character compliments Scar’s in a way. They are very similar characters but are on opposite sides. Scar and Ethan both have hatred for the others race. Scar hates whites because they killed people close to him just as Ethan hates indians for killing people he was close to. The characters are driven by similar, but opposite goals. This can be seen in the way the characters are filmed. Ethan and Scar are both imposing figures that are often given large portions of onscreen space. They are also usually filmed at eye level or lower to further imply their strength. What is interesting to note is also how the director implies the hatred between the two cinematically. He often films them on opposite sides of the camera. When the two are facing off across the river, for example, Ethan takes up the left side of the frame while Scar is positioned on the right. Even their placement on screen is opposite, which further establishes the hate that the two characters feel for one another.
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Maura GribbinsJanuary 29, 2015 at 7:11 PM
Throughout John Ford’s The Searchers, Native Americans are portrayed in a more poor manner than the white people are. They are intended to be viewed as villains from the beginning when they killed white people and kidnapped a white girl. The white people are intended to be the victims, losing family, as well as heroes, searching for this girl for years and giving up their entire lives to find her and bring her home.

Indians are portrayed negatively through their makeup and costume design as well as shot composition and set design. They are shown only half dressed, wearing primitive clothing, with paint on their bodies. They don’t even have buildings, only tents that they live in. One could make a connection from these Native Americans to cavemen, as they share a lot of similarities wardrobe-wise. This makes them seem uncivilized and savage. This is also demonstrated through shot composition, as the Native Americans are rarely shown in any close-ups or any intimate shots that could make them seem human. They are shown mainly in long shots with large groups of them. This is nearly the exact opposite of the technique Ford used in Stagecoach, as in that film everybody was shot in close-ups, which are much more intimate their characters are developed further. However, in the case of these Native Americans, Ford chooses to keep them more distant to keep from humanizing them.

The white people in this film, however, are portrayed as humans with actual character traits, rather than just “evil” which is just about the only character trait Native Americans such as Scar possess. They are shown as civilized people, with homes and clothes covering their entire bodies. They are cleaner than the Native Americans, with no paint on their faces or bodies, and they are actually shown in close-ups and personalized.
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