The Searchers By John Ford
Where Twain and Buffalo Bill?s writings deal with the emergence of the Anglo-American hero, John Ford deals with the manifestations of that hero in his film The Searchers. John Wayne, in his anti-heroic role as a bigot and intolerant, is a tragic, lonely, morally-ambiguous figure who is doomed to be an outsider. This film is the complex tale of a perilous, hate-ridden pursuit and pilgrimage of self-discovery by Ethan Edwards after a Comanche massacre on his family , while also exploring the theme of racial prejudice. It examines the inner chaos of a fiercely autonomous man obsessed with abhorrence and the need for retaliation , who searches for his two nieces among the Comanche tribe of Scar over a seven-year period.
The form of this film was both minimalist and grand; Fords classic location was Monument Valley, Arizona, with wide shots of human figures against an overpowering wilderness. Ford didnt use a lot of close-ups, and had very little camera movement and minimal dialogue. Contentwise, on the other hand, this film was far from moderate or conservative in policy. Using several techniques such as framing, costumes, specific shots, and music, Ford continually probed the edges of frontiers, physical,
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