The Searchers (1956)

Can I comment on the Amazon review?
Mr. Shannon: You are the one engaging in revisionism history! Farmers were burned out by Indians, young girls were taken captive, and the Noble Indian was not always so noble in his deeds. Study a little more deeply and you'll see that Western Civilization and war-like Indian tribes were never going to live side-by-side. Heck, the more war-like tribes didn't even live in peace between themselves. Mr. Ford's movie stands as a beautifully-filmed tribute to the courage of the American Western pioneers. 'Nuff said.

Maybe the toughest film I've ever had to rate; an amazing movie saddled with an offensive script.
The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

It seems to be the consensus among reviewers that the climax of The Searchers says something about Ethan Edwards that I don't see. In order to address that, this review is going to be laden with spoilers; if you haven't seen the movie yet and plan to, stop reading. There is no way for me to express my deep dissatisfaction with this film without talking about it, so I'm going to.

The story: Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), a somewhat mysterious figure, turns up at the house of his brother Aaron (Walter Coy) and sister-in-law Martha (Dorothy Jordan). Ford wastes no time in getting us understanding that this is not the John Wayne we know and love; he harbors feelings for his sister-in-law, he seems to still be fighting the Civil War, and, in what may be the most quoted line from the film (at least in the reviews I've read of it), the local law says Ethan "fits a lot of descriptions". Welcome, antihero. Ethan is not at all a likable man; aside from (probably) being lawless, he's also an inveterate racist who hates Indians so much that he shuns he nephew Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) for being one-eighth Comanche-- this despite Ethan, as a child, having saved Martin from the attack that killed his family, and having left Martin with Aaron and Martha to raise when Ethan went off to war. Things get worse when, while Ethan and Martin are out pursuing a band of Cherokee raiders, those same raiders turn back and massacre Aaron and his family, with the exception of youngest daughter Debbie (played as a young woman by Natalie Wood), whom they kidnap. After a few days, the search party gives up; Ethan is determined to continue on alone, but Martin insists on going with him. Eventually, Martin stays on the trail with him not only to help him search, but because he's afraid that Ethan's hatred of the Comanche may also visit itself on Debbie.

The crux of the film, obviously, is Ethan's racism. (To play devil's advocate, he does have some reason-- early in the film, it's revealed that Comanches killed Ethan's mother-- yet even this is undercut by a statement in the film, mentioned in passing, that there are many different bands of Comanche.) Much is made of the fact that Ethan, once Debbie's situation is fully revealed, considers Debbie alternately as a Comanche herself or, when he thinks of her as white, as "a Comanche buck's squaw"; the inference is obvious (and, in the fifties, when miscegenation was still illegal in many parts of the country, probably resounded with audiences). So what is it that happens in that climax? Is Ethan's decision to rescue Debbie instead of killing her indicative of a change of heart? Even Martin doesn't see it coming; when he loses track of Ethan in the big battle, his first priority is tracking Ethan down and protecting Debbie from him. Right up to the bitter end, Ethan has traded on his hatred of Indians. This "change of heart" comes out of the blue, and with the information we're given, it's roughly as believable as a flock of purple elephants charging in to save the day. Even worse, there's no evidence offered after the fact that Ethan has had a change of heart; the movie ends very soon after.

There is no doubt, however, that both Ford and cinematographer Winton Hoch were consummate filmmakers. The movie has the same striking look of most of Ford's films; all this nastiness is quite beautifully, if starkly, presented. Insert commentary here on the landscape reflecting Ethan's outlook on things; it's dry, sparsely-furnished, almost entirely barren of life. Even the band of Comanche Ethan and Martin are tracking down are nomads; nothing can survive on that plain for a long period of time; that way lies madness (cf. Sjostrom's The Wind). From a purely technical point of view, this is, in fact, a great achievement in American film history, and I understand why so many people seem so anxious to make sure it stays well within the lists of the all-time great films. As well, it has been remarkably influential, with its basic plot cropping up in everything from Taxi Driver to Star Wars, and crossing media to furnish Buddy Holly with one of his most famous songs ("That'll be the Day", inspired by Ethan's repeated use of the phrase). And yet, despite all this, I can't get past such a basic deficiency in the script.

As well, as Roger Ebert points out in his review, this does seem like two different films that were cobbled together; there's the obsessive, bleak movie about Ethan Edwards' tracking down the Comanche, and then there's a comedy/musical flick that seems to have gotten tossed in somewhere along the way, with a subplot involving Martin's fiancée Laurie Jorgensen (Vera Miles) and her scatterbrained family. The pieces of the two plots don't quite fit together, and what emerges from the cracks is a rather foul odor of decay. It has been opined in more than one review I've read that the comedic portions of the film may have been added in order to lighten the depressing main plot; problem is they just didn't mix in well, and this souffle ended up falling before it ever got out of the oven.

An incredibly difficult film to rate, with some parts of it being so striking and others being so bad. Ultimately, I ended up looking more at the bad side, as I can't see myself watching this movie again any time soon. **

Scar Face
The Searchers in a great balance of entertainment, humour, and drama. The Comanche indian is protrayed as the villians, raiding white villiages, and killing all the inhabitants brutally. The cowboys are the heros and the indians the enemy. The movie has action: escape from the Comanche trap at the river, fist fights, knife fights, and a calvery rescue.