T HE S EARCHERS by J OHN F ORD. Q: What do the following have in common? Buddy Holly’s 1957 hit “That’ll Be The Day” Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time.

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Q: What do the following have in Q: What do the following have in common?common?

• Buddy Holly’s 1957 hit “That’ll Be The Day”• Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the

West (1969) • Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976)• Paul Schrader’s Hardcore (1979) with George C.

Scott• George Lucas’ Star Wars• Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third

Kind & Saving Private Ryan• Donnie Brasco

• A: They were all inspired by John Ford’s classic 1956 Western The Searchers

• The Searchers tells the emotionally complex story of a perilous, hate-ridden quest and Homeric-style odyssey of self-discovery after a Comanche massacre, while also exploring the themes of racial prejudice and sexism. Its meandering tale examines the inner psychological turmoil of a fiercely independent, crusading man obsessed with revenge and hatred, who searches for his two nieces (Pippa Scott and Natalie Wood) among the "savages" over a five-year period… John Wayne, in his first anti-heroic role as a bigot and racist, is a tragic, lonely, morally-ambiguous figure who is perenially doomed to be an outsider - a role that the actor often described as his favourite. It is commonly regarded as Wayne's finest-acted performance - his ninth starring role in a Ford film.

Greatest FilmsGreatest FilmsCreated in 1996-2002 © by Tim Dirks.Created in 1996-2002 © by Tim Dirks.

http://www.filmsite.org/sear3.htmlhttp://www.filmsite.org/sear3.html

Ford’s visual styleFord’s visual style

• Classic composition• Visual effects reflect

traditional narrative structure

• Landscape plays vital role in story and image

The West, Progress & ‘Manifest The West, Progress & ‘Manifest Destiny’Destiny’

• In a memorable, optimistic speech about the rough settlement of the country, Mrs. Jorgensen expresses her pioneering hopes for better times as a populist ‘Texican’. Change will eventually come to the raw frontier through the country's optimistic belief in manifest destiny:

It just so happens we be Texicans. A Texican is nothin' but a human man way out on a limb, this year and next. Maybe for a hundred more. But I don't think it'll be forever. Some day, this country's gonna be a fine good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come.

But for this civilising ‘Manifest Destiny’ to come about, the demons of the American psyche – The savage domination of nature– The violent oppression of ‘enemies’– The conflict between free will and unity

must be exorcised by one man…

The mono-mythic American heroThe mono-mythic American hero

• John Wayne’s darkest role• A hero torn by love, hate & guilt• More savage than the Indians he

swears to destroy• Like Mel Gibson in Braveheart,

Schwarzenegger in Terminator and Johnny Depp in Donnie Brasco, he cannot remain in the community he saves

A key sequence (DVD chapter 14)A key sequence (DVD chapter 14)

• The cinema is, first and foremost, about SPACE: inner space, outer space, psychological space. It is the only medium that can effortlessly combine all three through the magic combination of sound and silence, light and dark, and moving images.