John Wayne

[ctg492]

Ok I will be the first to admit at my ripe old age of 51 I do not think I ever really watched a John Wayne movie. Sure my Dad had them on when I was young, sure I knew who the Duke was. I watch very little tv, almost none. Yet last weekend I saw the Duke and thought I should watch this. It was the Searchers, I researched this and found out it was one of his most acclaimed movies.
Why I am putting this under the Media forum is how views must be formed from the media. I found this movie to be so Offensive, so Incorrect. I kept watching it to understand HOW this could have been a form of entertainment, so highly held in American history of film. No a movie like this could not be made today for many good reasons. I said I never had any bad experinces with Native Americans, yet in the 60s I played cowboys and indians. I guess the media had set those ideas in our heads back then. I guessed (hoped) that the children of the 2000s do not play or even know what that silly game is. I am not saying it was John Wayne's fault ofcourse he was acting.
Today I am not atune to the movies out there or shows. I hope( am I wrong) the media portrays things differently.

[Miss Cellane]

At one point, I started to watch the top 100 American movies, and The Searchers was one of them. I'm not sure what puts it in the top 100--it could be the story it tells, the acting, the directing, the costumes and lighting. More goes into making a "classic" than just the plot.

At the time it was made, it might have been politically correct. I don't know, I wasn't born yet. However, many artistic works, films, novels, paintings, capture things we'd be ashamed of now. The Searchers certainly depicts racism.

But that racism was a part of our country. There's a racist statement or two in the Little House on the Prairie books--Ma certainly didn't like Native Americans. Huck Finn, which is sometimes considered The Great American Epic, has elements of racism that bother a lot of people. I greatly enjoy the Lord Peter Whimsey novels by Dorothy Sayer, but she has a few negative comments about Jews that always shock me when I come across them. Yet when she wrote the books, no one thought anything of them. At least, no one in a position to complain.

These works of art capture both a time and their emotions/feelings/thought patterns. I think it is important to know where we came from, so that we don't go there again. We can use these films and novels to test how far we've come and how far we have to go. There were tensions between Native Americans and white people. There were killings and kidnappings and other atrocities.

This certainly wasn't a comfortable movie to watch. But the ideas it portrays were most likely held by many Americans at one point in time. We need to remember that.

And one thing to remember--the John Wayne character plans to kill his niece, who has been captured by the Native Americans. He feels that is the only thing he can do to save her. But by the end of the film, his attitude has changed and he allows her to live, showing that he has been able to work through his dislike of the Native Americans to a certain degree.

[Gregg]

Miss Cellane is right, its an uncomfortable movie to watch because of a dark plot. I grew up watching every Duke movie that came along and I also grew up with real cowboys and Indians. In those days nobody seemed to be offended by the stereotypes that were sometimes portrayed. I guess everyone just figured they were movies, as in fiction, so it didn't make much difference. I remember a lot of John Wayne's characters in westerns being respectful and often friends with native American characters. I still like his movies to this day. And he was hands down a better Rooster Cogburn than Jeff Bridges was.

[iris lily]

Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians was originally titled Ten Litle N*gg**s. The times they do change.

[oldhat]

I've never understood the high esteem for The Searchers among film critics and moviemakers. I think it's a good film and has some interesting elements, but it's also marred by a lot of clunky scenes, "comedy" that's not very funny, and, of course, racism. It's also afflicted more than most of John Ford's films by his sexist, macho view of the world. (If I were an Indian, I think I'd be more offended by the movie's treatment of women than its treatment of Indians.)

It's interesting to note that at the time, the film was considered to be very progressive about race. It contains a lot of ambiguity. John Wayne's character, the "hero," is a racist and remains one, even though he spares his niece at the end. But you'll note that the film's last shot is of Wayne walking away from his newly united extended family, framed by the open door. He hasn't changed and so can't be part of that family now, with its two Indian members. So in the end, he's the one punished.

[Karma]

Ihaven't seen that movie in a long time but I remember it being well shot and acted. I also remember the main character was very brutal and flawed. I don't think you were suppose to like him either. I am sure this is true to life for those times. I find it hard to watch stuff like now.