When I first began watching "The Searchers," I was not surpirsed much by the Stereotypes of Native American's that I saw right from the beginning. When Ethan first gets home his initial hostility towards Martin illustrates his overall feelings towards Native Americans. He constantly uses offensive terms, such as calling Martin a "half-breed." He also clearly gets enjoyment out of hunting and killing the Natives. He seeks out to get "revenge" for his family's death, but it seems pretty clear that he is getting some personal pleasure out of it too. The final example that perfectly illustrates how Ethan truthfully feels is when he says that Debbie would be better off dead than being part of the Native American culture and tribe.
In addition to Ethan harboing a hatred for Native Americans, there is also the way they are portrayed overall in the film. Throughout the whole movie they are shown to be savages. They want the audience to think that all they want to do is kill white people and try to ruin their lives. They also are always shown with feather headdresses, body paint, and speaking in a language that people can't understand. It was not at all surprising that they were portrayed this way because it was typical of Westerns during that time.
Overall, I have to admit that when I first started watching "The Searchers" I thought I was going to hate it, but I was actually surprised that I found myself interested as the story progressed. Despite the less than Grammy-worthy acting, the movie was pretty interesting and kept me wondering how it was going to end.
Many of the ideas you described were key features in Kilpatrick's writing on Western and American Indian film. The American Indian language, clothing and overall look, and the savage stereotype are all features you may find in any Western film. Other key features Kilpatrick describes that I found appear in The Searchers include music and sound effects, time frame of the movie set back to 1868, and the use of camera angles to indicate roles of characters throughout the story. For example, many times throughout the story the camera looks up to Ethan, portraying his character as a hero.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you sai that you weren't surprised about the stereotypes, because I also wasn't surprised. I also thought that the movie was going to be boring, but I thought that it was a good movie.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found a few things about it that you enjoyed. Though I think they are largely portrayed as savages, it seems like Scar and Look have a bit of depth to them. Scar speaks more than one language, for example, and it is revealed that his motivation is the same as Ethan's: revenge.
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