tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-318433114559203724.post3274212346485162994..comments2023-10-29T16:01:01.077-07:00Comments on Just Another Movie Blog: The Searchers, Racism and EthicsSteve Kimeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14187112520269562190noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-318433114559203724.post-11690770975895876882012-07-19T14:14:10.101-07:002012-07-19T14:14:10.101-07:00Of course, I can't watch the film from your pe...Of course, I can't watch the film from your perspective. Nor can John Ford or John Wayne. <br /><br />Debbie wasn't "polluted" by her disloyalty... he gave her a chance to repent from it, which she did, gladly. <br /><br />I think the real question isn't whether Ethan is racist. He is. His actions are terrible, just as anyone's would be if they did what he did. The question I have is whether the film supports his racism or undermines it. I don't think it supports his racism, but in supporting the man, in any way, in the end it does support racism.<br /><br />So I come the long, intellectual way to agreeing with your visceral reaction. Because the intellectual way is the only way I've got.<br /><br />Thanks for responding.<br /><br />By the way, have you ever seen Gran Tarino? If so, what is your sense of that film?Steve Kimeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14187112520269562190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-318433114559203724.post-56425897923230816412012-07-19T07:41:33.210-07:002012-07-19T07:41:33.210-07:00All due respect from a White guys perspective I ge...All due respect from a White guys perspective I get how you can intellectualize "Ford goes to great lengths to show that this kind of mythic Western hero has no place in a modern society."<br /> <br />"in Ethan's ideology of "blood" as you put it, Debbie is irrevocably polluted through her relations with the Comanche. He rejects that bloodism in saving her and he ends the film isolated and alone, his blood ties severed." You are intellectualizing.<br /><br />But if you had ever been on the receiving end of an Ethan you would know down to your bone marrow no only what racism looks like but how it feels. Watching a movie like this gives a visceral reaction to someone that has experienced racism. The film is racist to someone like that, someone like me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-318433114559203724.post-2671951229688231032012-07-18T21:42:32.544-07:002012-07-18T21:42:32.544-07:00Not necessarily. It's an acknowledgement of t...Not necessarily. It's an acknowledgement of the fact that people like Ethan, unpleasant people, violent people, racist people, were instrumental in the making of America. It's not a glorification, it's much more ambivalent than that. Ford goes to great lengths to show that this kind of mythic Western hero has no place in a modern society. That Ethan ultimately does the right thing neither negates the evil he's done nor justifies his worldview. Far from it; in Ethan's ideology of "blood" as you put it, Debbie is irrevocably polluted through her relations with the Comanche. He rejects that bloodism in saving her and he ends the film isolated and alone, his blood ties severed.<br /><br />The film also shows the much more subtle racism of the more "civilized" community, mostly in the way Martin and the Swedes react to the story of Martin's "wife" Look. Ford shows that just because men like Ethan aren't around anymore, that doesn't mean that racism is gone. If anything, its more pernicious for its matter-of-factness.Sean Gilmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16124894627028920508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-318433114559203724.post-34851925552824858622012-07-18T21:15:30.121-07:002012-07-18T21:15:30.121-07:00But doesn't the movie also argue that Ethan is...But doesn't the movie also argue that Ethan is necessary for the community, even on the outside? Certainly, the "salvation" of Debbie is the happy climax of the film-- isn't that an indirect glorification of Ethan's values?Steve Kimeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14187112520269562190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-318433114559203724.post-70665357570156826772012-07-18T21:07:48.780-07:002012-07-18T21:07:48.780-07:00This film, like Ford's The Man Who Shot Libert...This film, like Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, is about the end of a way of life. The war has ended and with it went Wayne's moral compass. He's outdated now, and he has one final mission to go on before he is completely obsolete. Ford often makes movies about communities and the heroes that protect them. Here he posits that, in the new world created after the war and western expansion, the kind of people that can protect us must exist outside the community itself. That's why Wayne is often separated from the other characters by obstructions both physical (doorways especially, just look at that last shot) and mental. So if Wayne is a racist, and I think you're right that he is, he is a man who must exist outside of a properly operating community for it to carry on correctly.Alexhttp://benefitsofaclassicaleducation.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com