ENGL 280 - Intro to Film

           Smoke Signals is a very interesting movie for me personally, outside of some brief remarks in history class about the state of the native population in modern America, I knew nothing about their culture in current age. This movie showed me how years of abuse by the US gov has manifested itself as self-destructive behavior and a negative outlook on life.       To start, let us discuss the color pallet of the movie. All the shots that take place on the reservation generally feature a wide range of colors but they are extremely faded. Compare this to shots that take place outside of the reservation, same color pallet but all the colors are richer in tone. I believe this is supposed to represent the disillusionment of the native people. Outside the reservation, the American dream is still real and hope for the future is ever present, therefore the colors appear to be more vibrant. On the other hand, the natives on the reservatio...

Our class on 9/30 is cancelled. You are not mandated to make a post on the film Smoke Signals .   1. Examine the structure of Smoke Signals . Is it linear? Non-linear? Why? What about the transitions? How are they related to the structure?   2. How does Smoke Signals comment on the Western genre? Elaborate beyond discussing the overt moments where something relating to a Western film is mentioned?  3. What elements of "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," were omitted or changed for the film Smoke Signals ? Why?   4. Why do you think Thelma and Lucy are driving backward?   5. In the film Adaptation , a character that is teaching a seminar on screenwriting says, "And God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. It's flaccid, sloppy writing." What do you think of the voice-over in Smoke Signals ? Is it used as a crutch? Does it simply move the story along? Or do you feel it does something more?   6. Discuss the idea of humor used a...

The Searchers is a western film centered around a racist mans search for his captive niece. Ethan Edwards returns to his family’s home after the Civil War. We see what seems to be some sort of forbidden love between him and his brothers wife before a group of a Comanche Indians come in and murder his brother, his wife and his two sons, while taking the two older daughters as captives. Ethan seems to be a thief and it also seems like he was in trouble before leaving home. We learn about his racist attitude pretty quickly in the film after he shoots a dead Native American in the eyes so that the NA cannot move on to the spirit world. Towards the middle of the movie, he also says that he would rather his niece be dead because she was forced to have sex with a "Buck" Comanche. Eventually at the end of the film, he is slightly redeemed when he allows his niece to come home instead of killing her, but I still imagine that is the movie had continued, their relationship would have b...

 John Ford’s The Searchers is named to be a pivotal movie in American cinema history. Its influence can be traced very widespread, through movies inside and outside of the western genre. While making strides in a lot of areas, one reason for its influence is the protagonist, Ethan.  Ethan is a problematic protagonist who can best be described by the phrase “confederate pride”. He is a racist, a misogynist, a criminal, and overall a really bad person. If I had a dollar for every time Ethan said or did something that was egotistical, rude, or nasty I’d be rich by the end of act two. Exaggerations aside, Ethan’s problematic character serves as a start point for a deep commentary on society. Much like Natural Born Killers, The Searchers shows how we as a society can idolize our more problematic members. Ethan is framed as a troubled hero who cannot be tamed many times throughout this movie. His negative actions are simply dismissed as a cool guy attitude instead of showing the tru...

    The Searchers(directed by John Ford) Is an iconic western film based in West Texas. It's based on a novel  by Alan Le. May in 1954. The. film Is about. after the "Civil War" in 1868 and which Ethan comes home  from.    The film starts when Ethan comes home on a horse, and his family waiting for him outside, which was a  beautiful shot. As he feels welcomed, he starts to recognize his children, nephews, nieces, and more. As  Ethan starts to get settled, a group of rangers (Comanche) steals some cattle from one of his neighbors,  Lars Jorgensen. It then turns. out to. be a trap for the Comanche to get them away from their families.  Most of them died, including Aron, Martha and their son Ben, but Debbie and Lucy were  kidnapped. After the funeral, the men looks for the Comanche and the hostages. The come up to a burial ground and Ethan cuts up one of the bodies. They start talking about a strategy to attack and find the hostages. ...

  Western as a genre for film like many others falls into its stereotypes, that it either develops or adapts throughout time. Though this isn’t my first time seeing a western, story wise it feels just familiar. I don’t think I’ve ever in the past bothered to remember or pay attention to western films due to many racist themes that seem to always go in hand with them. The Searchers made in 1956 and directed by John Ford if I hadn’t been watching for this class would have been the same for me, for I don’t have much of an interest in watching something that just depicts a terrible narrative towards a race. Though learning the background of the director and knowing how many praise Ford for his work, had me watch more carefully at how he depicted his white characters versus Native Americans.  Yes there is the obvious racism with Ford not even bothering to portray Natives in a respectable or correct light, only using them as an easy and lazy villain character, not giving them any de...

  Cameron Carmichael Professor Wisniewski ENGL 280 01 September 25, 2020 The Searchers: Inconsistency in Ethan           The film "The Searchers", by John Ford, tells the story of a man named Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) who is just coming back after participating in the Civil War to his brother's home in Texas. Ethan is shown to be a man with strong opinions once the whole family is eating dinner. A young man named Martin (Jeffrey Hunter) walks through the door, greets everyone and sit's down awkwardly once Ethan glares at him. Ethan's immediate response was very shocking to me once Martin sat down. He says, "Well I could mistake you for a half-breed." I was very confused with this because of the context established only seconds earlier with Martha (Dorothy Jordan) implying that Ethan has known Martin for a while. This one action follows Ethan through the rest of the film and the viewer now knows what to expect from him.        ...

  Upon the opening scenes of John Ford’s western epic “The Searchers” we are thrust into a post civil war America. With the introduction of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards we become even more privy to that fact, since it seems Ethan is a former confederate soldier himself. And with his actions we see that he is still convinced that war is being fought, that action coming in the form of Ethan still having his saber. Historically, the confederates gave up their sabers in surrender, but Ethan having his is seen has him not letting go of the fight. Later in the film we learn that Ethan fought in the Franco-Mexican conflicts, explaining his 3 year absence after the South lost. These are some examples of the many subtextual cues we are given throughout the film to give some context to the character of Ethan. Most of his past is never explicitly stated, but rather shown through the acting prowess of Wayne, who embraces the soul of the character very well. My reasoning for bringing up these p...

  Kaitlyn Woodard Professor Matt Wisniewski English 280 September 18, 2020     The Searchers follows Ethan, a racist confederate soldier who has come home after going missing for three years. The Searcher’s provides us with a character that we do not view in a forgiving light. With themes circling around sinful desires hiding in the darkness it can easily draw someone in.   Ethan is arguably the most complex character with several hints towards an undesirable lawless past. This is most obvious in the first scene by the fireplace with Ethan, his brother Aron, and Aron’s wife Martha. Aron stated that he would be perfectly willing to let Ethan stay as long as he pleases but, it is obvious by his tone that his brother does not want him there. Ethan becomes upset and hands Aron a bag of unminted Union money. This leads to everyone in the room becoming quite quiet and Aron stuffing the money under the cushion. That money is far from something that he should have ...

          The Searchers (1956) is a western directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne as returning Civil War verteran Ethan Edwards. Soon after his return and with word of Comanche raiders, his families homestead is burnt to the ground and his family killed with only one eventual survivor in his niece Debbie (Natalie Wood). As the title implies Ethan and the only other member Martin (Jeffery Hunter) search for 5 long years after the Comanche known as Scar (Henry Brandon) to see if they can get Debbie back. This isn’t the first John Ford movie I’ve watched for a class, that distinction belongs to his adaptation of the John Steinbeck (a lot of John’s in this blog) book The Grapes of Wrath (1940) starring Henry Fonda. I won’t wax poetic about the racism of this picture. Both Ford and Wayne were racist, the portrayal of the Comanche is racist, Much of the western genre pioneered by Ford and Wayne is very much has racist views and is a reason why westerns ...

The Searchers is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May set during the Texas-Indian wars. The film was a commercial success and since it’s release, it has come to be considered a masterpiece and one of the most influential films ever made. The main character Ethan Edwards is portrayed as the “good guy,” but I feel as if he was the “bad guy.” Same situation with Orson Wells’ Touch of Evil with Hank Quinlan, but the two characters took different paths which shaped them into what they are at the end of the films. Hank Quinlan as we know was racist towards Mexicans and he didn’t hide it either. He was a dirty cop who would frame people for doing a crime they didn’t commit. Especially to Mexicans, he saw that all Mexicans are guilty. These are not the methods of a “good guy,” sure he’s a cop who has put criminals behind bars, but he’s not a good one. On his path though his karma caught up to him and he was killed trying to frame Miguel Va...

              As a viewer of both The Searchers and Touch of Evil —two completely different movies—one can construe some relatively similar traits from their principle characters: Ethan Edwards and Hank Quinlan. While The Searchers may take place post the Civil War and Touch of Evil being present at the time of the film’s release, Ethan and Hank portray similar traits in their respective worlds that are worth taking into account.             To get this out of the way, both characters are racist—plain and simple; except that it is not. What’s most interesting about this comparison is the way that it is portrayed in their own set of circumstances. The way a person behaves is amicable to the way a person reacts, whether it be towards a person, an environment, or an idea. Ethan Edwards’ racism is very outward and direct. Because he is a man with many morals left to cross,...

  Courtney Woodring Professor Wisniewski ENGL 280 September 25, 2020 The Searchers directed by John Ford is a western tale of love, racism and family. The racist representation of Native Americans is common among this genre and this film certainly reinforces that. While the film does have some other great aspects to it, the disrespectful representation cannot go unnoticed.   For starters, the film has their lead Native American role, Scar, played by none other than a white man. Because Scar did not have a lot of screen time compared to some of the other characters, the film did not feel that it was necessary to cast an actual Native actor and instead casted, Henry Brandon. It was thought that a person of color of actual Native blood could not play out the part as well. The character Martin, who is known as being an eighth Cherokee and somewhat of a comic relief is also misrepresented. While his character did not necessarily have to look as Native as Scar, they play up h...

 John Fords films are scene as timeless and the way he presented the scenery was in his own way that was loved by most. Ford gave a sense of realism in his films. His films were watched less as individual movies and more of as works of John Ford and that is why people watched them. One of John Ford films is called The Searchers. This film contains very beautiful shots of the surrounding area. For example the dessert surrounding the characters during Ethan's arrivals. As well as the cameras shots when they are on the horses and it really just sets the time period and setting in a large scale way. With Ethan's arrival home the kids all react different. They all react similarly in being excited but some as more questions than other as well as it is clear that Ethan has not been around in a very long time. Ethan takes pride in being able to provide for himself and that he has money but he is still relaying on others.  Everyone is constantly mentioning how long he has been gone. I ...

This film Searchers was one of my favorite films because I thought it was interesting, and it was a Western theme filmed which I always was interested in. I am not sure why I am interested in Western films, but my favorite film was True Grit. I also thought The Hateful Eight looked so good, but I never had the chance to watch it. I always grew up watching unique films, and when I saw True Grit I was instantly hooked.  Ethan and Hank Quinlan are two characters that are similar in ways, but different when it comes to each film they are in. They are different because Ethan knew his limits, and Hank didn’t. Hank ended up getting killed because he took it too far while Ethan was mad, but in the end of the film he flipped his personality. I thought Ethan was going to kill Debbie, but in the end he was going to take her home. I thought it was a personality change and I thought Ethan was mad at Debbie, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. Hank was always set on the bad, and it e...

  SPOILER ALERT: In the end Ethan changes his mind and decides to spare Debbie. My question is why? I have my theories but I want to know the real reason Frank S. Nugent the writer of The Searchers  decided that Ethan should save Debbie in the end.  My theory is that there was something in Debbie that reminded Ethan of her mother, Martha. As we can see in the beginning of the film there is a deep affection, possibly even romantic love, between Ethan and Martha. I think that when Ethan truly looked at Debbie as grown up as she was five years after having been kidnapped, he saw a reflection of Martha. When Ethan sees the resemblance between Martha and the now much grown, but still younger Debbie there is a moment that I believe is a deja-vu type moment for Ethan, causing him to decide to save Debbie instead of kill her. 

Hunter Bardin ENGL 280 Professor Wisniewski  September 25, 2020     The Searchers  directed by John Ford is a western movie that follows many of the same tropes that are common in the genre. These range from the loner cowboy that washes back into town to the common racist representation of Native Americans. While this film was spectacular in some other aspects, like its cinematography, the representation of Natives did not evolve like the rest of the film. While it may have been common during the time, doesn't mean it was right and lead to improper information to spread about Native Americans and their culture.     The film portrays the Natives as a group of savages that care nothing more than to kill the white folk that are near their land. It shows them as brutal by showing their usage of scalping and kidnapping of white girls. The movie also portrays them like they are unevolved versions of the white man and constantly looks down upon them like when Mart...

       One scene that perfectly describes the genius of director John Ford in his 1956 film  The Searchers  is  the  very final scene of the entire movie. It is at the homestead, five years later when Ethan finally brings Debbie home after years of searching for her. Once Debbie arrives, she is greeted and then each of the  characters walks into the home. The old couple walks in together with Debbie, Martin meets Laurie and  walks in with her, and Ethan is left standing alone, a true testament to his character.       The placement of the horizon in this scene is incredibly important. It allows us to focus on the  foreground of the picture. We can observe Ethan and Martin approaching on their horses with Debbie.  Ethan then walks up to the home with Debbie in his arms, and the placement of the horizon creates a  sunset effect, symbolizing the end of Ethan’s journey. The relatively high horizon line w...