The Searchers: A "West Side" Story

 






  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. The Comanche attacked them again, but Ethan and Martin fends them off.

When they find the camp,  Lucy was already killed and maybe raped.


  As winter comes, they lose the trail and some hope to find the. hostages, but Ethen finds a letter that

potentially has info about Debbie. He insists on going on his own to look for her. They then learn that

Debbie was taken by. Scar, chief of the Comanche. Then then find Scar. They then fought in a battle, but 

Martin kills Scar and Ethan finds Debbie. Ethan brings back Debbie

and Martin reunites with Laurie. As in the ending scene, the. door starts to slowly close as Ethan walks 

out.


   Overall, the film has beautiful cinematography, it was gruesome as it showed dead bodies. It's enjoyable 

and the storyline is a little emotional. As it was deemed one of the most influential films ever made, it has

made an impact on western themes. I would definitely recommend the film, but not if you get grossed out easily.

Comments

  1. Kaitlyn WoodardSeptember 27, 2020 at 1:29 PM

    I agree that the cinematography is gorgeous. The idea of scalping and shooting out the native persons eyes so they are forever in limbo is also quite gruesome. But, overall I didn't find the film to be all that gruesome.

    ReplyDelete

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