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淘豆网网友近日为您收集整理了关于Edward be - The Searchers [BFI Film Classics]的文档，希望对您的工作和学习有所帮助。以下是文档介绍：Edward be - The Searchers [BFI Film Classics] ----~-----_, - ----i ~John Wayne, John Ford and CV Whitney lilming The Searchers (by courtesy 01Louise DeWald, Scottsdale, AZ)THE SEARCHERS Publishing ..C)GFirst published in 2000 by theBRITISH FILM INSTITUTE21 Stephen Street, London W1P 2LNCopyright
Edward be 2000Ihe British Fi1m Institutepromotes greater understandingand appteciation of, ess to, film and moving imagecu1turein the UKBritish Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record (来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html])für this book is availab1e from the British LibraryISBN 0--XSeries design byAndrew Barron & Collis C1ements AssociatesTypeset in Fournier and Franklin Gothic byD R Bungay Associates, Burghfie1d, BerksPrinted in Great Britainby The Cromwell Press, Irowbridge, WiltshireCONTENTSAcknowledgments 6'The Searchers' 7Notes 70Credits 77Bibliography 79BFI FILMACKNOWLEDGMENTSA11 quotations from production memos and letters to Ford are (来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html])courtesythe Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. Copies ofthe script of The Searchers are lodged in the Lilly Library and in thelibrary of the British Film Institute.My special thanks for help of various kinds to Corey Creekmur,stock, Jim D'Arc, Dan Ford, Tise Vahimagi, Noel King, ArtEckstein, Sandra Archer, Dudley Andrew, Gerald Sim, James Nottage,Mike Thomas, Rob White, Markku Salmi,For Sarah 'sure as the tuming of the (来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html])earth'A door opens. The camera tracks forward, fo11owing a woman outsidewhere, silhouetted against the landscape, she watches a riderapproaching.. A es to stand alongside her and speaks the firstword of The Searchers .. It's a question.'Ethan?'The rider dismounts.. He is dusty, travel-stained& He wears bluecavalry trousers with a ye110w stripe, a grey military coat with asergeant's chevron, and a black hat blowing in the win(来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html])d,l He holds asword in its scabbard,'That's your uncle Ethan,' says his niece Lucy to her brother Ben.Ethan silently shakes his brother Aaron by the hand, then kisses his sister-in-Iaw Martha reverently on the brow& She precedes him into the house,in a strange motion, facing him and walking backwards, almost as if onemight walk befare royalty,2 Inside, Ethan sweeps the youngest child,Debbie, up in his arms, holding her high aboye hi(来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html])s head in a gesture hewill repeat at the end of the film, Martha takes Ethan's coat He watchesher as she goes into the bedroom and carefu11y folds it.. Aaron watchesE he knows what's going on, but he defuses the potential discord byoffering Ethan his hand, 'Thanks, Aaron,' says Ethan, shaking it.. Later,after supper, Ethan sits outside alone, with only Chris, the family dog, pany.. He looks back inside the house and sees Aaron c(来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html])losing thebedroom door, shutting him out.. A great sadness fa11s over Ethan's face,3The next day there is another scene with Martha and the coat.. It'sshot in the customary Ford manner: put the camera in just the right place,then have the actors move around it.. We're in the main room of the house,with the flont door to our lefi:& The Reverend es towards thefront of the flame and standsthere drinking coffee& He glances sideways(来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html]) tohis lefi:, screen right.. There 's a cut, necessary to establish that it's a point-of~view shot, to the back bedroom, in which we see what he sees, Marthaholding the coat as if it were a religious relic, stroking it.. Cut back toClayton, who, having inadvertently witnessed this private moment, staresstraight ahead, Martha'ssecretwillbe safewith him& Behind his backEthanwalks in.. es fIom the bedroom into the fi:ame from the right(来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html]),and hands Ethan first his hat, then the coat.. He bends and kisses her on thebrow, as before& She holds his arm and looks up at him& Clayton continues(j)(j)(&)(j)7____.__...._~_...~~_ ..... __' ...J(f)(f)9o(f)By the time he carne to The Searchers, John Ford had been in pictutes overforty years. Starting as an occasional actor and assistant to his brotherFrancis, he directed his first featute, The Tornado, in 1917. It was aWestern(来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html]).. The Searcher:s was his one hundred and fifteenth featute film,and by then he'd e the most respected director in Hollywood, fouttimes winner of the Osear for Best Director (The lnjórmer, The Grapes al11BFI FILMThere are many questions about Ethan.. There's a m where has he been the last few years? He's evasive whenquestioned by Aaron..'How was California?''California? How should 1know?'Aaron&#3(来源：淘豆网[/p-9150493.html])9;s young son Ben putsues the investigation. As his grey coatsuggests, Ethan has been a Confederate soldier. But the Civil War hasbeen over three years, and Ben demands, 'Why didn't e homebefore now?' We never do get a precise account of Ethan's movementsprior to his anivaL He has a large store of gold coins.. Aaron remarks thatthey are 'fresh-minted' (the implication is they may be stolen from abank).. 'So?' Ethan retorts..There were a lot of people roaming the West at the end of the CivilWar who didn't e questions about their movements. Jesse Jameswas another who didn't sunender, didn't tutn his sabre 'into noploughshare, neither', prefening to drift around Missouti robbing banksand trains. The Western is full of discontented Southerners: BenjaminTyreen in Majar Dundee, Stonewall Toney in Shane, Ben Allison in TheTall Men, Josey Wales in The Outlaw}osey Wales, all with a chip on theirshoulder, unfinished business to take care oí.. Like them, Ethan hasresisted integration back into society. He 's recalcitrant, sutly and suspicious, he seems to have something to hide.4But about one thing there is no mystery. Ethan is in love with hisbrother's wife, and she with him.. The re1ationship is de1icate1y sketchedin but unmistakable. 5All Ethan's actions are in the shadow of his illicitdesire. It violates the sanctity of his brother's home, and so cannot beexpressed Instead, it tutns inwards, there to fester, sending him half~madwith longing and gtief.The secret 01 Ethanand M Claytonpretends not to noticeto stare forward, deliberate1y not watching what is happeningbehind him..Ethan walks across the room and out of the door. Martha follows, thenstops at the door looking out. Clayton puts down his cup, puts on his hatand squeezes polite1y through the door past Martha without a word.. In thenext shot, outside, Ethan and the posse are leaving. es into thehame with Debbie, watching Ethan leave as she had watched him arrive.Ethan rides away without looking back It is the last time Martha will seehim, though not the last time he will see her.8THE SEARCHERSTHE SEARCHERS BFI FILMoWrath, How Green Wal My Valley, The Quzet Man). Yet the middle 50swere not an unmixed triumph for Ford.. Sorne of his projects wereuninspired remakes such as What Fnce Glory.( and Mogambo.Eccentrically personal works like The Sun Shines Bright performedpoorly at the box office.. His drinking was getting worse and there wereviolent rages, one oí which resulted in a fistfight on the set of MilterRoberts with its star, Henry Fonda, in 1955.. That same year Ford had beenreduced to working in television.But with the right material he better, in fact.Back in his beloved Monument Valley, with his old fi:iend Merian e..Cooper producing, and his pany oí actors around him whomhe could bully to his heart's content and know he'd be forgiven (he andFonda were never friends again), all the genius carne flooding back.. Fordbegan when cinema was silent and he'd learned to tell a story throughpictures, learned what to do with a camera (and what not to do). Not thatFord didn' his writer on The Searchen, Frank Nugent, said hehad 'a wonderful ear fo! dialogue'.6 But where Ford excels is in the wayhe animates the screen, invests it with vitality and interest. The actorsdon't just stand there spouting words..Take the scene at the Edwards' ranch the morning after Ethan'sarrival. There's a quick shot outside oí the Rangers riding
smoke blows briskly trom the chimney.. A wide shot oí the interiorshows Martha at the back, attending to the oven by the fire.. Lucy isserving out wha Debbie sits at the table, screen left,Ben on the other side.. The dog is barking. There's a knock at the door,Ben gets up, Lucy starts fussing with her dress, mindful of who might bearriving. The camera pans and tracks to the window as Ben, Martha andLucy crane to see outside, while Aaron crosses into the trame towards thedoor.. Cut to a refi:amed shot oí the door as it opens and pany oíRangers pour through, riding after cattle thieves: Clayton, Jorgensen,Nesby, Charlie McCorry, Mose Harper.. Clayton explains their businessas Ben, Debbie, Martha, Aaron and Jorgensen group round him.It's the next shot that shows Ford's true gift for making ealive, an effect achieved not by busy camera movement or rapid cutting,but by what's actually happening in the fi:ame, the illusion oí reallifegoing on before our eyes. The camera is placed more or less where it waswhen Ethan first entered the house, but this time it stays still for a longtime. Clayton sits down at the head of the table, facing the camera.. Ben10and Debbie resume their seats and Clayton asks Debbie if she's beenbaptised yet, but he doesn't listen to the answer, ordering Aaron to getMartin. In the background all is bustle, Lucy getting cups fi:om thedresser, Martha bringing the coffee pot fi:om the stove, Mose making alittle bow to Martha before seating himself in the rocking chair, Aaron atthe back oí the fi:ame talking to Charlie and Nesby.. Lucy hands a cup ensen, seated on the left oí the frame, and picks up the coffee pot,only for Clayton, who hasn't stopped talking fi:om the start oí the shot, tohaul her back: 'Wait a minute sister, I didn't get any coffee yet..' At thismoment Martin appears at the back of the room, pulling on his jacket, asMartha hands Clayton doughnuts. Lucy rushes towards the back, Martingrabs her hand playfully, but she brushes past him, on her way out backto see her boyfi:iend Brad, as we discover in the next scene.. Clayton startsswearing in Aaron and Martin as Rangers: 'Raise your right hand'; Mosehas his left hand stretched out to the fire.. 'You will faithfullydischarge ....' says Clayton.. At this moment the door at the back of theroom opens to reveal Ethan, just as Ma it's as thoughshe is somehow pulling back a curtain, summoning up his presence.. Beninterrupts Clayton, asking to go along.. ically irascible Claytonadmonishes him and loses his train of thought. Debbie prompts him:'faithfully fulfil ......' Clayton ploughs on: 'faithfully discharge ......' Ethanhas been slowly walking forward fi:om the back, observed by all exceptClayton.. Jorgensen rises to ask Martha for coffee.. 'Shut up,' shoutsClayton, exasperated at another interruption.. As Ethan strolls evercloser, the camera now tracking forward, Clayton pletesthe swearing in. Aaron calls him Reverend, and Clayton puts him right:'Just call me Captain..' Ethan has now reached the table and leans forwardFordian mise en scene:Clayton gets his coffee(J)(J)o(J)11_.._------_._---~~-----~_...._-------&'------------------------BFI FILMpUlUloUl13alL Westerns are rarely about settled domestic life, so often about men ontheir own, on the move. They offer a fantasy of freedom, a dream of alifeuntrammelled by ties of home or work or the other fences which societysurrounds us with. In the wide open spaces of the West aman may ridewhere he has a mind too Realistically, in the eenth-century worldwhere the Western is set, only men have the economic and physicalcapacity to pursue such freedom.. Tane Tompkins has seen the rise of theWestern in fiction in the late eenth century as a male flight from thefeminisation of culture, escaping to a space fram which women areexcluded, a counter-balance to 'women's invasion of the public spherebetween 1880 and 1920'..9 But might not women also want, in a part ofthemselves, to break free from domesticity and its responsibilities, fromwhat Ford in Stagecoach iranically calls 'the blessings of civilisation';might they too not want like Huck Finn to 'light out for the territory'?Don't we a1l have dreams of leaving?IVAs we hear the song, the credits of the film play out, in the familiarPlaybill typeface favoured by Ford for most of his sound Westerns, setagainst the backdrop of an adobe walL Adobe bricks are made of claymixed with straw or grass, and were used by Pueblo Indians as well as bythe Spanish in the Southwest. But this wall provides more than localcolour, a signifier of exactly where we are in the West. It evokes thehistorical context within which the film is set, the violent struggle forsupremacy over southern Texas in the mid-eenth century.. AdobeWalls was the name of a trading post in southwest Texas, and the firstBattle of Adobe Walls was fought in 1864 by a force of whites led by KitCarson against several anche.. Ten years later carne thesecond Battle of Adobe Walls, in which twenty-eight buffalo huntersheld off a large band anche, Cheyenne and Kiowa. From theeighteenth century, when they first arrived on the southern Plains fromthe north, anche had been involved in a series of wars against theSpanish, then the Mexicans, then the Texans.. (Texas had eindependent of Mexico in 1836, then joined the Union in 1845.) TheTexas Rangers, in which the Reverend Clayton is a Captain, were anirregular force, formed in 1835, mainly to fight the Indians.. Warfare11IJones had been a ranger in the National Parks Service and first carne toFord's notice while the director was shooting 3 Godfathers in DeathValley in 1948.. Tones had a big hit with 'Ghost Riders in the Sky', andFord hired him to write songs for Ri Grande and Wagon Malter.. Fiveyears on, by the time of The Searchers, Elvis Presley had made his firstrecording and popular music was changed for ever.. But Ford didn't mindif the close harmony ballads of The Sons of the Pione his taste in music always ran to the folksy..The question - What makes aman to wander? - may be specific toEthan.. If so, the opening scenes provide an answer: there is no place forhim at home But perhaps the question is more generally addressed, to uson it, to Clayton's astonishment, and addresses him by his full title:'Captain the Reverend Samuel Johnson Clayton..'7With deft economy, solidity and spontaneity Ford evokes the panionship of human life in this little outpost in the wilderness -lifethat for sorne will soon be brutally cut short. At the same time, we feelEthan' his very presence is a disruption. Clayton, like Benand Aaran before him, interrogates Ethan.. When he offers to swear Ethaninto the posse, Ethan replies, 'No need to.. Wouldn'tbe legal anyway..''Why not?' Clayton demands.. 'You wanted for a crime, Ethan?'Ethan avoids answering by a further question: 'You got a warrant?'By the end of the picture Clayton will have one, though it's never served..Ride away, ride away, ride away.8What makes aman to wanderWhat makes aman to roam?What makes aman 1eave bed and boardAnd tUIn his back on home?Strictly speaking, 'Ethan?' is not the first word uttered in The Searchm,nor the first question. Over the credits we hear the opening stanza andchorus of a song written by Stan Tones and sung by The Sons of thePioneers, a singing graup Ford had earlier used on-screen in Rio Grande..THE SEARCHERS12BFI FILM(&)(/)(&)(/)(/)15but through the ability and courage of our artists to take the life andthe material of their own country and out of these express theiraspiration. 15When we look at the eroded landscapes of the Southwest it is impossiblenot to be in awe of their great age, the almost unimaginable stretches oftime needed to hew the canyons from the rock, or to grind and wash awaythe valley floor, leaving the huge mesas standing clear. There are twokinds of time in The Searchers, that of the long and lonely years whichelapse as Marty and Ethan pursue their quest, and the immensely longergeological time which puts al1 human acts into another perspective, whichrenders them puny parison, but more poignant..Pyne also charts how the kind of landscape art which valorised thebeauties of the Canyon became itself fossilised by the rise ofModernism.18Led by Thomas Moran, whose efforts were financial1yBetween the late eighteenth eentury and the mid-twentieth, the knownage of the earth increased a millionfold, hom less than 6,000 years romore than 4.6 billion. The determination of the exact scale of geologictime and how anize its unfathomable domain remained theparticular province of geology Upon its conclusions rested themechanics anic evolution, and upon those mechanics dependedthe program of social progress.. The age of the earth decided whetherDarwinian evolution by natural selection, with its immense drafts oftime, was possible.. The debate over models anic evolutioninformed discussions over moral progress and the future ofcivilizations..17It was science which had first given these new kinds of landscape theirsignificance, specifically the science of geology As Stephen Pyne showsin How the Canyon Became Grand, the Grand Canyon became a kind ofAladdin's Cave for American geologists in the last quarter of eenth century. The 5,000-feet deep chasm revealed nothing less thanthe history of the earth over essive aeons.. In Pyne's words, 'TheCanyon became to geology what the Louvre was to art or St Peter'sSquare to architecture',16 playing a key role in the transformation notonly of the aesthetics of landscape but of conceptions of history and oflife itself. As the result of geological discoveries, Pyne saysIn the opening shot of the film, the view from the Edwards' ranch is of alandscape partly obscured by dust.. When the band of Rangers ride outnext day we get our first good look at Monument Valley. The clarity ofthe air is astonishing. Buttes that must be twenty miles away
the sense of space and distance takes one's breath away. TheSearchers was Ford's fifth film in this location, beginning with Stagecoachseventeen years previously.11 EIsewhere I've described how, in the courseof the eenth century, American tastes in landscape weretransformed, fi:om a European-derived preference for mountains, lakesand trees, to an appreciation of the distinctively American topography ofthe Southwest, its deserts, canyons and mesas.12In The Southwest inAmerican Llterature andAn, David W. Teague traces the rise of what hecalls 'a desert aesthetic': 'by 1910 deserts had e associated with thevery height of American culture. They were developing into theaesthetic wonderlands that gave rise to the nature writing of MaryAustin, the art of ia ü'Keeffe, the photographs of AlfredStieglitz .... .'13 Nationalism played its part in this transformation, thatsame desire to extol American exceptionalism which we find in FrederickJackson Turner's 'frontier thesis', first developed at the end of eenth century to show how the experience of the Western frontierdecisively shaped the American character and made it different from theEuropean.14The artist Maynard Dixon, who devoted himself tocapturing the spirit of the arid Southwest during the 20s and 30s, wrote:v[W]hat art is vital that does not grow out of the psychic and materiallife of the country that produces it? It is not only possible butnecessary for us artists to look more hankly at the conditions andeountry surrounding us, ro go direetly ro them as a source ofinspiration and ro work out our own interpretation of them If weare to have anything that can be cal1ed a vital Americ not by the obedient repetition of European formulas,between the Texas settlers and anche was endemic for ageneration, culminating in the Red River War of 1874-5 which finallydestroyed anche's military strength1014THE SEARCHERSBFI FILMTHE SEARCHERSsupported by the Santa Fe railroad in order to encourage tourism in theSouthwest, artists descended on such picturesque spots in ever increasingnumbers during the first quarter of the twentieth century, to producepaintings which, remaining dedicated to eenth-century ideas offidelity to nature, were innocent of the new ideas in art. The movies,never greatly interested in Modernism anyway, were eager to cash in onthe popular visual appeal of the canyons, deserts and mesas. Deserts alsoplayed an important part in the novels of Zane Grey, by far the mostpopular author of Westerns in the first third of the twentieth century, andthe writer most influential in shifting the popular imagination towards theSouthwest. On his first trip west in 1907, he had visited the GrandCanyon on horseback and immediately fell under the spell of south-western scenery, using it as the setting of the first of his many bestsellers,The Heritage of the De.sat, published in 1910, Over the course of the nexttwenty years Grey produced a stream of novels with southwesternsettings, such as Desert Gold, Wanderer of the Wasteland, Call 01 theCanyon and Unda the Tonto Rim, Wildfire, published in 1917, is set inMonument Valley itself. Grey's work had a powerful influence uponHollywood's use of landscape in the late lOs and 20s, and his novels wereseized upon by film-makers anxious to exploit his huge popularity. In1918 carne films of Ridas 01 the Purple Sage, The Light of Western Starsand The Ramoow Trail Five more Zane Grey films followed the nextyear, with Grey insisting on authentic southwestern locations..The desert aesthetic was tailor-made for Hollywood. By 1910Westerns were the most popular film genre, Los Angeles had efirmly established as a film-making centre, and desert scenery was righton the doorstep.. William S. Hart frequently favoured desert settings forhis films, as in The Scourge of the Desen (1915) and The Desert Man(1917), AH the top Western stars of the 20s followed suit: Tom Mix inDe.sert Love (1920), Jack Hoxie in A Desert Bndegroom (1922), HarryCarey in De.sert Driven (1923), Buck Jones in The Desert Outlaw (1924),Tom Tyler in The De.sert Pirate (1927) and Tim McCoy in The De.sertRida (1929)Ford's first colour film shot in Monument Valley was She Wore aYellow Rlbbon in 1949 Winton Hoch, the cameraman, won an Oscar forit. Hoch had joined Technicolor on graduating from Cal Tech and, it'sclaimed, never shot a foot of monochrome film, 19 He'd started with Fordon 3 GodfatherJ in 1948, and before The SearcherJ had also done The Quiet16Man and Mista Rooerts, No Ford picture, indeed no American picture,makes such sumptuous use of landscape as The Searcher:1.. Hollywoodnarrative film doesn't let us dwelllong on the thestory must move forward, But there are many times in The Searcherswhen one is begging Ford to indulge us just a little more, to let our eyesfeast on the stately towers of red sandstone standing mighty against theazure sky, or roam the vastness of the space that dwarfs the tiny riders.One reason that the landscape has such grandeur, besides thesureness of Ford's eye position and Hoch's undoubted skill, isthat the movie was filmed in VistaVision& When CinemaScope wasintroduced by 20th Century-Fox in 1953, Paramount had refused to usethe new system, preferring a widescreen process of its own. Instead ofthe anamorphic camera lens which CinemaScope used press thewide image onto standard 35mm film (the picture was then expandedback by another lens during projection), VistaVision switched thenegative film through y degrees and exposed it horizontally, as in a35mm still camera, This effectively doubled the area of the frame, givingextremely sharp pictures in a ratio of 1..85:1 (compared to the 1..33:1standard or 'Academy' ratio, and the 2..35:1 of CinemaScope), The othergreat advantage was that VistaVision prints could be made from the largenegative onto standard 35mm film, which did not require theatres toinstall any new equipment.VIThe little band of Rangers are riding in pursuit of sorne cattle that havebeen driven off from the nearby ranch of Lars Jorgensen, played by JohnQualen, who, of Norwegian origin himself, played a series of ic 'Scandinavians in other Ford Westerns (Ole Knudsen in Two RodeTogether, Peter Ericson in The Man Who Shot Lioerty Yalance, Svensonin Cheyenne Autumn)., He and the Reverend Clayton are panied byold Mose (Hank Worden), by another rancher, Nesby (William Steele),by Charlie McCorry, played by Ken Curtis, and by Jorgensen's son Brad,who is romancing Ethan's niece Lucy and is played by Harry Carey Jr,son of the silent Western star Harry Carey (of whom more anon).2 Fordwas famous for keeping a tightly knit group around him., Four of theactors, John Wayne, Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jr and Hank Worden, had,J&(/)(/)o(/)17BFI FILMT H E S E A R e H E R Sbetween them made a total of sixteen previous appearances in FordWesterns, besides many of his other films& Other Ford veterans in TheSearchm include Harry Carey's wife Olive, who as Mrs Jorgensen ismother in the film to her real-life son Hany Jr, and in minor roles, JackPennick and stuntman and bit player Chuck Roberson, Colonel Greenhillis played by Cliff Lyons, who was, as usual, in charge of the stunt crew,most of whom were also veterans of Ford pictmes,!t's a film about family, as Ford's films often are& We're on the edgeof the frantier.. There's munity to speak of, justsmall family groups, as at the dawn of the human race There 's Ethan andhis brother Aaron, Aaron's wife Mattha and their three children, Lucy,Debbie and Ben. They have adopted Marty, whose parents have beenkilled& Theit neighboms are the Jorgensens, mother, father, son Brad anddaughter Lamie& anche chief, Scar, we see fomwives in his tepee and hear of two sons, both killed by whites. Even thearmy is a family affair: Colonel mands his son, LieutenantGreenhil1.And it's a film which contains families& Besides the Careys, thereare the Wood sisters, Natalie and Lana, both playing Debbie. JohnWayne's son Pat plays Lieutenant Greenhil1. Producer Metian Coopercast his wife, Dorothy Jordan, as Martha, and Ford cast his son-in-IawKen Cmtis (manied to his daughter Barbara) as Charlie, Ford's son Patwas associate producer, and the brother of Ford's wife, Wingate Smith,was assistant director& Was there ever so much benevolent nepotism in asingle film?Ethan has offered to join the Rangers in the search for the cattle&His motive is presumably self-sactificing, leaving Aaron at home withMattha in the safety of the homestead, It is a fatal misjudgement.. He'panied by Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) who, like Ethan, hasbeen introduced riding towards an open door, ing in at a clip,panied by sorne jaunty music and leaping off his horse& Martin, welearn, is one-eighth Cherokee, From the beginning Ethan will treat himwith barely disguised hostility, cmelly rejecting the young man's friendlyovertmes solely, it appears, because of his racial origin (emphasised bybrown make-up),' 'A man could mistake you for a half-breed,' Ethangrowls at him& Ethan is a racist bejóre the mmder of Martha,On the trail of the missing cattle the Rangers soon discoverevidence that they have been dtiven off not by mstlers but by Indians, in18arder to divert them away from the now unprotected ranches& And notjust any Indians, but the mast feared ('ain't Caddos, ain't anch [sic] sme', says Mose), As Ethan contemplates the fate ofMartha and the others, the camera dwells on his face, gazing bleakly intothe distance as he wipes the sweat fi:om his horse, and we foresee thetragedy that is e.VIIReining in at the top of a ridge overlooking the homestead the next day,Ethan sees it's on fire& Sttiding through the smoke and fiames, crying'Martha, Mattha', he finds a blue dress, It is the one Martha wore. Helooks inta the store-house, The camera is inside, framing him against thelight We cannot see his face, bm he ben evidently it isMartha's body he has seen. He tells Mose not to let Marty see inside:'Won't do him any good,,' Mase draws fort he can from rightingthe rocking chair and sits minding Marty, while the dog draws Ethan'sattention to Debbie 's discarded doll,Mattha, we infer, has been raped and mmdered by anche,Aaron and Ben are dead too, though this hardly seems to register withEthan Lucy and Debbie have been captmed Now the shape of the storyis clear.. It's
but also a revenge plot..An authentically American story-structure, the captivity nanativemay be traced back at least as far as the seventeenth centmy, when MaryRowlandson was captmed by Indians dming King Philip's War in 1676&Eventually takenback into white society, she published her story in 1682&It went through fom editions in the first year alone& Over the next twocentmies, to be captmed by Indians was thousands of whites, mainly women and children, underwent this fate&Many were taken for ransom, others were adopted into Indian tribesTheit experiences were frequently documented, and in the eenthcentury alone several hundred such accounts were published Few typesof narrative exert as visceral a hold on the reader, who experiences atenifying yet pleasmable thrill in the story of one, less fortunate thanthemselves, who falls into the hands of the enemy., Such a basic nanativestmcture can be adapted to any gente, even children's stories In apatticularly spine-chilling example, The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The(&)r(J)(J)(&)(J)19BFI FILMTHE SEARCHERSRoly-Poly Pudding by Beatrix Potter, Tom Kitten is captured by the ratswho live behind the skirting board and is rolled up in pastry to be madeinto a pudding. Stories of humans kidnapped by aliens are a morecontemporary version..Already essful as biography, the captivity narrative became amainstay of Western fiction in the novels of James Fenimore Cooper.Not surprisingly, the Western movie has exploited its potential in suchfilms as Northwest Passage, Unconquered, Comanche Station, SoldierBlue,AMan Called Horse, Little Big Man and Dances with WOlves, besidesFord's own Two Rode Together.Though violation of female captives by Indians was apparently theexception, it did occur, and in the eenth century sorne narrativespruriently focused on the sexual outrages suffered by white women.. Thetitle page of History of the Captivity and Providential Release of Mr:s..Caroline Harris, published in 1838, records how Mrs Harris and herfemale friend were forced to e 'panions of, and to cohabitwith, two disgusting Indian Chiefs ..... fiom whom they received the mostcruel and beastly treatment'.21 Yet contrary to the opportunity suchstories gave of demonising the Indians, in many accounts the captives'went native', sorne electing to stay with their captors even when offeredrelease, a decision profoundly troubling to a white society convinced ofits superiority.22 One analysis suggests that 'the prime candidate fortransculturation was a girl aged seven through fifteen'.23 Ethan's fear isthus two-fold: that the two captured girls will be raped, the 'fate worsethan death' of Victorian melodrama, and/or that they will be absorbedinto Indian society, losing their white identity.. In the event, both fears arerealised. Ethan soon discovers that Lucy has suffered an identical fate toMartha's. And when finally he catches up with Debbie, she is the wife anche and has all but anche herself, referring to themas 'my people'..The shape and direction of the film are now clear.. It will be the storyof Ethan'smission, to avenge the rape and murder of Martha, and to rescueDebbie.. But as time passes Ethan realises that Debbie will be changed byher experience. In the event, we learn almost nothing of her life in captivi-ty.. All we know is what is festering in Ethan' what obsesses him isnot the general process of transculturation she mustbeundergoing, it's thethought of her having sexwithIndians thateats away athim. He can hardlybring himself to articulate it. As he says to Martybefare their first return to20the Jorgensens', after ayear, 'they'll keep her to raise as one of their ownuntil .... until she's of an age to ....' He cannot finish the sentence. By thetime they find her she 's reached puberty.. Ethan's response is to try to killher. 'She'sbeen livingwith abuck,' he says to Marty in justification. 'She'snothingbut a ...'; he cannot find the word.. Miscegenation ir mustbe effacedby murder..But it's more than just the horror of an Indian having sex with awhite woman that drives Ethan. You don't have to be a psychoanalyst tointuit that Scar, anche chief whom Ethan implacably pursues, isin sorne sense Ethan's unconscious, his id if you like.. In raping Martha,Scar has acted out in brutal fashion the illicit sexual desire which Ethanharboured in his heart.. Ethan's assumption of the role of justifiedavenger, wreaking upon Scar the punishment he deserves, allows him toassume the high moral ground.. But his self-righteousness, as in the killingof Futterman, an act which raises sorne eyebrows, can be seen as anattempt to blot out his own guilt.When at the end of the film Ethan finally catches up with Scar hefinds him already dead, shot by Marty. Drawing his knife, he scalps Scarin a symbolic act of castration.. Once Scar's sexual threat has beenneutered, Ethan's desire for revenge is assuaged and instead of killingDebbie, his expressed intention, he takes her home. But for Ethan histransgressive desire for his brother's wife means there is no place in thehome, no family he can be integrated into.. Ride away.VIIIScar and Ethan are mirror-images. In the scene where they finally meet,the confrontation is shot to emphasise this resemblance.. Scar walks out ofhis tent. There is a close-up of Ethan, immediately followed by a close upof Scar, of a corresponding size and angle. Ethan walks up to Scar andstands very close.. 'You speak pretty good American for anch [sic].Someone teach you?' Before they enter the tent, Scar will echo: 'Youspeak anch.. Someone teach you?' Inside, Scar shows Ethan themedal he had once given Debbie, and which Scar now wears around hisownneck.24For a white man, and one so hostile to Indians, Ethan is surprisinglyfamiliar with Indian ways.. Ethan is the one who first thinks theor)o-(f)(f)o(f)21播放器加载中，请稍候...
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Edward be - The Searchers [BFI Film Classics] ----~-----_, - ----i ~John Wayne, John Ford and CV Whitney lilming The Searchers (by courtesy 01Louise DeWald, Scottsdale, AZ)THE SEARCHERS Publishing ..C)GFirst published in 2000 by theBRITISH FILM INSTITUTE21 Stephen Street, London W1P 2LNCopyright
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