Reel Injun on YouTube:
Due: Friday, December 6
Thursday, November 21, 2013
The Searchers
Think about the portrayal of the American Indian and the portrayal of the whites in The Searchers. Discuss in a hearty paragraph how John Ford cinematically portrays each group. Then think specifically about Ethan and Scar and use your second paragraph to discuss how Ford cinematically portrays each of them specifically. In your last paragraph (number 3), discuss how the American Indian has been portrayed in films after watching Reel Injun on YouTube. Feel free to write as much as you want--this is a huge subject. Extra credit goes to those who comment on a classmate's comment or comments.
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John Ford portrays the American Indian as a lowly type of people. They murder "innocent" white families, and capture their daughters, implying that they are used for sex. The whites are portrayed as the dominant race, largely because of the main character, Ethan's racist views. One example of Ethan's racism, was his desire to kill Debbie, because she unwillingly became a squaw. Throughout the film, low angle and eye level shots are taken of Ethan up on his horse, to prove his dominance over the other characters. The high angle shot of the Indian village can also be seen as a point of view shot from Ethan's eyes. He is looking down on the Indian tribe, making the Indians feel insignificant.
ReplyDeleteScar is the leader of the Indian tribe. He is seen mostly just amongst his Indian family. He is a strong leader and well respected in his community. Ethan and Scar are rivals throughout the entire film. Ethan is portrayed as "leader" of the white characters. It is symbolic of white empowerment towards the end when Ethan and his side-kick kill Scar and save Debbie. Those events show the true overpowering of the American Indian that I believe John Ford was trying to portray.
The portrayal of Native American Indians throughout cinema has not always been accurate. At the beginning of the emergence of the Western genre, Indians were conveyed as the villains. The portrayal of Indians has been fueled by stereotypes and racism. Even if the directors did not feel that way themselves, the movies speak otherwise. For example, John Ford! In real life, he has appreciation for the Native American culture, but his film, The Searchers, depicts Indians as their stereotypes. As time has evolved, some directors have portrayed Indians in more modern ways. In some cases, even equal to whites. One example of this is the film Dances With Wolves, where the Indians are portrayed as intelligent and spiritual. This is more modern, and less offensive.
The portrayal of White Americans and Native Americans in The Searchers is extremely different. The normal thing for any Western movie produced in Hollywood during this time was to have the Americans be the lovable protagonists and the Native Americans be the deadly and hate-filled antagonists. The Americans would be humans a free to struggle through life as very open characters. The Native Americans would not have been thought of as having their own mind, body, and personality but only products of the savage world of the West. This norm is almost broken in this movie, though when the audience meets Ethan, the main character, who is a very rugged individual that is distant from not only the rest of the characters but from the audience as well. With this said though, Ethan’s personality shifts by the end of the movie which really humanizes him. He ends up saving Debbie from the Natives Americans and takes her home, when previously he said he would put a bullet between her eyes at any chance he got.
ReplyDeleteThe two headbutting characters in this film, Ethan and Scar, have their differences but also share some interesting similarities. They are both very powerful and menacing characters. They are both forces not to be reckoned with: the Indians took Ethan’s niece and he hunted her down more years and years; some White Americans killed some of Scar’s people and he killed them and took Debbie. One thing that separates these two though is the way that Ford shows them in the frame. In the opening shot that we see Ethan, he is alone and is framed in a small place. This is also true in the last shot of the movie, where he is the only person in the frame and is framed by a doorway. This shows that he is a very distant character who doesn’t belong in this world. On the other hand, Scar is always shown with the rest of his tribe, showing that he is close to his people. This also adds to the stereotype that the Native Americans are a group of people without personality or unique features.
From watching Reel Injun I learned that there are many false stereotypes of Native Americans that have been made by the cinema industry. The racism involved with the portrayal of the Native Americans is real in most films. It is as though the film industry can only characterize all Natives as “Plains Indians” who wear the headbands and feathers and ride horses shirtless. John Ford, a man who respects the Native Americans dearly, is pressured into this stereotype in The Searchers. Yes, these are just movies and it’s just Hollywood so nothing is ever completely accurate, but the portrayal of Native Americans in this way influences the mind of the average person and makes them think this is the way they live. Over time this image of them has changed and the Natives in movies have become more human-like and spiritual, such as in Little Big Man. With this said though, the film industry has a long way to go to make up for this racism.
The Searchers (1956) is a later John Ford and John Wayne film, and the portrayals of both whites and Native Americans evolved greatly from earlier films. However, the contrast between the portrayal of the two groups remains clear. Firstly, it is a film about white people, made by white people for white people. The Native Americans as a group are a necessary part of the plot, but seeing them or showing them as individuals with depth is not important to the filmmakers. The white people are often seen in small groups, at eye level. The white people are the ones the audience is made to relate to. The view of Native Americans, although evolved, is still highly prejudiced and like a caricature. They appear on the screen in huge groups in long shots, in battle, or alone on the screen in close high angle shots, on a horse wearing a headdress. This reinforces the idea of the Native American as the Noble Warrior discussed in Real Injun. The costumes are another key part of the portrayals. While the clothes of the white people may be historically accurate, the native american garb is surely inaccurate and exaggerated. The language of the natives is also still in this film something which adds to the creating of the Native Americans as a less civilized/intelligent people than the white people.
ReplyDeleteOne of the fundamental changes from Ford’s earlier work though seems to be that al though Ethan is a very racist character it is not an altogether racist film. Although no one questions Ethan’s insults or opinions, they don't seem to be shared by everyone. There is some more depth to the situation. Ethan’s dogma would dictate that he hates Martin Pawley, and although he verbalizes this, he travels with the man for five years, and makes him his heir. Scar vs Ethan is not simply the villain vs the hero. Ethan does some cruel things- shooting the buried Native American in the face, he is wanted for murder. And Scar is not simply a ruthless and nameless kidnapper of an innocent white girl- we learn his own family has been killed by white people. He also has dialogue, and makes a few jokes. He’s slightly more human and relatable than previous indian portrayals, although he remains the stereotypical stoic Indian warrior. Henry Brandon, a German actor plays Scar, which is offensive, like a white person in black face.
We’ve now watched three films which portray American Indians, each from different time periods, and I think they are good examples of the different times in Hollywood history. In Stagecoach, the Native Americans are a group, not individuals, and nameless. They are more of a concept, the cut and dry bad force in the film, that creates conflict, than a people. They are scary and completely savage and foreign, to everyone but the Mexican man. In The Searchers, the Indians have more of a voice and an individuality, we see Martin, Scar, and Martin’s wife up close, however there remains a stereotype enforced by the film,and although not everyone shares a strong hatred for the group, the main character holds this prejudice. Little Big Man, although a movie about life in general, not about Native Americans, they are treated with respect, their culture is represented as any other society with people of all kinds, not a homogeneous tribe of warriors. Everything seen in film is generally indicative of the perspective of the filmmaker and of the time and culture in which it was made and the portrayal of Native Americans is no different. But while life affects art, and art also affects life, and Reel Injun makes the point that a few bigoted film makers can create a bigoted nation with a few powerful films. I thought it was interesting that in early silent films there were Indian filmmakers making films from their own perspectives, films that were popular among American audiences.
The Searchers, by Tom Ford, is a Western film about a Civil War veteran, Ethan, who returns home from war to find that his young niece, Debbie, who has been the prisoner of a nearby tribe of Native Americans, the Comanche, and has been for years. Ethan sets out on a 5 year quest with his “nephew” Martin, who is ⅛ Comanche himself, in order to rescue her. The film itself acts as an analogue to a time where the general opinion of Native Americans was startlingly close minded and offensive, and where it was a cliche of the trade to have bloodthirsty, grunting savages as the portrayal of Native Americans. Aside from Martin, none of the Indians shown are even civilized. They all live in tents and wear cloth, speaking in a native tongue and failing to participate in regular civilized activities. While some of the Indians were amiable, like the ones who traded with Ethan and Martin, they are still painted to be as simple and substandard. To further paint this picture, the Camancha are painted as solely focused on nothing but murder and abduction. At the opening of the film, the Camanche murder Debbie’s family in an unprovoked attack and kidnap Debbie, then go on the try and murder Ethan and Martin simply for being near their camp. When Ethan and Martin run, the Camanche chase them to a nearby cave, and don’t try to stop killing the two until literally all of the warriors lay dead.
ReplyDeleteCinematically, Skar is shown much of the time from low angles, giving him a stoic and menacing feel. Also, he isn’t shown to have very much emotion in his face, possibly a reflection of the fact that Indians were painted as heartless beasts in this time period. Also, Skar spends very little time talking or doing much of anything constructive with other characters, expressing that he is a brute and making him seem all the colder. When Skar sees Ethan in the desert, he stands above him on a dune, looking down with his perpetual frown, reaffirming his aggressive air. Also, when he rides he rides separated from his tribe, possibly as a mark of pride or distinction. Martin is shown very differently. In the beginning of the movie, other characters are shown to look down on him, both figuratively and literally. When Martin is shown, he is often on lower ground than other characters (such as being on foot while others are mounted, being on the low end of a hill, kneeling, etc), giving the idea that they’re superior to him. Also, Martin walks with an uneven gait and slump, and he does wimpy things like complain and cry a lot, so the other characters don’t put a lot of value in him. As the story progresses this changes. He begins to stand on ground with Ethan, and begins to walk with more confidence. He is given more close ups as his confidence grows, and he is given more action in frame to show his growing value. When he matures fully, he holds the same elevated status as Ethan, above the others, and is always shown on level with Ethan. It is interesting to note the differences between Skar and Martin. This time period is noted for it’s racism against Indians in cinema. Skar is clearly painted as a cold, bloodthirsty savage, separated from both society and his own tribe. Martin is, at first, portrayed as just a part-squaw mutt boy, and as such is painted as an outcast, and a deplorable one at that. However, as he comes to emulate Ethan more, he becomes more of a hero type, and is portrayed much more respectably cinematically. This shows the idea that being white was held in higher esteem than being Indian.
In cinema, Indians have been portrayed in a way that is very incongruous with reality. The hollywood indian, is a strong, broad-chested, stoic warrior, who looks into the face of danger with a steely face and without fear. Also, even other well established facts, like the buffalo hunting and extensive horse riding aren’t necessarily true, being traits of only some tribes. Also, Native Americans were romanticized and portrayed as warriors in order to divert attention from the brutal and heartless way they were slaughtered and eradicated. In the ‘30’s, the indian took a departure from the “noble savage” to just savage in order to sell tickets to films. They are shown as “backwards and stopping progress,” making them natural targets to attack for the white population. Because of Pocahontas, the Indian princess becomes the embodiment of American desire, including curiosity, lust, etc, all because of her unrealistic roll as such. Native Americans are all conformed to one characterized idea of the plains indian, and anti-indian sentiments are so strong that John Wayne’s violent acts against the Indians seem completely justified. It wasn’t until the ‘70s, with movies like “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Little Big Man” that Indians began being fleshed out beyond their stereotypes and were shown in more than just one shade.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point you made about Martin's character changing making him different from the rest of the Native Americans. Why do you think that is though? I don't see why John Ford would grant a character change to just One Indian in the film, empowering his character and none of the others. I think it must then be because of Martin being only half Native American. Being half "pure" in the eyes of Ethan anyway, may be just enough of an excuse in order for Martin to be able to get a character change.
DeleteIn one of John Ford's most famous films, The Searchers, Ford is able to play off the Indians as enemies as he presents Ethan and the rest of those searching for Debbie in a positive light. Throughout the entire film, Ethan must search for his nieces (and eventually just Debbie) after a group of Indians razes their home. Since the film starts off placing such a negative light on Native Americans, we must assume the rest of the film will honor that viewpoint. Firstly, the Indians are always portrayed as weaker than the white men. They are significantly less advanced, choosing to fight with spears as opposed to guns. On top of that, in the fighting between the Indians and whites, having a reverend lead the fighting almost condones it in a sense. Jumping towards the end, when we see Ethan return Debbie to her home (and carry her as though she is helpless), we can see that even though Debbie was content with living with the Native Americans for quite some time, Ethan viewed what he was doing as a rescue mission, stating that he'd rather see her dead than living as an Indian.
ReplyDeleteEthan's character can be greatly juxtaposed with that of Scar's. Both had very similar life experiences - while Ethan's mother was killed by Indians, Scar's parents were killed by white men. While he was responsible for the kidnapping of Debbie (and supposedly the rape and killing of Lucy), Ethan uses his anger towards Indians (rooted from the death of his mother) and loses sight of the search for Debbie, focusing more on his anger towards Scar. Additionally, these feelings cloud his judgement towards all Native Americans, viewing them negatively.
In the Searchers, another western film directed by John Ford, we see yet another rise of a conflict between the white population and the American Indian population in a film where the main character, Ethan, goes on his way to rescue his niece who was captured by a group of Indians with a leader named Scar. Cinematically each group is represented differently in a way in which John Ford shows favor towards the white group by making them the victims of the Native American group. The two leaders of these groups however, Ethan and Scar, are shown similarly on a cinematic level. Also, in Reel Injun we can see that The American Indian has not been portrayed truthfully throughout cinema history, making a somewhat recent necessity for Native Americans to be portrayed correctly in cinema.
ReplyDeleteBoth groups portrayed in the film, white and Native American, are portrayed this way for a certain reason, to make the viewer remorse for the victims, the whites, and feel anger towards the Indians who have killed. Cinematically we see more close-ups and medium shots with members of the white group of characters in the film, allowing us to build a closer relationship with these characters than we could with the Indians in the film, who are rarely shown in the frame at all, just mostly discussed as ruthless killers. When they are shown it is typically in a medium shot or a long shot in order to establish that these people are outside of the white group more than just based on race. The camera is a means of separation just as race is. The two groups are rarely shown holding the same frame together, unless it’s in conflict or both groups are usually far apart in the frame, making sure that cinematically there is this separation of the two groups. On another level, when John Ford wants to make the Native Americans seem savage, he uses low angle shots and dark lighting from below or low-key lighting to create this fierce ruthless image of a killer. He also sometimes portrays them as “low level things” outside of the white group, sort of from the perspective of Ethan. Ethan is racist and hates everything about Indians that he can’t even stand Martin because he is half Indian. So martin generally is shown in the mise-en-scene as kinda dirty, low leveled, typically placed lower in the frame, high angle shots on him, as if he is an abomination for being part of both groups.
Ethan and Scar, the “leaders” of both groups in the film are actually filmed quite similarly although they’re part of these different groups. Both of them are filmed typically by themselves in the frame, or if not are framed above everyone else, giving them an authoritarian feel to them. We see that Ethan possesses power in his opinion and the manner he acts just as we see him through the lens of the camera making him powerful. We know about Scar what we’ve been told, that he’s a ruthless killer and kidnapper, but that he is to be feared. Since we identify more with the white group because of the camera, we come to believe this and can expect this kind of framing and cinematography use on scar.
Throughout history of cinema, it can be said that Native Americans were never really shown truthfully up on the screen. In most early western films Native Americans were always portrayed as ruthless kidnappers and killers, usually being lead by some chief antagonist that the viewer never really gets a chance to see, but drives the whole plot until he shows up. This can be seen in both of John Ford’s films, Stagecoach and the Searchers. These depictions of Native Americans were unfortunately based off the several accounts of racism and stereotyping that existed in the time period of these films being made. This racism and stereotyping can be seen in the character of Ethan, who throughout the whole film makes racial gestures and jokes towards the Indian people, insulting and looking down upon Martin, and even wanting to kill his niece because she had lived with the Indians for too long and had become like them. So throughout history we can see the racism that existed in cinema, and how a fix for it didn’t come until movies like Little Big Man hit the theatres and flipped the script so to speak.
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