The Searchers - Movie Analysis Essay

Introduction

The Searchers is an American film produced in 1956 and was based on a novel written in 1954 by Alan May. John Ford directed this particular film during the Indian wars in Texas with John Wayne as the starring. The film is a theatrical adventure drama liked by many it remains a masterpiece of film making in America. The Searchers film is a cinematic classic that achieved the best, most influential, and most admired film during those days. The film consists of majestic scenery, which is the most remarkable director's cinematic aspect that makes the film beautiful. The Searchers is considered as the most influential film in American history since it constructs several meanings of the American history such as the American identity, family unit, opposition between civilization and the untamed contrast between the civilized and wilderness.

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Historical contextThe Searchers film constructs the meaning through the incorporation of the protagonist character, Ethan Edwards. The intention is also achieved through ensuring that the starring characters are shrouded with mystery with a lot of questions posed towards them based on their previous dealings, whereabouts, and relationships. The director has also incorporated motion pictures making the film to be considered as a masterpiece that meets issues of discrimination and revenge in the director's western model perspective.

The Searchers film was mainly created for the American Western audience; hence it is known to be the best Hollywood film of all-time. The Searchers construct the meaning to the American Western audience through the incorporation of strong themes such as family unit, American identity, the opposition between civilization and the untamed contrast between the civilized and wilderness (Ellis, 2017). The director of this particular film has used the saddest emotions to capture the audience's attention and bring the meaning of the themes within the film. Grief, the terror, lost love, and defiance has been used to capture the audience's attention.

The film displays historical significance about the captivity by capturing the imagination of the public. The Searchers film uses a different setting to show how captivity was practiced in the 17th century. Most people who practiced captivity was in 1800 were invading America in the 17th century (Ellis, 2017). The film explores how people were captured and taken to the wilderness resulting under challenging issues. The film also shows an aspect of psychological and personal tension that was involved.

The film justifies the conquest of the west through the creation of tension. The film displays how the native is capable of stealing and women from their land, and they have the right to conquer them and tame them to prevent any type of captivity (Ellis, 2017). The film explores American history through the focusing of psychosexual and psychological tensions as well. For instance, it shows how women who were captured were sexually abused. Generally, the film captures the captivity themes in a great way.

The Searchers film displayed uncommon historical background that the Native Americans were not used to. The tribes of the Native Americans were depicted in this particular film by exploring the violent towards the white man who has occurred quite for a long time. The historical aspect is represented through the fiction of the film. The film displays the nomadic warriors in Texas living a tough life with low scarce resources and low birth rates. The warrior culture had horses that were labor-intensive. The film also shows the war that took place in Texas, where people were fighting for American soil. In this historical context, the film displays horrifying events in various ways, which brings out the incredible cruelty-the historical significance of the film display significant events of the Native American culture that were uncommon.

Socio-Cultural Context

The film's social, cultural context is based on Western history that reflects movements and social events. Ford incorporates the social, cultural issues in a way that they coincide with the film production. The Searchers film displays these that greatly explore social issues such as racism, kingship, and miscegenation. The film gives a simplistic and oblique way of the exploitation of social culture in the west. The film shows how the borderland interactions were underdeveloped between the competing societies due to racism. There are multiple races displayed in the movie, such as White, Indians, Mexicans, and Asians immigrants and migrants (Ellis, 2017). The Searchers film shows how the multicultural aspect in western society created great opportunities for most of the races to mix posing greater challenges due to racial boundaries set. The Searchers film social, cultural context is based on American country describing several ethnic different cultures within the American Western culture.

The film investigates racism through significant themes of sexual mixing, miscegenation among the nonwhite and white races. The film gets deeper into examining the variety of racial mixture in South-west and Texas that represents western society culture. Issues such as cultural, tribal, and linguistic differences are developed in the film. The film director has worked to achieve a certain social, cultural context that is based on multicultural races in American western history. The specific audience that the film focuses on is the American west to display the native life and events as they occurred. The Searchers film represents American culture specifically.

Narrative

The film storyline is constructed according to a novel that was written from a true-life story. The story is told through the use of visual poetry, making it one of the best films. Ford has incorporated unsetting and deep emotions to tell the story. The story revolves around the family life and domestic interiors intimacy to the terrible beauty of sandstone cathedrals in monument valley. The film is based on a novel that was written by Alan Lemay. The film is organized by a plot that allows the audience to understand the storyline (Ellis, 2017). The plot of The Searchers film is quite complex, as illustrated by Ford through the incorporation of vivid- subplots. Ford has achieved a complex plan through the use of non-verbal, primarily theatrical methods such as music, symbolism, and cinematic devices. The director's actions are mainly meant to pose questions to the audience within the opening scenes based on the traditional idea of an American hero, which distinguishes the film from other western films.

Arguments are also used as some of the principles in structuring the story in this particular film. Arguments are used to show the racial mixtures of different cultures within the movie in western cultures. The nature of our engagement with the story is quite interesting since the director has incorporated theatrical aspects such as characters, plot, and storyline, among others, that makes the story more interesting.

Film Language and Representation

The issues and characters are represented in a simpler way, which makes the audience understand the story easily. The topics and characters are presented through visual motion pictures based on the cinematic aspect of the film. This style affects the performance of the film and acting as well. The director has also incorporated the lighting aspect that enables the audience to understand the scenes clearly. The lighting aspect also brings out the mood of the film (Duncan 2018). The sound and music incorporated in this film connect scenes and created mood within the storyline. The set design and location show the actual storyline as per the novel written by Alan. The technical elements of production in films are well incorporated, making the film beautiful.

Conclusion

The Searchers film is a cinematic classic that achieved the best, most influential, and most admired film during those days. The Searchers is an American film produced in 1956 and was based on a novel written in 1954 by Alan May. The film constructs the meaning to the American Western audience through the incorporation of strong themes such as family unit, American identity, the opposition between civilization and the untamed contrast between the civilized and wilderness. The film explores how people were captured and taken to the nature resulting under challenging issues. The film explores American history through the focusing of psychosexual and psychological tensions as well. The film gives a simplistic and oblique way of the exploitation of social culture in the west. The film director has worked to achieve a certain social, cultural context that is based on multicultural races in American western history.

References

Duncan, P. (2018). Lights, Camera, Lumino-Politics: Lighting The Searchers, from Paraffin to LED. Film-Philosophy, 22(2), 184-202. https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/film.2018.0072

Ellis, R. (2017). 'I've seen him take his knife...': The Searchers (1956). Film Moments: Criticism, History, Theory, 98.