Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-The Searchers

 

We missed "The Searchers" at the TCM Film Festival this year because it was opposite to "Chinatown". I am so thankful that Steven Jannise and the Paramount Programmed it for their 70mm week, because that was the format we missed when we were in Los Angeles. This iconic western has one of the all time great John Wayne performances, and it is another of his many collaborations with the great John Ford.

Ethan Edwards (Wayne) is a returning Civil War vet, from the losing side, who reconnects with his brother's family in Texas. Ethan is a hard case in regard to an adopted nephew, who has some of the Native American blood that ran through the veins of the Indians who killed Ethan's parents. Marty, has been considered a brother and son to Aaron and Martha and their children. Marty is played by Jeffrey Hunter, who I knew best as Captain Christopher Pike in the pilot for Star Trek. His easy going manner and sincerity become a counterpoint to Ethan during the film. Ethan is wise and sly and plays his cards close to the vest. Like Sonny Corleone, Marty sometimes lets people outside of the family know what he is thinking, resulting in complications. 

The thing they are searching for is the remaining sister of the family, everyone else having been slaughtered in an Indian raid while Ethan and Marty were with a posse pursuing a false lead. The young Debbie has been taken by a Chief they learn is named "Scar", and for five years, they pursue rumors, stories and tips about the white girl and the Indian Chief who has taken her into his tribe. Wayne's performance is frequently grim for several plot related reasons. It is strongly suggested that he carried a torch for his sister-in-law, and one of the reasons he was slow to return after the was was this unstated love. It also appears that he has been a bit of a tough guy on the trail, maybe benefiting from some less than savory means of making a living, although he does seem to have a code which would preclude anything we might thing of as unethical.

Most of the movie is filmed in Monument Valley and it looks spectacular in color. Ford seemed to really love that part of the country and made it the backdrop in several of his films. The hostility of the Indian tribes is not the only problem that Ethan and Marty face on the trail. In addition to inclement weather, they encounter bushwhacking merchants, overzealous Texas Rangers and domestic conflict at home. It seems that Mary and Laurie, from the neighboring homestead, have a less than well defined romantic relationship. Each of them finds themselves involved with a different partner that they truly don't want.  There is a lot of humor in the film, and most of it comes from their tempestuous long distance love affair.

Ethan and Marty are also at cross purposes in regard to Debbie. Both of them want to save her from captivity and sexual slavery as one of Scar's wives, but they have completely different ideas about what that means. Ethan's bitterness at the loss of his family drives hatred toward the Indians and their path. There are two or three action sequences where a fight between the Searchers and Indian warriors take place. Ethan is in his natural environment in those moments.  He lets his hatred overcome him when plotting against Scar. Marty is the hopeful optimist who wants to reunite his sister with the homelife that he knows. The main conflict in the end is between he and Ethan and also Ethan's inner selves. At the resolution, Ethan remains an outsider, in spite of the ultimate decision he makes.This is a deep thought western, not just a shoot'em up. So glad to see it on the big screen and in 70 mm.

The Quiet Man

 

I'm not sure there is a better way for a teetotaler like me to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than to spend two hours immersed in Irish  countryside with two great stars of the past. Skip the Blarney Stone and shamrocks, give me John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in John Ford's "The Quiet Man" and I will feel like I have been transported to Ireland for a short time on this day.

John Wayne was the biggest star in movies for years and that is in large part due to his many appearances in Westerns. He made other types of films as well, War Movies, Historical Dramas but undoubtedly, his greatest  role outside of the oaters was as Sean Thornton, in this 1950 classic which is basically a romantic comedy. Paired with Maureen O'Hara for the second of their five on-screen performances, the two of them really manage to convey sexual chemistry in an otherwise staid setting. There is a moment when they are trapped by the rain in a ruin of a church, where she accepts his jacket for warmth and his white shirt clings to him as it gets wet, she seems to be doing the same thing.

While the romance is supplied by Wayne and O'Hara, the comedy is supplied by the cast of supporting players in a variety of ways. Barry Fitzgerald as Michaleen Oge Flynn, cabbie and matchmaker, has a dozen wisecracks that will make you smile and a sly take on all the romantic goings on. Ward Bond, Mildred Natwick and Victor McLagen all provide moments of laughter as well, and the dozens of townsfolk all add in their two cents here and there. It's certainly not politically correct but it is funny when a local woman provides Sean Thornton with a stick that he can use to beat his wife. As usual, context is king, so watch the scene before you judge. 

This really is a cultural journey as well into the country traditions of Irish courtship. One of the big conflicts concerns Sean's unwillingness to press the issue of Mary Kate's dowry payment. It is a big enough issue of face to her, that she refrains from the marital bed in spite of clearly longing for the physical presence of Sean. That it is resolved by her chucking the cash away after it has been obtained shows that the money was not the point but her status was. Of course no one other than the Protestant Minister knows the reason that Sean is reticent to raise a fist to his brother in law, and that probably contributes to the culture clash even more. An American audience would probably see the issue Sean's way, but he has to finally understand it from her perspective, which is what a real marriage is about anyway, and shows that they truly do belong together. 

John Ford won his fourth Oscar for Best director for this film and it is easy to see why. The romance, although nearly instantaneous in attraction, still plays out over the course of the film, letting us get to know the two characters really well.  There is just enough time with the townsfolk for them to be seen as charming rather than overbearing, and frankly the movie looks gorgeous. As Sean and Mary Kate escape their chaperone on a tandem bike and ride around the countryside, it is easy to see how someone could fall in love with a place and wish to be transported there. For the length of the film, that's what Ford manages to do, put us in the Ireland of our imagination and make us fall in love. Happy St. Patrick's Day all.