Fords Western and Leones Western Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fords Western and Leones Western - Movie Review ExampleThis paper looks into two films individually The Searcher, directed by John Ford (1956), and Once upon a time in the west, directed by Sergio Leone (1968). It describes their mise-en scene and beyond, introduced first by their corresponding synopsis. A comparison is make at the end.Synopsis. Although filmed on Navajo land in northern Arizona, The Searchers, begins in 1868 Texas. Ethan Edwards (played by John Wayne), a soldier, returns to his br differents farm after the end of the Civil warfare where he fought for the Confederacy. It has taken Ethan three years to come home, after fighting on the losing side of the Civil War. Ethan is in love with his brothers wife, Martha, but unlike his brother, he is not the man to settle down and raise a family.In this film, Ethan Edwards is seeking the two nieces who were abducted during a Comanche raid, in which his brothers family is murdered. Finding the mutilated bodies of his family, Et han is guilt-ridden, feeling he was not there when he was needed. He thus becomes obsessed with recovering his two nieces and seeking revenge on the Comanche. This fanatic search provides the only rationale for Ethans life, and he is determined to succeed. Well finem just as sure as the turning of the earth, he says.Ethan is a bitter and lo... Ethan becomes more concerned with executing vengeance than with purpose her. During the search, when Ethan is asked, You wanna quit he angrily replies, Thatll be the day and he repeats this phrase many times in the course of the film. Theme. Based on a screenplay by Frank S. Nugent from the novel by Alan Le May, The Searchers deals with the winning of the West, the struggles between the invading White Man and the Native Americans, the Western Code of Honor, and old-fashioned determination vs. selfish, despiteful spite (Puccio, 2006). Ethan embodies the most important attributes of the Westerner individualism, self-sufficiency, strength, non- conformity, and loneliness. In this movie, Ethans solitariness is stressed visually. The film opens with a magnificent inside framing shot of a cabin door, opening up to high desert red sandstone formations and turquoise sky. Ethan appears out of nowhere, from the desert, and, at the end, after his mission is accomplished, Ethan returns to the desert. In the films last shot, Wayne stands alone, silhouetted in the doors frame, while other people pass around, ignoring his presence. A shot similar at the beginning bookends the film.In this film, Ford illustrates the outcomes of racism and Indian hating, a seeming eloquent recital in support of the Civil Rights movement (Puccio, 2006). Consider the following conversation -Brad (to Ethan, as they follow the Comanche) They gotta stop sometime if theyre human men at all, theyve gotta stop.Ethan A human rides a horse until it dies, and then goes on afoot. Comanch comes along, gets that horse up, rides him twenty more miles ... then eats hi m.Techniques. In the story, drawn away