THE SEARCHERS directed by John Ford (USA, 1956)
John Wayne as Ethan Edwards
With his self-centred arrogance masquerading as heroic individualism, John Wayne symbolises all the negative qualities of the white American male.
His distrust of groups and team work make him the embodiment of the Republican party philosophy whereby co-operative values and compassion for minorities are regarded as tell-tale traits of commie sympathisers.
In The Searchers, as in all his movies, he is the archetype macho man with a past he never speaks of, emotions he keeps hidden and serious anger management issues. He hates taking orders, doesn’t feel the need to explain himself and never apologizes.
I suppose he’s not so far removed from the equally taciturn Clint Eastwood as ‘the man with no name’ in Sergio Leone’s masterpieces, but there’s a style and mystique around the spaghetti westerns that you don’t find in John Ford’s so-called ‘classics’. Continue reading
