Doing a little research at lunch today, I came across this image from The Searchers (1956). Wow.
You know that whole “picture’s worth a thousand words” thing? You’re looking at it.
It enlarges (a lot) when you click on it — making it 2,000 words worth.
It’s got the drama, that shot, of those moments in silent films when the actors carried the story or the major beat in a single shot. That comes from Ford’s silent film work, I think. There’s a similar shot in McClintock!, in a scene I dearly love, when Wayne is telling his daughter about her inheritance. There’s a good deal more dialogue, but it’s a fine piece of work.
Having dinner in a restaurant yesterday, the young waiter said he was studying film at ASU. I told him to get out of Phoenix. He told me he’s had to watch The Searchers three or four times in different classes, said it like a joke. Started quoting the teacher about Ford’s “door frame” shots. I got a chill, thinking about how a teacher, even a well-intentioned one, can poison the well. I told him that film classes weren’t always the best place to see great films, that sometimes they need to be discovered, seen almost by accident. Of course these days you can only discover great movies on big screen TV’s or in classes, since repertory cinema houses are nearly extinct. I’m not a good old days kind of guy, but the good/bad news is, you can see just about any movie you want, any time you want.
I’m hoping that the kid will see The Searchers someday and that the chatter of the lectures will have faded so that he can view it with some degree of revelation. I wonder how many 101 film classes have permanently doused the joy of Citizen Kane for the students. I’ve always wanted to teach a class that was about 75% crap pictures, 25% classics.
I’ve been noticing how important silent techniques are to Ford’s sound pictures. Those stories of him axing dialogue start to make a lotta sense. Case in point: Ward Bond drinking coffee in Wayne’s brother’s house as the posse gets ready to head out. That 20 seconds or so say more that five pages of dialogue.
That “poison the well” thing is a very good point. Discovery vs. assignment makes quite a difference. I also think it’s better to like something as a Movie first, then look at it as a Film.
The Searchers is a good example. As a kid, it was just one of Wayne’s best, and a helluva lot more hard-hitting and dark than all the others I’d seen. The more I saw it, the more I liked it. Then I hit high school and started looking at books on film (with a capital F) — and there it was.
We’ve been lucky here lately. Last weekend, a theater here ran My Darling Clementine. And tomorrow night, It Came From Outer Space is playing in 3-D. I’m thinking about taking my daughter to that one.
I had a great professor at IU, James Naremore, who showed movies like Trouble In Paradise and Only Angels Have Wings, and his love for these pictures made a difference. It helped also that I started school after I’d already lived in NYC for a couple of years first, where unemployment compensation made it possible for me to spend my afternoons going to double-bill repertory movie houses. I’d have to say that Andrew Sarris, in the Village Voice, was my proxy professor while I was living there, and his entry on Ford in The American Cinema opened a window for me on The Searchers, when he cited the scene you mention. I’m going to quote the passage:
‘There is a fantastic sequence in The Searchers involving a brash frontier character Played by Ward Bond. Bond is drinking some coffee in a standing-up position before going out to hunt some Comanches. He glances toward one of the bedrooms, and notices the woman of the house tenderly caressing the army uniform of her husband’s brother. Ford cuts back to a full-faced shot of Bond drinking his coffee, his eyes tactfully averted from the intimate scene he has witnessed. Nothing on earth would ever force this man to reveal what he had seen. There is a deep, subtle chivalry at work here, and in most of Ford’s films, but it is never obtrusive enough to interfere with the flow of the narrative. The delicacy of emotion expressed here in three quick shots, perfectly shot, cut, framed and distanced, would completely escape the dulled perception of our more literary-minded critics, even if they deigned to consider a despised genre like the Western.”
I haven’t read that in years, but it’s still strong. He’s wrong only in one regard: Ford cuts back to the same shot of Bond–there’s nothing like a closeup, but it’s understandable that he would remember it that way.
When you watch the entire opening of The Searchers, the history between Ethan and his sister-in-law is very very obvious, in her face, watching him arrive, and in his.
He’s dead on. Thanks a million for putting that up here.
That’s one of my favorite, and I think one of the most effective, scenes ever shot. That Ford could vacuum-pack so much character information into a few simple shots just blows me away. It’s the perfect Ford Moment.
Of course, the actors he was working with knew their craft, and that sure helps.
In certain places, I think Peckinpah accomplished the same thing. Some stuff in High Country. Those glances from man to man in The Wild Bunch. And a lot of stuff in Junior Bonner.
You know, it’s easy to see why Allan Dwan thought the switch to sound really hurt the art of pictures.
Sarris’ remark, “…a despised genre like the Western,” breaks my heart, But, of course, he’s probably right. All this makes me realize I need to dig out my copy of that book. That’s the one with the red and blue strips of film across the front, right?
Not really related, but anyway — have you seen Joe McNeill’s Arizona’s Little Hollywood book? I keep hearing it’s incredible.
Sarris’ book cover looks different than it did back when. I must gave chewed through three or more copies; it was a kind of bible for me.
As for despised, Sarris wrote that in the early sixties when the Western had really saturated the market. Nobody hates the Western anymore, do they?
Are you seeing Jonah Hex? And have you looked into Red Dead Redemption?
I don’t think people hate Westerns anymore. But I think the genre’s got the same problem horror movies have always had. There are so many of them, and a bunch of them are junk, so it’s really easy for the great ones to be passed over — probably why The Searchers didn’t get its due till into the 70s, after Sarris and others held it up as something.
I used to read Jonah Hex comics. But I really hate what constitutes a comic book movie anymore, so I’m a little scared of it — until I hear from somebody I’d trust (like you).
I’ve seen all the Red Dead Redemption ads and stuff and it sure looks cool. It’s about time they did a big fat Western game.
Another great, late 50’s Western with a “silent” memorable scene for me has always been the opening scene of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (another John Wayne film.) The pitiful look and head gesture Wayne shoots at Dean Martin when he grabs his arm to break up the fight…. always sends chills down my spine. Just seconds into the film you just know there is a huge history between those two guys.
Absolutely!
That POV shot as Wayne looks down at Dean is great. There’s an interview someplace where Hawks inventories all the character and plot points packed into those first few minutes. Those guys sure knew what they were doing.
I stuck a single frame from The Searchers on here — one frame! — and we can all riff on it for hours and hours. How cool is that?
I love Rio Bravo, but the more often I see it the more painful it is to watch Dean Martin’s incessant whinging. Angie Dickinson gets on my nerves too, but it’s not her fault.
That’s something Hawks fixed in the next one, which is, at least, a far more picturesque movie. I’ve always like Dean Martin, but Mitchum is one of the few guys who could stand belly-to-belly with Wayne.
I don’t know if anyone has ever suggested that El Dorado was not so much a re-thinking of Rio Bravo as a serious fine-tuning, but I think Hawks was eager to use the same elements but to also eliminate everything that annoyed him about the first picture.
I like remembering that Hawks was coming off a bad spell when he made Rio Bravo and more than anything else he wanted a surefire hit to get the taste of Land Of The Pharoahs out of his gullet.
I’m also having a bit of a struggle these days with Walter Brennan, because I think he’s one of the greatest purely instinctive character actors to ever set foot on earth, but his politics, which were vile beyond all measure, are tripping up my enjoyment of his talent. Having said that, it adds a lot to his villainy in My Darling Clementine, and my always growing appreciation for the picture. I wish I could say the same for Victor Mature, but, again, it really isn’t his fault.
The Rio Bravo/El Dorado debate is the Western film equivalent of The Beatles vs. The Stones. You can’t ever be wrong.
I’m in awe of both films. Rio Bravo remains my favorite Western, though I don’t think it’s the best (we’ve covered that one already today). There are individual scenes in it that continue to knock me out. As someone else said somewhere (maybe Quentin Tarantino), watching it’s like visiting old friends.
I think Hawks tried harder with Rio Bravo — there was more at stake. With El Dorado, Hawks had his confidence back. It feels completely effortless. I like your fine-tune idea. Plus, watching both films, it’s obvious they were having a good time making them.
And you’re right, Mitchum can hang with Wayne in a way no one else really could. (Lee Marvin comes close.)
The hoss wayne rubs down because without grain,water and rubdown,they’ll bottom out I have seen robert stack,rory calhoun and john dehner ride.But this is this old pony’s ultimate role.Jimmy stewart rode pie for twenty years,but he may best be remembered for carrying yul brynner down into mexico to shoo away some pesky flys in the magnificent 7.Now back to that sorrel horse duke is rubbing.Wayne rode him in searchers,the horse soldiers and liberty valance.All ford films.In between is hondo,rio bravo,the alamo,the comancheros,north to alaska.But not duke’s searcher’s horse.It is obvious that ford told wayne what horse he would be riding.That charge through the village at the end of the searchers with duke’s galloping running insert is the fastest wayne ever rode a horse.Wayne could have rode later in his career just as fast,but pappy controlled how fast duke had to charge.One stumble at that speed and duke would have been history.Duke stuck to tender gentle lopes in the 60s and 70s.Ford had the power.Without pappy around,duke kept the speed of his rides under control.I notice horses in westerns the way others scutinise locations,wardrobe,women or weapons.I leave in two weeks for california to play a bordelo henchman in a spaghetti style western starring brett halsey and dan van husen.I’ll bet I’m not handed the reins to a horse like pappy picked out for duke though.