Director: John Ford
Writers: Frank Nugent from a novel by Alan LeMay
Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood
Karate Kid says: The movie was about a girl getting captured by Indians, and some guys go out and try to find her. I don’t generally like westerns, but this one was OK. I do like John Wayne; he’s an awesome actor.
Z-baby says: I fell asleep so I don’t remember much about it.
Mom says: I’m with KK: as Westerns go, it was OK. John Wayne’s character, Ethan Edwards is a Confederate soldier, returned to Texas after the Civil War, but unreconstructed and bitter. When his brother’s family is massacred by the Comanches, Edwards is consumed with revenge. He and Marty, an adopted son who escaped the massacre, spend years searching for Debbie, the little girl that the Indians captured and took with them instead of killing.
The representation of Native Americans in the movie was appalling. The Comanches in the movie were bloodthirsty, savage, and completely irredeemable. And if a person was captured by the Indians and not rescued quickly, that person also became “infected” with Indian ways and either ended a savage or a gibbering idiot. Throughout the movie Edwards is not really as interested in rescuing Debbie as much as he is out for revenge. He’s fairly sure Debbie is either dead or unsalvageable. We discussed this bigotry about Native Americans after watching the movie, but it was hard to get across the points that yes, Indian massacres did happen, but no, not all Native Americans were brutal inhuman barbarians.
Anthony Esolen says it may the best Western ever made. I must have missed something.