Jason Leavy
Professor Mirrer
Film Theoy
Novemeber 29,2012
The Western
The Searchers (1956)
Directed By John Ford
Western
Runtime: 119 Min
Written By Frank Nugent
Back To The Future Part III
Directed By Robert Zemeckis
Science Fiction/ Western
Runtime: 118 Min
Written by Robert Zemeckis
The Western genre
has been around for centuries and was very popular in the 50’s and 60’s. Today
a lot of directors and production companies have steered away from this style
of story telling. In 1960 the western was known to be one of the most popular
types of movies. Audiences around the world could not wait to see a western
this is very different to today’s societies. Good cowboy films now days are
very hard to find. People have to look back in history to discover one worthy
of watching. Two movies that successful executed this style of filmmaking are
The Searchers (1956); directed by John Ford, and believe it of not one that was
done quite recent Back to the Future Part III (1990); directed by Robert
Zemeckis. Both of this film compare in style and did an excellent job of
explaining what time was like before technology.
The Searchers (1956) is an American Western
film directed by John Ford,
based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May,
and set during the Texas–Indian
Wars. The film stars John Wayne as a
middle-aged Civil War
veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece, along with Jeffrey Hunter as his
adoptive nephew, who accompanies him.
This film is considered
by many to be a true American masterpiece of filmmaking, and the best, most
influential, and perhaps most-admired film of director John Ford. It was his
115th feature film, and he was already a four-time Best Director Oscar. The
film's complex, deeply nuanced themes included racism, individuality, the
American character, and the opposition between civilization and the untamed
frontier wilderness. On the other hand Back to the Future Part III (1990) was
a film that tried to duplicate they way westerns were done in the old days, and
it was very successful among audiences around the world. The film did something
very interesting that has never been done before. Zemeckis the director mixed
time travel, that is often inked to Science Fiction, and tied it up with
a western type setting. The film takes place immediately after
the events of Back to the Future Part II. While stranded in
1955, Marty McFly discovers that Biff Tannen’s great-grandfather Buford killed
his friend Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown. Marty decides to travel to 1885 to rescue
Doc and return to his own timeline. Both of these films compare and contrast in
many different ways. They are similar because that they both deal with the idea
of cowboys and gun fights. But they differ because one (Back To the Future) is
more of a “feel good film” meaning that it is comedic and does not have a whole
lot of violence. While in The Searchers (1956) there is a massive amount of racism and
violence. For example the protagonist of the film Ethan Edwards played by John
Wayne is a big time Raciest and show this throughout the film by showing his
hatred toward the Indians.
Several key
elements that relate from chapters in the book Looking At Movies that are quite obvious when viewing these two movies. For example the shots in both of these films were very
well done. There are a lot of cutting on action in the fighting sequences and
various amounts of establishing shots. Another element that was important in
the success of these two movies was the lighting. In The Searchers (1956) the
lighting was very low creating a sense of distance between the two characters
and the hardships of finding the niece. While in Back To The Future Part III (1990)
the lighting was very light to create the feeling of happiness and friendship. Finally
the last element that was important was the acting. Acting is one of the main
key components that can make or break a film. The acting in both films were
done beautifully. The characterization was one of the main reason both of these
movies were a major success.
When thinking about movies one automatically
questions what is the director trying to get across to his audiences. This is
when people go off and try to figure out the hidden meanings in a movie. This
is where the idea of film theory comes in. Now in both of these film it is very
hard to depict what theory the director wanted to imply. But the visual of
both of these movies indicate the Marxist Theory. One might ask what is the
Marxist theory and how is it applied to both The Searchers (1956) and Back To
The Future Part III (1990). Well first
off to understand how it is applied one must know the meaning, Marxist Theory is one of the oldest forms of film theory. Sergei Eisenstein and many
other Soviet
filmmakers in the 1920s
expressed ideas of Marxism
through film. In fact, the Hegelian dialectic was
considered best displayed in film editing
through the Kuleshov
Experiment and the development of montage.
While this structuralist
approach to Marxism and filmmaking was used, the more vociferous complaint that
the Russian filmmakers had was with the narrative structure of Hollywood filmmaking. Now how is
this applied to these two films? Well both of these movies display excellent
work of editing, camera angles and a strong narrative.
Critics around the world have had
nothing bad to say about these two films. For example Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Times stated ''The
Searchers contains scenes of magnificence, and one of John Wayne's
best performances. There are shots that are astonishingly beautiful.”
Throughout his critique of The Searchers (1956) he had nothing but kind words to say
about both Ford, and Wayne for there performances. While The Searchers (1956) was getting nothing less the high praise from
Ebert, so was Back To The Future Part III
(1990). "The Old West of "Back to the
Future Part III" Was very interesting it reminded me of the real Old West like the one I saw in "McCabe and Mrs.
Miller," said Ebert."
I feel that both of these movies did
a phenomenal job in executing the ideal western plot. Both films do it in two
very different ways but that is what makes them both interesting. Another thing
that I enjoyed is that how western movies progressed from the mid 1950’s to the
1990’s. I would give both of these films 4 out of five stars. The reason being
is that no film is perfect many have there flaws but people can not judge a
movie based on flaws or inaccuracies or else every movie would be cruddy.
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM
CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM
1) (Check) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.
2) (Check) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.
3) (Check) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.
4) (Check) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.
5) (Check) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.
6) (Check) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.
7) (Check) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.
8) (Check) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.
Name Jason Leavy
Work Cited
II. Ebert, Roger. "Back To The Future Part III :: Rogerebert.com :: Reviews." RSS. Chicago Times, 25 May 1990. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19900525/REVIEWS/5250301/1023>.
III. Ebert, Roger. "The Searchers :: Rogerebert.com :: Great Movies." RSS. Chicago Times, 25 Nov. 2001. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011125/REVIEWS08/111250301/1023>.
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