HUM 3280: Narrative Film
Dr. Perdigao
Fall 2015
Film Response #8
DUE: Friday, October 23rd
in hard copy and to Canvas
Choose one of the following questions and construct a 1-2 page (250-500 word) typed
response. It is not a formal essay but it should demonstrate your knowledge of the
texts, both the films and the critical texts on film. Make sure that you do not
approach this as a film review; instead, construct an argument about the film, its
composition, from individual shots to editing, its historical and cultural contexts,
and/or its placement in the history of film, its relationship to other films.
1. Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White write that one of the remarkable aspects
of The Searchers is the film’s refusal to show the relationship between Debbie
and Scar and ask “why is it not more directly addressed by the diegesis?”
(Corrigan and White 260). In addition to the omission of the representation of
this relationship, the representation of the family’s bodies is withheld; in fact,
Ethan prevents others from seeing them and knowing what he exactly saw.
While much of film analysis is analyzing what is depicted onscreen,
significance can be found it what is missing as well. Construct an argument
about how The Searchers plays with revealing and concealing its narrative.
How does The Searchers leave the viewer searching for clues, for meaning?
2. Corrigan and White write that “the home lost at the beginning is figuratively
restored at the end, although both these homes/houses are, somewhat
disturbingly, associated with a darkened doorway” (261). How is the home
depicted within the film? How does the film redefine a sense of American
identity and the American home during this period—both the 1868 of its
setting and 1956? What resolution does The Searchers offer to some of these
issues? Consider the film’s representations as well as its contexts. You might
reflect on the use of windows and doors in Citizen Kane that frame the shots
and the narrative.
3. The Searchers complicates notions of heroism in a post-Civil War world.
While it is set in 1868, it was released in 1956. How does the film’s
representation of heroism reflect its historical moment? How does the idea of
heroism represented within the film connect with or depart from what we see
in Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and Rear Window? Discuss the film in
relation to its contexts but draw on its visual elements as well.