Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Color Blue: A structural analysis of The Searchers
Gilberto Perez once quoted, “criticism is the eye that perceives, the mind that apprehends and the sensibility that takes in the actual work of art” (Perez, 4). When criticizing the color blue in John Ford’s The Searchers, one can see the parallels between the color, the characters and their relationships to the film through the color blue. Between the style, the story and the actual color, blue is captivated in The Searchers on a different scale as the actual film itself. According to David Bordwell’s “Principles of Narration,” film technique is “customarily used to perform syuzhet tasks—providing information, cueing hypotheses, and so forth” (Bordwell, 52). With this theory, one may look more into depth about why the color blue adds more information to the story line.
Blue can symbolize many things including calmness, tranquility, or peace. However, in the case of The Searchers, the color blue offers so much more. If one was to look at the costumes used in the opening sequence of the film, they would notice that only three characters are wearing the color blue: Martha, Ethan and Debbie. It makes for an interesting notion of why these three characters are connected. As the film rolls on, the audience picks up a feeling of an old relationship between Martha and Ethan through gestures and looks. Perhaps this connection is also illustrated by the color blue in their costumes. But, wouldn’t that mean that Debbie was connected with them as well, possibly being their love child? Roland Barthes once spoke about a “third meaning” hidden in films that lie “beyond denotation and connotation: the realm in which causal lines, colors, expressions, and textures become the ‘fellow travelers of the story” (Bordwell 53). More to the point, Barthes is describing how this use of the color blue can relate all three characters, whether our conscious mind picks it up at first. At the end of the film, when Ethan finally returns Debbie to her new home, Mrs. Jorgensen is also wearing blue, symbolizing her almost taking Martha’s motherly role over Debbie. It does not however in this scene, symbolize any love for Ethan, unlike the first scene with Martha. Furthermore, once Martin and Ethan find Debbie with the Comanche, she is wearing a long purplish-blue skirt. So, it is almost as if she is still trying to hang onto the life she once lead. In the film, Natalie Wood says, “I remember, from always. At first I prayed to you to come and get me, take me home. You didn't come.” The purple skirt she wore may have been something she related with to home while she was waiting for Martin and Ethan to rescue her. More so, the purple skirt may have had a factor in the scene in which Ethan finally catches Debbie and lifts her up, before realizing who she really is. Lesley Stern’s article, “A Glitter of Putrescence” puts this into perspective, describing how “the lifting gesture, which seems almost involuntary, recalls the moment inside the home long ago when he lifter the child Debbie into his arms” (Stern, 37). Lastly, when looking through the costumes in the film to see how they are connected to the characters, one may look at Laurie’s blue dress in the scene where she gets the letter from Martin. This dress may be a bit of foreshadowing, in the sense that later on she ends up with Martin, who is connected with the Martha, Ethan, and Debbie triangle. It may also be a sight into the future in which her mother takes in Debbie as her our daughter, so the Jorgensens would be Debbie’s new family. Basically, these costumes worn by the characters are a great help in realizing the purpose of the film as a whole.
Throughout The Searchers, the color blue showed up in numerous ways, other than in wardrobe. For instance, Martha owned a set of nice looking, fancy blue dishes, in which brings up questions of her having another life. Did she possibly lead a richer life earlier on? The dishes just didn’t seem to necessarily fit; perhaps it was from the life she shared with Ethan. Additionally, as we follow Ethan and Martin in their quest to rescue Debbie, Ethan is often shown wearing a blue handkerchief around his neck. It’s almost as if he wanted to bring a piece of Martha with him as he looked for Debbie, or their possible child.
Moreover, during the scene after Ethan discovers the Edward house had burnt down; he discovers a blue dress, picks it up and looks at the doorframe of the shed. Immediately, the audience knows that something bad happened to Martha, even without being told. Ethan also finds Debbie’s doll that also wears a blue dress similar to Debbie and Martha’s dresses, and picks it up just as he did with Martha’s blue dress, very carefully and longingly. This notion goes back to the triangle between those three characters and how they are related to one another. Tracing back to when Martin arrives at this horrid scene, the camera shows a close up on Martin’s reaction to the fire and one can pick out his blue eyes amongst the blue sky background, connecting him to Martha, who was like a mother to him. It’s also amazing to see when Ethan exits the house, yelling for Martha. He is covered in a blue smoke. All of these uses of blue by Ford greatly influence the style of the film without having to say certain things.
So how does style relate to the use of the color blue in The Searchers? Well, according to David Bordwell, style “simply names the film’s systematic use of cinematic devices,” including costuming, colors, etc. to pair it with the fabula, or the story, in order to create an interesting film. While style uses different cinematic techniques such as mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, imagery, and sound to create a stylistic film, the fabula embodies the plot to establish “a chronological, cause-and-effect chain of events occurring within a given duration and a spatial field” (Bordwell, 49). Little things, like the color blue can really add to the scene and is a way for the director to add extra things to the plot without bluntly displaying it in the film.
Now, if one was to focus on color and its specific relation to the film, one could look into Christian Keathley’s article, “Five Cinephiliac Anecdotes.” Keathley illustrates the power of color, especially when he talks about another one of Natalie Wood’s roles as Judy in Rebel without a Cause. One section from the article reads, “The viewer’s eye is unavoidably drawn to the bright, glossy, red lipstick she is wearing, the redness of which is all the more heightened by its proximity to her red overcoat” (Keathley, 168). Here, director Nicholas Ray uses the color red to visually draw the viewer to the character for some odd reason. In this case, Judy is having problems with her father and tells the police how she was wearing red lipstick and he didn’t like it. “I thought he’d rub off my lips,” she exclaimed (168). So at this point in the film, one could pair the color red with Judy’s nonexistent relationship with her father. A simple color, such as red, shows us the real family dysfunction and her desire for her father’s attention and love. The red lips also show up later in the film, especially after James Dean’s character, Jim, returns Judy her compact case, so now she can fix her lipstick again and he sort of became more of the father figure to Judy. However, the color red arises again throughout the film with Jim’s red jacket. Ray uses this red jacket to convey “anger, fury, violence; enveloped in love, their hope expresses itself as connection, passion and tenderness” (172). For example, in Rebel without a Cause, Jim’s red jacket showed a sense of violence, in which we wore it when fighting with knives with Buzz and later on, after the shooting of Plato, to cover up his body. All of these tactics Ray uses to show the influence of color in relation to the characters and their conflicts works really well overall.
Another theory that can be brought into play when observing the color blue in The Searchers is the idea of identification. Identification can be defined as “a commonality, something shared in common or believed to be so shared,” or, for example, the commonality between the color blue and certain characters. It may also change the way we connect with the characters’ themselves. For instance, in Gilberto Perez’s article, “Toward a Rhetoric of a Film: Identification and the Spectator,” he describes young lovers being shown in a meadow on a nice day with beautiful weather and incredible landscaping. Perez then goes on to say that in most cases, the young lovers were to be identified with nature (Perez, 59). In The Searchers Martha, Ethan and Debbie, among other characters are paired with the color blue to establish a certain family-like feel. Continuing on, Perez illustrates how there are two forms of identification, “sympathy and empathy, feeling for and feeling with” (63). In the scene where the Edward’s house has burnt down, it would not have made such an impact on the audience, had the color of the dress that Ethan picked up be yellow, or red. However, at this point in the film, the viewer may subconsciously note the connection with the blue color scheme. With sympathy, we are more connected with Martin’s character as he arrives on the scene and sees his family’s house in flames. The blue color of his eyes conveys many emotions, in which the viewer can’t help but feel for him.
In conclusion, Ford’s incredible use of the color blue in The Searchers proves to help out the film visually, mentally and structurally. Everything from Martha’s blue china to Martin’s blue eyes to Ethan’s blue handkerchief relate to one another and set the film at a different level. This critique brings forth the notion of the impact of color and is beautifully displayed in The Searchers.
Blue can symbolize many things including calmness, tranquility, or peace. However, in the case of The Searchers, the color blue offers so much more. If one was to look at the costumes used in the opening sequence of the film, they would notice that only three characters are wearing the color blue: Martha, Ethan and Debbie. It makes for an interesting notion of why these three characters are connected. As the film rolls on, the audience picks up a feeling of an old relationship between Martha and Ethan through gestures and looks. Perhaps this connection is also illustrated by the color blue in their costumes. But, wouldn’t that mean that Debbie was connected with them as well, possibly being their love child? Roland Barthes once spoke about a “third meaning” hidden in films that lie “beyond denotation and connotation: the realm in which causal lines, colors, expressions, and textures become the ‘fellow travelers of the story” (Bordwell 53). More to the point, Barthes is describing how this use of the color blue can relate all three characters, whether our conscious mind picks it up at first. At the end of the film, when Ethan finally returns Debbie to her new home, Mrs. Jorgensen is also wearing blue, symbolizing her almost taking Martha’s motherly role over Debbie. It does not however in this scene, symbolize any love for Ethan, unlike the first scene with Martha. Furthermore, once Martin and Ethan find Debbie with the Comanche, she is wearing a long purplish-blue skirt. So, it is almost as if she is still trying to hang onto the life she once lead. In the film, Natalie Wood says, “I remember, from always. At first I prayed to you to come and get me, take me home. You didn't come.” The purple skirt she wore may have been something she related with to home while she was waiting for Martin and Ethan to rescue her. More so, the purple skirt may have had a factor in the scene in which Ethan finally catches Debbie and lifts her up, before realizing who she really is. Lesley Stern’s article, “A Glitter of Putrescence” puts this into perspective, describing how “the lifting gesture, which seems almost involuntary, recalls the moment inside the home long ago when he lifter the child Debbie into his arms” (Stern, 37). Lastly, when looking through the costumes in the film to see how they are connected to the characters, one may look at Laurie’s blue dress in the scene where she gets the letter from Martin. This dress may be a bit of foreshadowing, in the sense that later on she ends up with Martin, who is connected with the Martha, Ethan, and Debbie triangle. It may also be a sight into the future in which her mother takes in Debbie as her our daughter, so the Jorgensens would be Debbie’s new family. Basically, these costumes worn by the characters are a great help in realizing the purpose of the film as a whole.
Throughout The Searchers, the color blue showed up in numerous ways, other than in wardrobe. For instance, Martha owned a set of nice looking, fancy blue dishes, in which brings up questions of her having another life. Did she possibly lead a richer life earlier on? The dishes just didn’t seem to necessarily fit; perhaps it was from the life she shared with Ethan. Additionally, as we follow Ethan and Martin in their quest to rescue Debbie, Ethan is often shown wearing a blue handkerchief around his neck. It’s almost as if he wanted to bring a piece of Martha with him as he looked for Debbie, or their possible child.
Moreover, during the scene after Ethan discovers the Edward house had burnt down; he discovers a blue dress, picks it up and looks at the doorframe of the shed. Immediately, the audience knows that something bad happened to Martha, even without being told. Ethan also finds Debbie’s doll that also wears a blue dress similar to Debbie and Martha’s dresses, and picks it up just as he did with Martha’s blue dress, very carefully and longingly. This notion goes back to the triangle between those three characters and how they are related to one another. Tracing back to when Martin arrives at this horrid scene, the camera shows a close up on Martin’s reaction to the fire and one can pick out his blue eyes amongst the blue sky background, connecting him to Martha, who was like a mother to him. It’s also amazing to see when Ethan exits the house, yelling for Martha. He is covered in a blue smoke. All of these uses of blue by Ford greatly influence the style of the film without having to say certain things.
So how does style relate to the use of the color blue in The Searchers? Well, according to David Bordwell, style “simply names the film’s systematic use of cinematic devices,” including costuming, colors, etc. to pair it with the fabula, or the story, in order to create an interesting film. While style uses different cinematic techniques such as mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, imagery, and sound to create a stylistic film, the fabula embodies the plot to establish “a chronological, cause-and-effect chain of events occurring within a given duration and a spatial field” (Bordwell, 49). Little things, like the color blue can really add to the scene and is a way for the director to add extra things to the plot without bluntly displaying it in the film.
Now, if one was to focus on color and its specific relation to the film, one could look into Christian Keathley’s article, “Five Cinephiliac Anecdotes.” Keathley illustrates the power of color, especially when he talks about another one of Natalie Wood’s roles as Judy in Rebel without a Cause. One section from the article reads, “The viewer’s eye is unavoidably drawn to the bright, glossy, red lipstick she is wearing, the redness of which is all the more heightened by its proximity to her red overcoat” (Keathley, 168). Here, director Nicholas Ray uses the color red to visually draw the viewer to the character for some odd reason. In this case, Judy is having problems with her father and tells the police how she was wearing red lipstick and he didn’t like it. “I thought he’d rub off my lips,” she exclaimed (168). So at this point in the film, one could pair the color red with Judy’s nonexistent relationship with her father. A simple color, such as red, shows us the real family dysfunction and her desire for her father’s attention and love. The red lips also show up later in the film, especially after James Dean’s character, Jim, returns Judy her compact case, so now she can fix her lipstick again and he sort of became more of the father figure to Judy. However, the color red arises again throughout the film with Jim’s red jacket. Ray uses this red jacket to convey “anger, fury, violence; enveloped in love, their hope expresses itself as connection, passion and tenderness” (172). For example, in Rebel without a Cause, Jim’s red jacket showed a sense of violence, in which we wore it when fighting with knives with Buzz and later on, after the shooting of Plato, to cover up his body. All of these tactics Ray uses to show the influence of color in relation to the characters and their conflicts works really well overall.
Another theory that can be brought into play when observing the color blue in The Searchers is the idea of identification. Identification can be defined as “a commonality, something shared in common or believed to be so shared,” or, for example, the commonality between the color blue and certain characters. It may also change the way we connect with the characters’ themselves. For instance, in Gilberto Perez’s article, “Toward a Rhetoric of a Film: Identification and the Spectator,” he describes young lovers being shown in a meadow on a nice day with beautiful weather and incredible landscaping. Perez then goes on to say that in most cases, the young lovers were to be identified with nature (Perez, 59). In The Searchers Martha, Ethan and Debbie, among other characters are paired with the color blue to establish a certain family-like feel. Continuing on, Perez illustrates how there are two forms of identification, “sympathy and empathy, feeling for and feeling with” (63). In the scene where the Edward’s house has burnt down, it would not have made such an impact on the audience, had the color of the dress that Ethan picked up be yellow, or red. However, at this point in the film, the viewer may subconsciously note the connection with the blue color scheme. With sympathy, we are more connected with Martin’s character as he arrives on the scene and sees his family’s house in flames. The blue color of his eyes conveys many emotions, in which the viewer can’t help but feel for him.
In conclusion, Ford’s incredible use of the color blue in The Searchers proves to help out the film visually, mentally and structurally. Everything from Martha’s blue china to Martin’s blue eyes to Ethan’s blue handkerchief relate to one another and set the film at a different level. This critique brings forth the notion of the impact of color and is beautifully displayed in The Searchers.
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