The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend - Hardcover

Frankel, Glenn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1608191052 ISBN 13: 9781608191055

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2013

Synopsis

New York Times Bestseller

Named one of the best books of the year by:
Parade
The Guardian
Kirkus
Library Journal

The true story behind the classic Western The Searchers by Pulitzer Prize-wining writer Glenn Frankel that the New York Times calls "A vivid, revelatory account of John Ford's 1956 masterpiece."

In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches. She was raised by the tribe and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years after her capture, she was reclaimed by the U.S. cavalry and Texas Rangers and restored to her white family, to die in misery and obscurity. Cynthia Ann's story has been told and re-told over generations to become a foundational American tale. The myth gave rise to operas and one-act plays, and in the 1950s to a novel by Alan LeMay, which would be adapted into one of Hollywood's most legendary films, The Searchers, "The Biggest, Roughest, Toughest... and Most Beautiful Picture Ever Made!" directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne.

Glenn Frankel, beginning in Hollywood and then returning to the origins of the story, creates a rich and nuanced anatomy of a timeless film and a quintessentially American myth. The dominant story that has emerged departs dramatically from documented history: it is of the inevitable triumph of white civilization, underpinned by anxiety about the sullying of white women by "savages." What makes John Ford's film so powerful, and so important, Frankel argues, is that it both upholds that myth and undermines it, baring the ambiguities surrounding race, sexuality, and violence in the settling of the West and the making of America.

About this title

Review:

Well researched. casts a haunting, harrowing spell. (Entertainment Weekly)

A gracefully presented narrative. A thoroughly researched, clearly written account of an obsessive search through the tangled borderland of fact and fiction, legend and myth (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

Riveting depiction.Frankel's retelling is a gripping portrayal of a mesmerizing period of American history. (Publisher's Weekly (starred review))

It was around this time that Leslie Fiedler published a slim volume making the case that 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' 'The Birth of a Nation,' 'Gone With The Wind' and 'Roots' could be read as a single, multi-media 'inadvertent epic' - a story about slavery, race and family that America gave to itself. As framed and enriched by Frankel, 'The Searchers' is another such epic; recounting the making of what he calls 'an American legend,' he has retold it well.a vivid, revelatory account of John Ford's 1956 masterpiece. (J. Hoberman The New York Times Book Review)

A must-read for film students, making-of fans, and students of American history. (Booklist)

An enjoyable book that will appeal to film historians/buffs as well as to those with an interest in Western history (Library Journal)

Impeccably researched.a fascinating journey from fiction to fact, from glorified legend to brutal event. (Washington Post)

A must-read for movie fans and anyone interested in mythmaking and the American West. Frankel's excellent research and analysis and his fine writing raise the bar for the 'making of' film book. His narrative details the life of a modern legend-in this case, a historical event that sparked a novel that led to a film, each step revealing a different aspect of how we tell our stories and why. (Douglass K. Daniel Associated Press)

Absorbing. a riveting account of the war for the American West. Frankel's superb book gives a fascinating historical and anecdotal account of how 'The Searchers' became a John Ford movie. (Saint Louis Post-Dispatch)

After meticulous research, Frankel restores a sense of history and balance to Parker's story. It's a nuanced, ambiguous portrayal of heroes and hypocrites, compassionate and sadistic warriors. (USA Today)

Book Description:

The true story behind the classic Western The Searchers-and the amazing history of that story, as it was transformed into an American myth.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1608191052
• ISBN 13: 9781608191055
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416