The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend

by Glenn Frankel

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Film, Westerns, American History, Biography, Media Tie In

416 pages, Hardcover

First published February 19, 2013

About the author

As a boy growing boy up in Rochester, NY, I loved movies, especially Westerns and most especially John Ford's The Searchers. Everything about it thrilled and frightened me---most especially John Wayne's towering performance. I grew up to become a journalist and a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, and when I came back to the United States in 2006 I wanted to write a book about America. And what could be more American than The Searchers? The book did surprisingly well, and I found myself working in my own little sub-genre: books that combine the making of a classic film with a momentous era in American history. Next up was the making of High Noon and its connection to the Hollywood blacklist, a time of vicious rhetoric and false allegations not unlike our own troubled decade. Shooting Midnight Cowboy is my third: I’d always loved the movie---the only X-rated film ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture---and felt a personal connection: it was filmed largely in New York City in 1968, when I was a freshman at Columbia University. I feel very fortunate that after a wonderful career as a journalist and professor at Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin, I’m now finding an exciting new world to explore as an author.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reverend Clayton: You wanna quit, Ethan?
Ethan Edwards: That’ll be the day.
- Ward Bond and John Wayne in John Ford’s The Searchers

The film opens in darkness – and then a door opens out onto the endless, Technicolor plains. A woman steps out onto a porch and the camera follows, panning to the right. Over her shoulder, the camera catches a solitary rider heading towards the cabin – civilization – with the desolation and savagery of the frontier at his back. It is a perfect way to start a movie, encapsulating that old saw that every story begins with one of two events: a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes into town. Less than two hours later, the film ends with a mirror-twinned shot: a door closing on the plains, as a man walks away, back into the wilderness from which he’d come.

John Ford’s 1956 masterpiece The Searchers has many, many flaws. Shot in a hurry, there are numerous editing discrepancies and jarring cuts. The action scenes are bloodless and disjointed. (For instance, during a fight at a river between Texas Rangers and Comanche warriors, you hear a volley of shots while half-a-dozen Comanche pull back on their ponies and fall into a puddle of water. Unfortunately, at this point in the action, the Texas Rangers are still riding away from the Indians). The whole thing is shot in Monument Valley, which looks nothing like the Texas it’s supposed to be. (Monument Valley looks exactly like only one place: Monument Valley). There is also far too much of Ford’s patented cornpone humor.

Yet The Searchers is so good at what it does that you forget these things. It is a majestically lyrical film, with images that last long after the final reel. And it features one of the great acting performances in cinematic history, with John Wayne flipping his cowboy persona on its head to play the murderous, vengeful Ethan Edwards, an uncle obsessed with finding his niece (kidnapped by Comanche Indians) so that he can kill her for transgressing 19th century sexual mores.

(It is worth noting that Wayne made this attempt at deconstructing his persona long before Clint Eastwood turned deconstruction into a cottage industry).

Glenn Frankel’s The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend is the story of how that film came together. When I first heard about it, I expected the typical back-lot gossip: how a drunk John Ford managed to slur and stumble and insult his way through the shoot, leaving carnage in his wake and a gem up on the screen. And that didn't really interest me.

That’s why it’s important to note that when Frankel says “the making of an American legend,” he’s not just talking about a movie. To be sure, there is a lot about the movie in this book. How it was written, conceived, shot and edited. And it has a drunk, eye-patch-wearing John Ford. But it starts long before John Ford took his first drink, or John Wayne his first amble. Indeed, it begins long before they were born; long before film. It begins, of all places, in Texas, in 1836.

The first part of Frankel’s book is devoted to Cynthia Ann Parker. She was nine years old when she was kidnapped by the Comanche. She was raised by Indians, married the famous chief Peta Nocona and gave him three children. Meanwhile, her uncle – the forerunner of Ethan/Amos Edwards – began his quest to rescue her. He never succeeded. In 1860, however, future Texas governor Sul Ross massacred a Comanche encampment along the Pease River and recaptured Cynthia Ann. She was brought back to civilization against her will. She died a decade later, still pining for the life she left on the high plains.

Once Cynthia’s story ends, Frankel picks up the thread with her half-white, half-Indian son Quanah. Quanah Parker is among the most fascinating (and strangely neglected) Indian leaders in history. He was a fierce warrior and led the famous attack against the buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls. Yet more impressively, when the fighting ceased, he became a cultural bridge-builder. He rose to prominence and stature in both worlds. The man who’d once taken white scalps died in a big beautiful house.

To Frankel’s credit, I totally forgot about The Searchers in these early chapters. He provides a clear, engaging, readable history of this era, utilizing and synthesizing a variety of sources. The Comanche-Texas conflicts were among the most brutal in the brutal history of America’s Indian Wars. Frankel brings poise and balance to this stark tale. Moreover, he refuses to be hoodwinked by some of the more lurid and exaggerated contemporary accounts.

Once the tale of Cynthia Ann and Quanah has been told, Frankel shifts to a far different character: the screenwriter and novelist Alan Le May. We are treated to a biography of Le May and his travails in Hollywood, which saw him as a writer/director of profitable but second-rate westerns. Le May didn't exactly enjoy his time in Hollywood, for his summation of that time was “All I want of this business and this town is out of it.”

When Le May left moviemaking, he embarked on the project that became his most famous novel. Based on the life of Cynthia Ann, The Searchers tells the story of two men on a years-long quest to find a young girl kidnapped by Comanche. Frankel devotes an entire chapter to Le May's creation. This will be of interest to those movie fans who might not have read the source material. (Certainly it compelled me to pick up the novel, which is a fine read in its own right).

It is at this point in Frankel's book that fact and legend come together. It is also at this point - in a pre-TMZ era - that we get the behind-the-scenes dish on a film classic. There were personality clashes (naturally, since Ford was involved). Rewrites. Providential tweaks. An ending that almost wasn't the ending.

In brisk, conversational chapters, the movie takes shape.

Frank Nugent adapts the script. John Wayne signs on to act in it, along with a pre-Star Trek Jeffrey Hunter (as sidekick Martin Pauley), Ward Bond (as a Texas Ranger Captain), the German-born Henry Brandon (as Chief Scar (!)), Hank Worden (as a mental defective), a stunning Vera Miles (as the love interest), and Lana and Natalie Woods (as young and older Debbie). John Ford directs it. Today, it is said, Steven Spielberg watches it every time he is about to begin shooting a new movie.

(On a personal note: There has never been a time that I have noticed The Searchers on television and not watched it).

Frankel does a very good job of presenting John Ford, a towering figure in his field, though a tad overlooked today. He was a complicated man, who defied easy description. One minute generous, the next spiteful. He could easily carry an entire book twice the size of Frankel's. Here, he is just one more fascinating character on a long continuum.

In marking the progression from long-ago truth to less-long-ago celluloid, Frankel has written a book that embodies many things. It is history, biography, criticism and trivia. I really enjoyed it.

This is not to say it is perfect. Nothing I read was revelatory. Much of the history seems to come from secondary sources. Much of what is relayed about the movie can be learned from listening to Peter Bogdanovich’s DVD commentary. I would’ve liked Frankel to be a bit more rigorous in his analysis of the novel, rather than giving an elongated plot summary.

There is also a bit of sloppiness that goes beyond a comma substituting for a period. For instance, in the text, Frankel refers to amateur historian Greg Michno as “Geoffrey.” Then, in the Notes section, he spells Michno’s surname as “Michino.” These are super-minor quibbles and are just about par for the course in today’s publishing business.

I also didn't like the title. This seems like a stupid comment, yet The Making of an American Legend is so clichéd, so pat, that I picked up the book despite its cover. The banality of the phrase is such that I initially ignored its implications. When I finished, though, I understood that clichéd or not, the title makes sense.

Captivity narratives are America’s first indigenous literary form. They are, really, unique to our experience. No other nation has stories like these.

We came to this land and took it from others. During these long wars – from Plymouth to Wounded Knee – these “others” took captives, most often women or young children. Those captives were sometimes ransomed, sometimes rescued, and sometimes wrote very popular books that thrilled and frightened a voracious reading public with tales of hardship electrified by a frisson of forbidden sex.

That is part of the story of the forging of America. Not just the kidnapping and captivity. But years of murder and massacre that left one side (white America) psychologically traumatized but triumphant; and left the other side (the Indians) almost depleted as a people and a culture.

Over time, these ugly facts were repackaged into novels and then translated into film. That’s the process in which the truth became legend. When you look at this chain of development, you see the wide chasm between what we were, what we are, and what we conceive ourselves to be. It is an interesting act of self deception; or perhaps, a way of moving forward toward a better reality, despite the baggage of the past.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Ford's classic movie The Searchers is one of my absolute favorite movies. I've watched it dozens of times and own the title on VHS and DVD (at least 3 different copies in the latter format). Obviously, I was a guaranteed sell for Mr Frankel's book. In spite of my familiarity with the movie it had oddly never occurred to me that the events on the screen had been based on actual historical occurrences. This book set me straight on that point, and showed the chain of events which resulted in the portrayal of history (or a facsimile thereof) on the big screen.

Frankel starts off with the story of the Parker family, a hapless clan which started out in the eastern US and "failed their way west". They ended up in Texas where they established a fortified residence in Comanche territory. The shortcoming with fortifications is that they really don't work all that well if you leave the gates ajar while you go to work in the distant fields, a fact that regrettably did not occur to the Parker clan. Killings and kidnappings ensued. Among those taken was Cynthia Ann Parker, who was to become the bride of a Comanche brave and whose son was to become the renowned war chief Quanah Parker. But the main character in the story is not Cynthia Ann Parker; it is her uncle James.

The real life James Parker set out (eventually) on the trail of the Comanche, but there is some doubt as to his motive. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and attribute his quest to wanting to rescue his niece, but vengeance seems to be a consideration as well. It was James upon whom the character of Ethan Edwards would be based over a century later. John Wayne, of course, played the vengeful uncle in the movie, probably his best role. He stayed in character even between takes and was apparently spiteful and miserable even when the cameras weren't rolling.

I found this story hard to put down. Frankel details how author Alan Lemay interviewed Parker's descendants to get information for the manuscript, then hands us over to John Ford who, it seems, was a thoroughgoing and abusive dickhead with his actors and employees. It explains the reasons for filming in Utah when the events actually occurred in Texas, and describes the relationships between the principals involved in the movie. Throughout the book, as Frankel introduces you to the person forming the next link in the chain, he provides a couple of chapters (or more) by
way of mini-biography on that person. Frankel spares no punches in writing these people up, and goes so far as to imply that John Wayne might have been just a wee bit chicken in not donning a real uniform during WWII. The Duke offered a dozen excuses (kids, wife, career) but in the end portrayed fighting men instead of actually being one. Ironically, congress struck a medal for the faux soldier rather than for the scores of actors who actually served. Don't get me wrong, I still love the Duke, but I respect those who put their careers on hold and their lives on the line. Like John Ford.

This book introduced me to so many interesting characters I have to read up on! Ranald MacKenzie, the intrepid military man is one. Cynthia Ann Parker, cruelly victimized by both races and left to die in heartbroken obscurity, is another. John Ford's biography would be intriguing. This book has already induced me to buy Harry Carey's autobiography and I will be digging into it very soon. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if I ended up reading seven or eight new titles as a result of Mr Frankel and his very good book. My only very slight criticism is that it seemed a bit rushed at the end, as if the finish line were in sight and he was in a hurry to get there.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Just as every storyteller needs character and a plot, he also needs a setting. Dickens had London, Chandler's knight-errant detective works out of Los Angeles, and Anne Tyler's moody introverts haunt Baltimore. [Director] John Ford's greatest Westerns purportedly took place all over the [frontier], but they were all filmed in one place . . . he used one setting for his stage. Tucked into the continental crease where southwest Utah rubs shoulders with northwest Arizona, Monument Valley is one of America's most dramatic and remote locales . . . [Ford] made the valley his personal film set." -- on page 267

A quote with flourish like the above immediately gets an admirer of film history like me in a hyper-attentive state. However, I think author Frankel's The Searchers made a critical editorial misstep by at first focusing way too long - 200+ pages, or just over half of the narrative - on the story which somewhat influenced director John Ford's critically acclaimed 1956 film 'The Searchers.' The exact truth about the actual incident and aftermath involving young Cynthia Ann Parker - kidnapped by a Comanche tribe as a little girl, who assimilated into their lifestyle before being returned to her family as an adult - that occurred nearly 200 years ago will just never be known with any certainty. (To wit: a retired history professor - unlike Parker's biological or 'adopted' families, he does not have a reason to take sides - who is known for his quality research is even quoted in the final chapter that her story depends on who is retelling it.) Of more interest - at least to self-styled cinephiles - is the backstory on director Ford's revisionist epic. Horribly, said director often comes across like a super-sized triple combo of bully, tyrant and drunk - it is simply ridiculous how badly he treated some folks (including lead actor John 'The Duke' Wayne, who was no slouch with ruggedness) and that they took it as part of his personality - but yet he inspired his performers, stunt personnel, and the creative behind-the-camera crew to do some of their best work ever. So this was a downbeat sort of book and a bit of a grind to get through, but those later segments on the film's production were first-rate.

[happy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a fascinating look at both the history behind and the making of the movie “The Searchers”. Basically this book is divided into 4 parts. First Mr. Frankel tells the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, a young 9 yr old girl captured by the Comanche in 1836, and her uncle who spent 7 yrs looking for her. The second part tells the story of her son, the Comanche Chief Quanah Parker. The author then gives us the story of the Novel and the author of that novel – Alan LeMay. Finally he tells the story of John Ford, John Wayne and the making of the movie.

The story of Cynthia Ann Parker is really heart rending. After witnessing the slaughter of her family in a Comanche raid, she becomes completely assimilated into the Comanche life, marrying and bearing 3 children. Upon being “rescued” some 24 yrs later, she never accepts her life in the white world. She dies wanting to return to the Comanche. The story of her uncle and his many forays into Indian Territory is also well told. The author goes into some of the probable psychological reasons for his search and attempts to rescue his niece from a fate worse than death and extract vengeance upon the killers of his brother’s family.

The section on her son Quanah does not really have anything to do with events in the movie, but is enlightening none-the-less. Quanah became one of the Indian leaders advocating coming to terms with and adopting white ways. That said, he never gave up his polygamy and was one of the main supporters of the use of Peyote in religious ceremonies. For those interested, the story of Cynthia and her son is also told from a slightly different angle in S.C. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.

With the death of Quanah, the author takes up Alan LeMay’s story. A successful, though disillusioned screen writer and a fairly successful writer of westerns before going to Hollywood, Mr. LeMay decides to write a novel based on Cynthia’s experiences. He spends quite a bit of time researching her story including interviewing many in the Parker Family and comes up with his novel.

With the publication of the novel, Mr. Ford becomes involved. The portrait Mr. Frankel paints of the director is conflicted at best. He is shown to be physically and psycologically abusive to his actors - male and female, known at the John Ford repertory company, everything from slugging them in the face, literally kicking them in the behind to belittling their work in front of the the rest of the company. To balance this he is portrayed as very sympathetic and generous to the Navajo people who worked on the movies he made in Monument Valley and child actors working for him. I found the dichotomy interesting. After reading this he is not a man I would want to work for or with. In addition to Mr. Ford, the author also has a fairly long section on the star of the movie – John Wayne. He covers everything from how he built his career and screen persona, to why he put up with Ford’s abuse.

One of the themes Frankel seems to obsess on is the sexual tension that was in the society when a white woman was captured by Indians. Frankel states that this theme ran through out early American frontier literature.

To sum it all up – I found this both a fascinating history of the Texan/Indian Wars and the making of one of the greatest Westerns ever produced. A solid 4 star read

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent concept for a book, this volume has three successive sections, all tied together by the tough cord of John Ford's masterpiece, the classic Western film THE SEARCHERS. In the first section, author Glenn Frankel explores with intelligence and amazing depth the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker, kidnapped by Comanches from her family in 1836 Texas, raised as an Indian while her uncle spent years looking for her, and re-abducted back into white society as a grown woman with children -- one of whom grew up to be the face of the Comanche nation, Quanah Parker. Frankel writes well and with extraordinary detail of the contradictions and ambiguities of the story, complexities that fascinated Western novelist Alan Le May, who researched and wrote a compelling novel based loosely on these events. That novel became, in the hands of director Ford and screenwriter Frank Nugent, a film considered by many to be the greatest Western ever made and, in the recent Sight & Sound critics poll, one of the ten best films ever made. Frankel covers all three aspects superbly, drawing on mountains of material on the Parker case and similar abductions in early Texas, as well as on family sources for his coverage of Le May's career and efforts to dramatize the story in novel form. Frankel uses first-hand interviews and documents as well as leaning on published accounts (including Michael Blakes's superb CODE OF HONOR, about the making of THE SEARCHERS and two other classic Westerns) to give the fullest picture yet of the processes before and during the filming of the landmark Western. This is a book that transcends the movie behind it. It portrays real history with insight and intensity and gives enormous resonance to the book and movie drawn from that history.

[Jim Dooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never been a big fan of Western movies in general or John Wayne in particular. However, THE SEARCHERS was an exception. The story was intriguing and disturbing, the location of the film had moments that were breath-taking, and John Wayne was brilliant in the lead role. So, when I saw this book in my Amazon recommended list, I thought I'd give it a try.

For me, this was an exceptional book.

The movie was based on a popular novel, and the novel was based on an actual incident. Rather than glossing over the historical narrative and the book to concentrate on the movie, the writer devotes about the first 45% of the book to the massacre of the Parker family by a Comanche raiding party and its aftermath, almost the next 10% to the book, and the remainder to the Hollywood filmmaking system and the making of the movie. It was all fascinating.

The first part is necessary not only to give the Reader a historical background. It deeply explores the psyches of the Native Americans, the settlers, and how their actions and close proximity developed racial tensions that have never gone away in America ... and I'm not solely talking about the uneasy coexistence of "Cowboys and Indians." This not only explained a deep-seated belief system based on sensationalism (and some very true horrors), but also why Hollywood made their Westerns in the way that they did.

For example, there is a discussion of the belief that "the Redskins covet our women." The truth was that abductions became a profitable business as people paid for the return of the abductees. In fact, some of the atrocities were committed because injured and mutilated captives usually resulted in a very quick financial settlement. (There were also the killings of families to try to reduce the number of White people coming into the area.)

There is so much information here and I found it to be very beneficial. When I reached the section about the making of the movie, these facts gave me a better appreciation for the motivations. (And yes, I'll be watching the movie again very soon.)

I had read a great deal about the director, John Ford, in Maureen O'Hara's wonderful autobiography, 'TIS HERSELF. Suffice it to say that I found nothing in this book that was in contention with Maureen O'Hara's accounts. I would not have cared to meet John Ford ... and I know that the feeling would have been mutual.

Was John Ford a racist and did he make THE SEARCHERS to espouse that racism? After reading this book, I think there is little doubt that John Ford was a racist. However, as is the case with all talented directors, he was first and foremost a storyteller. If there is a message, it might likely be that there are people who society needs to do their dirty work for them, but those people will never have a place in that society. Racism is a theme, but it is also part of a lesson that is learned.

I learned many, many things that I did not know before, and I learned them in a most engaging manner. I highly recommend this book.

[Anthony McGill · Rating 5 out of 5]

You could say Glenn Frankel has written two books combined into one with this outstanding study of the battle for superiority between white settlers and Native American Comanches in 1830s+ Texas and the later making of the John Ford masterpiece "The Searchers."

More than half of this book describes the shocking history of the two warring parties. The savagery of both parties is not only eye opening but appallingly gruesome. The centerpiece is the true story of the kidnapping of Cynthia Ann Parker, one of many white women captured after the massacre of their families by Comanches. And the subsequent recapture and return to her white family some twenty-four years later.
Frankel raises many moral points regarding all this and certainly makes the reader wonder what is right and what is wrong.

And the ongoing saga of fact and fiction when it comes to the telling of American history. The author has gone to extraordinary length to unravel the real truth including an exhaustive study of the Parker family and Cynthia Ann's three Comanche children, especially son Quannah who was to became a celebrity in his own right.

Before we get to the film version, there was Alan LeMay's fictionalized account of the event with his book "The Searchers" (the principal source for the Ford film) and the author provides a brief but excellent glimpse into LeMay's life and the writing of the legendary novel.

The film adaptation by John Ford is in my top twenty films of all time so I was pretty hooked on Frankel's take on the film. And I wasn't disappointed. An excellent "making of" with plenty of interesting insights into Ford (probably not much you didn't already know if you have studied Ford for as long as I have, but all good), son Patrick, John Wayne, the Ford Stock Company, screenwriter Frank Nugent, Monument Valley and all things that make up and what we all love in a classic Ford Western.

A bit of nit-picking. Ford didn't win his second directing Oscar for "Stagecoach" - he won his second NY Film Critics Award for the film and was nominated for the Academy Award. And in the film Jeffrey Hunter's character is Pawley not Pauley. Book could have benefitted from some plates of photos which would have looked better than the ones inserted in the pages throughout. But nothing takes away from the scope and importance of this fine book.

I had previously read Mr. Frankel's books on "High Noon" and "Midnight Cowboy" which were both excellent but I think this first one in the trio would rank as the best. A first-rate history lesson and an essential book for students of film.

[ALLEN · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had expected this to be primarily a "making-of" book about John Ford's 1956 movie THE SEARCHERS. I did not realize that a little over half this book would deal first with the founding story: the abduction of the child Cynthia Ann Parker by Comanches from an East Texas settlement in 1836 (then the frontier), her rearing by Indians, her (presumably forced) marriage to a Comanche Warrior, and the story of her warrior son, Quanah, who would achieve notoriety in his own right.

The novel THE SEARCHERS by Alan LeMay fictionalized the story, moving it farther west in Texas and several decades later in time. Director John Ford kept the 1956 film in Texas yet filmed key scenes in Monument Valley, Utah, which this book's author, Glenn Frankel, indulgently informs us was Ford's way of turning the story into myth.

THE SEARCHERS is indeed a magnificent if troubling movie, and although only a few chapters are devoted to its filming, it is likely that, at more than fifty years' remove, Glenn Frankel could have found no more archival or oral-witness information. This book has quite a 'spread' to it and is generally satisfying; in particular, Frankel is a firm and passionate advocate for the excellence of the movie THE SEARCHERS, which he considers underrated and poorly remembered. Read this book if you want to see history transmuted into myth, a theme John Ford would explore further, will full-on revisionism, in his better-remembered 1962 film, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankel begins the book by introducing the real life story of Cynthia Ann Parker, the young girl captured by and living with Comanche for many years before being recaptured and returned to her ‘real family’, and ends the book with the making of ‘The Searchers’, one of the most famous westerns of all time. The middle of the book is interesting enough to someone with a wider interest in the period of history of the events and the growth and development of the film industry leading up to the movie, but, to be honest, it covers too much area and detail, and detracts from the real core of the book, the legend and the movie.

Despite not liking John Ford and John Wayne’s politics or even particularly liking them as people, I have to admit that when I first saw ‘The Searchers’ on a ‘Westerns’ course at university , it became and has remained one of my top five movies of all time. For me, the best part of the book is its recognition that its initial lack of success and acclaim lay in the fact that audiences were still caught up in westerns being about ‘cowboys killing injuns’ and how they were unable to get past the John Wayne ‘icon’ within the star system that prevented them from seeing how nuanced his performance was. As Frankel points out, it would take a couple of generations before the movie could really be evaluated. Read the book, but first watch the movie and wallow in its beauty.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend, Jim Beaver, writes, "This is a book that transcends the movie behind it. It portrays real history with insight and intensity and gives enormous resonance to the book and movie drawn from that history." I agree in the strongest terms.

And I'll go further and say that this is the best book I've read on both on Hollywood and 19th c. America in many a year. I'm not a huge fan of Wayne's or of the film, but I get how seminal the film and his performance are.

The enduring value of this book lies in the work Frankel has done to explore the historical basis for both the book and the film and then weave those facts with Hollywood lore and legend. So, this is a also worthy addition to the literature that analyzes American Indian captive narratives.

Until I read this book, I hadn't realized (to my shame) that: 1. this was based on a true story, and 2. captivity narratives are an enduring part of American history and literature, from colonial times to the 19th century.

So bravo to Frankel. Shortly after I bought the Kindle edition, I happened to be at the legendary Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver. There, The Searchers was on the remainder table. So now I own both the Kindle and the hardcover. I only hope that Frankel was adequately remunerated for his magnificent work.

tl;drl: Buy this book. It's monumental.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woo-hoo! Finally got to something that's been on my "to read" list ever since it came out in 2013!!

Fascinating story, well told. While the whole thing is presented chronologically, it neatly falls into four sections: (1) the mid-1800s story of the kidnapped white girl, Cynthia Ann Parker; (2) the late-1800s story of her "half-breed" son Quanah Parker (a connection I had somehow previously not known); (3) the surprisingly interesting early 1900s story of Alan LeMay's writing of the book The Searchers; and finally (4) John Ford's mid-century production of the film version.

Only complaint is that it could have used more and larger photos, as there must be a wealth of them out there. But unfortunately, what few Frankel included were way too small and poorly printed.

Look forward now to rewatching "The Searchers" with (I hope) a deeper appreciation than the first time I saw it - probably not too long before this book came out, which is (also probably) why it landed on my "to read" list in the first place!

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Searchers is a fine account of the history, myth, novel, and filmmaking behind the John Ford movie by the same name. The first third of the book is about the double kidnapping of Cynthia Ann Parker, first by Comanche raiders and then, years later, by white soldiers—by the time she was “rescued” she was very much a Comanche, married, with two children, one of whom was Quanah Parker, who became one of the last resistors to reservation life and then a leader in assimilation, even hosting President Theodore Roosevelt and other famous white Americans at his home. She spent her second life in white society longing and seeking opportunities to return to her Comanche life.

Frankel describes the violent frontier well, the murky motivations of religion, land, and adventure that brought whites to the mostly brutal landscape that is modern Texas and that had been taken from Mexico and was then be taking from the warring Native American nations that occupied its vast territory. The middle part is about the historical fact becoming legend, which commenced almost immediately, and how 20th century novelist Alan Lemay took the facts and the legends and turned it into a classic American story. The final part is about John Ford and John Wayne and the movie they make from Lemay’s novel, playing with Wayne’s iconic film persona, turning the manly hero he endlessly played into a bitter anti-hero.

This is fascinating but at times also unsatisfying reading. Ford, it turns out, is a classic bully and Wayne (along with others in the dysfunctional “family” of Ford collaborators) a willing victim. The paradoxical relationship is not between Wayne and Ford, but between Wayne’s film persona and Wayne the actor. The first a tough as nails, laconic, rough-hewn man against the world who takes nothing from anyone and the actor who took everything that Ford humiliatingly dished his way: insults, harangues, literal kicks in the ass. This relationship is described but not adequately explained. I am a fan of Ford but this left me a reluctant, begrudging one. His artistry as a film director didn’t require this abusive behavior; he, as a pathetic individual, did. Well-researched and well-written, The Searchers is an informing read for those interested in films, history or the migration from known facts to embroidered story-telling.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This excellent book is broken up into 3 parts: it meticulously examines the kidnapping of Parker and the rise of her half-breed son, Quanah as he becomes an infamous war chief. It then looks at the origin and inspiration of the novel The Searchers, based on the Parker tale and then finally a very close peek at the making of the John Ford film classic, starring John Wayne.

I finished this all up, with a viewing of the 1956 film, which is still one of the best westerns ever made.

[Relstuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains a lot of history. The classic western fictional film The Searchers is based on a true story of a girl whose family was slaughtered during an Indian raid and she was taken. She eventually was an indentured wife to a minor Indian chief until their encampment was attacked by and she was rescued and returned to her relatives. By this time she had lived with the Indians for much of her formative years and had a hard time readjusting. She had a son who was away during her rescue and didn't know whether he was alive her dead. That son grew up to be Quanah Parker.

There is probably more history than story of the movie in the book. John Ford was a genius film director. He carried the movie he wanted to see in his head and there was very little extra shots taken and not much extra material to edit. However, he was a difficult man to work with.

[Evgenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really two books, loosely affiliated, both excellent. The first is an exploration of the Native American practice of kidnapping and occasional assimilation of captives—often the encroaching white settlers—mostly through one infamous family’s experience. It is an honest, unromanticized examination of a custom that was sometimes empathetic, other times brutal, often both, and it neither condemns nor exalts the practitioners. It also does justice to the people who existed between the conflicting worlds of their captors (or adopted families) and their birth families (or second-round captors). Anybody interested in the history of the Western frontier will like this.

The second book is about the making of the 1956 eponymous film that reflected the times’ interpretation of this history. You can stop here if you don’t give a hoot about the Golden Age of Hollywood, but I recommend you continue. Although there are many esoteric tidbits that are only interesting to those nerds who love classic cinema, for the most part it is an interesting historiography that has much to say about American identity politics.

[Franz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frankel tells several linked stories. First there is the true story of Cynthia Ann Parker, who witnessed her family's murder as a nine year old as she was kidnapped by Commanche raiders in East Texas in 1836; the persistent and futile efforts of her uncle, James Parker, to scour the Indian lands of Texas in a dangerous multi-year search for her before finally wearing out and giving up; her rescue years later by a combined force of US Army cavalry and Texas Rangers who massacred much of her Indian family before her eyes, leaving her again in shock and to struggle anew, this time with a baby daughter in a white world that was now alien to her; a massacre embellished with time so that when years later one of the Ranger leaders, Sul Ross, ran for Texas state governor the rescue of a white captive and massacre of mainly women and some old men evolved in the mind of Texans into a full-scale epic battle against blood-thirsty Commanches in which Ross played such a heroic and pivotal role in the white captive's rescue that it propelled him into the governor's chair. This story compares favorably with Scott Zesch's great book, The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier.

But Frankel also tells the story of one of Cynthia Ann's surviving two sons, Quanah Parker, whose fate was unknown to Cynthia Ann before she died a few years after her recapture. Quanah Parker grew up to be a scalp-taking warrior somewhat alienated from other Commanches due do his white blood. But Quanah Parker accurately sensed the ultimate fate of the American Indians and evolved into a de facto Commanche leader trusted by prominent white ranchers and leaders. Quanah Parker, as he preferred to be known after he began interfacing with the white world to emphasize his link to a famous white mother, prospered with his shrewd transition to a new reality, supporting a bevy of wives and children and hosting eminent white leaders in his large and impressive home, even welcoming President Theodore Roosevelt himself. Quanah Parker successfully represented the interests of the Commanches in Congress, delaying for many years the inevitable usurpation of Indian lands in Oklahoma. This story reveals a clever and intelligent survivor.

To this day both sides of Cynthia Ann's family, the white and the red separately, celebrate annual reunions and send ambassadors to one another's reunion in a spirit of familial memory.

But the real story of the book is how the raw material of history is transformed into myth. Alan Lemay, a Western novelist and Hollywood screenwriter, researched the circumstances of Cynthia Ann Parker's abduction and produced a great Western novel, The Searchers. Instead of Cynthia Ann's story, however, he fashioned a classic narrative inspired by her obsessed Uncle James, the family member who spent years searching but never finding her. The film director, John Ford, read the book and instructed his screenwriter, Frank Nugent, to produce a movie script. Ford dragged a company of over 100 to the roadless isolation of the hellish hot Monument Valley in Arizona where Navajo emerged like a mirage from the empty desert to assist behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Using Lemay's novel and Nugent's screenplay as a kind of template, Ford created a work of art that manipulated and transcended the familiar tropes of Western films: the savage Indians; the struggling homesteaders facing constant dangers; the harsh, unforgiving landscape that stubbornly refuses to give up whatever bounty it may hold; the vengeful white man of questionable background who understands them too well but is alienated from white society because of his cruelty and unpredictable wildness; the strong women who act as a socializing counterpoint to the barely civilized men among them. In The Searchers, Ford faithfully follows the admonition the newspaperman gives at the end of his last great Western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, "When the facts turn into legend, print the legend."

Frankel's prose never lags. The stories he tells are engaging. He describes John Wayne's development as an actor that provided the foundation for Wayne's greatest role and greatest performance. He fills us in on the details of how the money was raised to make the film so no studio could interfere with Ford's vision. After The Searchers was released in 1956, he shows us that movie goers and critics viewed the film as just another John Wayne oater and, though the movie turned a profit, how disappointed Wayne and others involved with the film were at its cool critical reception. It took the passage of time and the cinematic lessons taught by the film to the young film makers of the 1960s and '70s who championed it (Scorcese, Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Bogdanovich, and others) for the film to rise to the level of a movie classic in the estimation of movie buffs and critics.

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The modern image of Indians-nurtured by the Native Americans rights movement, revisionist historians, and the film Dances with Wolves-has been one of profoundly spiritual and environmentally friendly genocide victims seeking harmony with the land and humankind. But the Comanches were nobody's victims and no one's friends. They were magnificent, brutal, and relentless."

I love a good true life story and this was one was amazing. When Cynthia Ann Parker was nine her family was massacred by the Comanche tribe and she along with a few other surviving family members was kidnapped. No one would return from their captivity the same. Most changed of all was Cynthia Ann herself who would transform from frontier girl into a Comanche. Despite an obsessive pursuit for her recovery by her Uncle James Parker, Cynthia Ann would ultimately spend twenty five years with the Comanches, a time period during which she would become the wife to the man who orchestrated the murder of her biological family and a mother to his children. She was so changed by her experience that when she returned to her white family she was never able to readjust to the world. The job of bridging the world between the Comanche and Whites would be undertaken by her half Comanche, half white son Quanah Parker. The first half of the book is Cynthia Ann and Quanah's story. I learned a lot about the Comanches from this book. Brutality was not in short supply by either the Comanches or the US army. The were always one upping each other and who could be more sadistic murderers. While the men devised new ways to dispatch each other the women and children were the ones who usually had to pay the heaviest price. The author's look at the "Wild West" was definitely an eye opener and I could not put this portion of the book down.

The second half of the book related author Alan LeMay's fictionalized account of Cynthia Ann Parker's abduction in his book The Searchers. The Searchers was eventually made into a movie starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford. The movie plot of the book was not as interesting to me as the true life events that made up the story. John Ford was portrayed as an alcoholic ass who got enjoyment out of physically kicking his stars in the behind. A rather hard to like fellow.

The books ends back where it began with Cynthia Parker's family both Comanche and White. Both sides of the family have made peace with the events that formed their family and her descendants hold family reunions to this day. A happy ending to a story spawned in violence.

Before reading this book I pictured Native Americans to be like their portrayal in the Disney movie Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves, environmentally friendly peace keepers of the earth relentlessly slaughtered by the land hungry, greedy white man. This book spun that idea right around. The Comanche's could be incredibly loving to each other and extremely brutal to anyone else the encountered. The only captives that had a chance of surviving their wrath were young children they would occassionaly adopt and women who were regulated to the role of lowly slave. Everyone else was killed on the spot. I'll never forget poor pregnant Rachel Plummer, cousin to Cynthia Ann who was kidnapped along with her. Rachel was allowed to keep her baby until the Comanches decided the baby was preventing her from doing her work. Her baby was forcibly taken from her and dragged through cactus until his body was torn apart before her eyes. It was only after Rachel no longer cared whether she lived or died and began to stand up for herself did her lot with the Comanche improve. A fact which she wished she had known earlier. Rachel's time in captivity was much shorter than Cynthia Ann's and she went on to write a very informative memoir about her time with the Comanche. Although she spent only two years as captive her red hair turned completely gray and she died at the age of twenty. For all of the brutality heaped upon Rachel and the Comanches other captives the US government met it blow for blow and there are many stories of their despicable behavior against the native people in the book.

This book intrigued me enough to want to read Alan LeMay's book and to watch the movie of the same name. I am also very interested to see how Johnny Depp portrays his character of Tonto who is Comanche in the tent pole movie of the summer, The Lone ranger. He has promised to show the Comanche in away in which they have never been shown on film before. They must be pretty happy with his performances because I saw an article where they recently made him an honorary Comanche.If you are interested in learning more about the history of the west or you are a film buff then you can't go wrong with this book.

[Edgar Raines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frankel begins his book with an account of the attack by Comanche Indians on Parker's Fort in 1836, the massacre of many of the inhabitants, and the abduction of several of the survivors including Cynthia Ann Parker, then nine years old. One of her uncles, James Parker, spent nine years attempting to penetrate Comanche country, locate his niece, and rescue his niece. All his efforts were futile. Then in 1860 a mixed force of Texas Rangers and U.S. Cavalry attacked a Comanche camp on the Pease River, slaughtered a large number of squaws and children, and "rescued" Cynthia Ann and her daughter Prairie Flower. By now she was the wife of the Indian who had led the raid on Parker's Fort and had borne him two sons and a daughter. The father and the sons were hunting when the camp was attacked. The Parker family welcomed her back, but she never readjusted to the white world. She had forgotten English while a captive. She was always attempting to escape with Prairie Flower but never succeeded. She and her daughter died in the late 1860s, apparently victims of one or more of the epidemics that swept Texas in the wake of the Civil War.

Frankel then examines how local historians and "Sol" Ross, the leader of the Rangers at Pease River romanticized these events. Ross became a Confederate general and subsequently a two-term governor of Texas. In his campaign literature and in the works of local historians Pease River became not a massacre but a "battle" that broke the back of the Comanche nation.

Cynthia Ann's husband and youngest son died in the 1860s, but the oldest boy survived. He became Quanah Parker, a minor war chief in the 1870s, one of the last hold-outs against the U.S. Army, and who in the reservation period emerged as the most important Comanche leader. He sought to maintain the peace, lead his people in adapting to the white world, and, at the same time, preserve as much as possible of Comanche culture.

Frankel's work involves a detailed look at the scattered and incomplete factual record. First he must determine what is actually fact and then he demonstrates how, when, where, why, and by whom the legends were added. This part of the book is a case study of historical detection and clear-eyed analysis.

In 1952 a sometime novelist, short-story writer, and screen-play writer, Alan LeMay published _The Searchers: A Novel_ loosely based on the Cynthia Ann Parker story. Two years later John Ford and his partner acquired the movie rights to the book. Two years after that MGM released the movie of the same name starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood, and Vera Miles. It opened to mixed reviews and modest box office success---just another John Wayne movie in the opinion of critics at the time. The film started a long, slow critical rebound in the 1970s. One recent poll of critics labeled it the greatest American movie ever made, but as Frankel observes, "'The Searchers' is the greatest Hollywood movie that no one has ever seen."

This is a great book that deals with some essential questions: What is history? What is memory? What is myth? _The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend_ tackles these questions from a different perspective and in the process makes the reader think.

[Bobby D · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I heard of this book I just had to read it. THE SEARCHERS is one of my favorite movies. It is difficult to realize that many of today's movie fans have never seen John Ford's 1957 film. My Son-in-law recently watched the Bluray version with my Grandsons. How many of us are aware of the historical events that lead to Alan LeMay's novel and to Frank Nugen's screenplay for what many consider John Ford's best film. And John Wayne's finest performance in a film that finds him bound and determined to commit an "honor killing" rather than rescue his niece Debbie.

Who was Cynthia Ann Parker? Quanah Parker? Where the Comanche's noble warriors or murderers and rapists? Were Comanche's victims or predators? And if the later why did Cynthia Ann Parker prefer to live with the Comanche and not return to her white Texas relatives?

Glenn Frankel's book is a chronological telling of first the history of Cynthia Ann's capture by Comanche's at age 9. Her family murdered. Her Uncle Jack Parker's search for her and other captives. Her return to her white family and tragic early death in despair and wish to return to the Comanche's. Frankel then moves on to Cynthia Ann's son the famous last Comanche chief, Quanah Parker and his remarkable achievement of assimilation to (or with) white culture. Along the way Frankel relates other captive narratives, myths and legends. Next we learn of Alan Le May and his research and creation of his novel the SEARCHERS. But the last part of the book belongs to John Ford, his self-destructive personality, his creative genius, and relationships that were mostly made up of enablers who's own self-interest recognized Ford's single genius.

I loved the grand arc of Frankel's book and the research and conclusions he reaches as he offers up four parts that each could be standalone New Yorker articles. I liked his take on John Ford but certainly would recommend Scott Eyman's 570 page biography, PRINT THE LEGEND, The life and Time of John Ford if you wanted to get more in depth. As to the legends and myths of Indian captives I especially liked two novels by James Alexander Thonn, one where the captive escapes and has a remarkable journey to reunite with her familyﾅ. this is the outstanding FOLLOW THE RIVER; the other where the captive refused to return to her white family the more complex and compelling THE RED HEART. (I highly recommend all three of these mentioned books.)

Frankel's book is for anyone who loves the movie or is interested in how movie ideas are developed and get executed on film. But it is also for those interested in how history develops, how it's mostly the victors who tell the tale and that the underlining lies and myths only seep out slowly over the years.

Frankel points out that Alan LeMay ended his novel differently than does John Ford in his movie version. Not that John Ford's ending is the typical Hollywood ending by all means but if the ending in the novel had been used in the film it would have taken the audience by surprise by its realism and ability to turn vengeance on its ear.

[Lizabeth Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A serious and detailed look at the renowned John Ford film, from the backstory to the book to the film itself.

The basic synopsis of the film is that a young girl (played as a child by Lana Wood, as a near adult by 16 year old Natalie Wood) is kidnapped by Comanches who slaughter her family. Her uncle (John Wayne) and adopted half-breed brother (Jeffrey Hunter) spend the next five years searching for her, but for very different reasons. Her brother wants to bring her home. Her uncle wants to kill her, an "honor killing", because by the time they find her she will have had sex with the Indians, even if unwillingly.

The backstory of real abductee Cynthia Ann Parker is gone into in great and fascinating detail. Kidnapped at 9, recaptured by whites 24 years later, separated from her sons and Comanche family, an object of stares and gossip. The fate of her son, Quanah Parker, a man who saw the reality of the white man's invasion and knew how to use it for the best benefit of his family and friends, both white and red, is also subject to great detail.

The story of the author, Alan Lemay, is provided. His experiences in Hollywood are shown as a way of explaining his cynical change in his treatment of the Natives from his first book to The Searchers as well as his refusal to have anything to do with the film.

By the time we make it to the film itself, we are already almost halfway through the book.

While I recognize the quality of the work involved, this is not a film that I will rewatch when it airs on television. As someone proud of my maternal Blackfoot ancestry, this hits too close to home. Especially since my paternal grandmother, born in Oklahoma Indian Territory, was much like Ethan. She disliked when I would proclaim my mixed heritage.

Reading this book is seriously like reading multiple books. I appreciated that the author was honest about the film, both the good and the bad, as well as the people it was loosely based on. He shares the reactions of critics and future directors, some of whom revere Ford's films to this day.

I loved this book from start to finish. 5 out of 5.

[JBP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a duel bit of non-fiction here with Glenn Frankel devoting time to the actual Comanche kidnapping in 20th century texas, the novel that was inspired by it and ultimately the John Ford western drawn from the novel. Famed Comanche Quanah Parker was the son of the white woman taken by the Comanche in a raid on farmers in some remote agricultural outpost. As usual, I root hard for the Comanche when they face the texas rangers, the cavalry or any other person coming in contact with them. They are the good guys when raiding and pillaging against the texans! The Comanche and other Native elements was the most interesting thing about this--the long history of abductions is traced and the Comanche were not the only tribe to engage in human raiding parties. The movie element didn't intrigue me as much because after so much real life and death drama of the actual event and what it was like to live in those hardscrabble times, a movie is kind of flimsy and pale in comparison.

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just finished this wonderful book that deals with several takes of the one story, the abduction of nine year old Cynthia Ann Parker by Comanches in 1836. Frankel provides a thorough account of the actual event and its unfortunate consequences. It is, I admit, a difficult but compelling read when he covers the abject brutality that was inflicted on women, children and babies, white and Native American. Next, he deals with the novel that was inspired by this event, introducing the reader to the writer Alan LeMay. Only after this, do we reach the film that was inspired by the novel. It is interesting to see the chain of interpretations from fact to fiction and back again. I also found it a wonderful insight into the making of a film and was fascinated by the portraits of John Ford and John Wayne. My one criticism is that I would have chopped the epilogue in half but that's just me. Highly recommend it for anyone interested in American history, writing and film.

[Frank Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less about the movie and more about one of the incidents that inspired the novel on which the movie is based. Fascinating stuff, but after a while I'm like "enough already". When we get to the filmmaking section the author shifts into high gear and speeds through a sort of Reader's Digest synopsis. At times he seems to accuse the novelist Alan LeMay and the filmmakers of painting a dark one-dimensional picture of the Comanche, despite the fact that he himself, early in the book, is exceptionally grim in his own description of the Comanche subsisting traditionally by robbing and murdering just about anybody: other Indians, Mexicans, settlers, etc. It's hard to work up sympathy for folks who make a sport of killing babies.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The capture of Cynthia Ann Parker by the Comanche, and her subsequent recapture decades later, was the most famous of the Indian captivity accounts. It was an especially well known story because Parker's son, Quanah, became a Comanche leader, one who managed to exert influence in both of the two worlds (or at least to prosper). Frankel provides a detailed history of Cynthia and Quanah Parker's lives, and then describes how Alan Lemay, the novelist-screenwriter, and John Ford, the famous director, used the story as the basis for "The Searchers,' the famous (and best) John Wayne western.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story of the making of the movie "The Searchers" and the true story behind it. The first half of the book focuses on the real events around the abduction of Cynthia Ann Parker by the Comanches. The second half is how it became a movie. I learned a lot about the Comanche and their way of life and their battle against the Texans. It is a very interesting and informative book.

[Bosco Farr · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Great story. Well researched. Thoughtful

[Steve Schechter · Rating 3 out of 5]

WARNING: CONTAINS ADULT CONTENT AND LANGUAGE

During a Christmas party at John Ford’s house Maureen O’Hara said something that offended her host. So John Ford leaned back and punched Maureen O’Hara in the jaw. Read that sentence again. John Ford punched the luminous and brilliant Maureen O’Hara in the jaw! And as awful as that is, it’s only like the tenth most disturbing thing in this book.

The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend is a brutal and harrowing look back into the American West. A history of the abduction and search for Cynthia-Ann Parker and the making of the classic film loosely based on it, The Searchers is tough work.

About two-thirds of the book is dedicated to the abduction of Cynthia-Ann. She was taken in a raid by Comanches in 1936 at the age of 10 in which nearly everyone in her family was killed. Parker married a man named Peta Necona and lived as a Comanche until 1860 when she was “rescued” in the Pease River Massacre.

Frankel goes into great detail to describe the life of a captive woman. He gives multiple examples of assault, gang rape and murder. It’s grisly stuff. You’ll read things you wish you hadn’t. There are images in my head I may never lose.

Now Frankel doesn’t limit the record of brutal treatment to just the Comanches. There’s plenty of it from whites as well. The myth of the old west as a hardscrabble but noble time is eviscerated here. Nobility took a backseat to savagery from both sides. You’ll hate everybody by the time this is done.

The story moves into Cynthia-Ann’s re-integration into white society. A fruitless and impossible task, she never assimilated. She lived and died as a Comanche. Cynthia-Ann was used as a prop, a sideshow for white America. The powers that be wanted to make an example out of her. Cynthia-Ann allowed it up to a point. She allowed it in order to survive.

Her legacy would find pride in her son, Quannah Parker. Quannah grew up a warrior and spent years looking for his mother and sister, Prairie Flower, who was taken with her mother when she was two. Quannah would grow to adopt a more cordial posture with white men. He was a shrewd, realistic leader that did his best to maintain the dignity of his people. But he couldn’t stop the inevitable. The loss of land and near-erasure of the Comanche Nation is heartbreaking and infuriating to read.

The next part of the book gets into the “fun” stuff. Frankel shifts the narrative to Alan Le May, who wrote the novel on which The Searchers was based. While successful, Le May was never fully appreciated as a novelist and screenwriter. His book caught the eye of Patrick Ford, John’s son. Patrick was an associate producer-writer-coffee boy for his father. John Ford read Le May’s novel and knew he had his next great western.

The chapters on the pre-production and production of the film are red meat for a classic film fan. Shot in the mythic Monument Valley, it’s revelatory to get a sense of the remoteness of the location. The sheer size of the crew is detailed too. At one point Frankel lists the number of vehicles needed as they moved locations. It’s impressive.

Less impressive is the conduct of the movie’s director. John Ford might be the greatest director who ever lived. He was also a giant asshole. He used to pick one person and torture them during the production of every film. He used to make Harry Carey, Jr. bend over so he could kick him in the ass. He consistently insulted John Wayne in front of the crew. He was a liar who rarely gave straight answers to interviewers. He was a glory hound, constantly bucking for commendations from the US Navy. He was an alcoholic who used to binge-drink between productions. He was an adulterer and absent father. He punched Maureen O’Hara in the face! And let’s not forget the racism.

Some of Frankel’s best work is a measured study of the troubling racism in The Searchers and the rest of Ford’s work. Frankel is fair but unforgiving. The Searchers might be the greatest western ever made. But it’s also racist. Sure it’s nuanced but unsettling nonetheless.

Frankel’s book drags in spots. He writes long sentences. During the first part of the book where the subjects are unfamiliar, it’s a problem. I found myself re-reading sentences to catch up. Keep in mind that I’m not the smartest guy either. The pace of the first part is also slow. It’s always interesting but it’s dense.

Overall I recommend The Searchers but with reservations. Unless you’re a fan of the film or interested in Native American History, it’s not for you. The opening line of the film’s theme song asks, “What makes a man to wander?” You’ll find out when you read this book. And the answers will haunt your dreams.

[Linda Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Half this book is about a recovered captive of the Comanches and her son. The other half is about the novel, The Searchers, and the movie by the same name.

Cynthia Ann Parker was only nine years old when her family's Texas farm was attacked by Comanche warriors and destroyed. Her parents and siblings died, but Cynthia was kidnapped and taken to Comanche territory for years. She eventually married and had three children there.

When Cynthia was eventually rescued her sons were left behind. Only her daughter went with her into the homes of Parker family members. She grieved the loss of her sons for years.

One of those sons, Quanah, grew up to be chief of a group of Comanches. This book tells the story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her son, Quanah.

But it doesn't stop there.

The second half of the book tells (in great detail) about the novel, The Searchers, and the movie by the same name. I learned details about the lives of the author, the film director, and John Wayne, star of the movie.

It was an interesting nonfiction book. I appreciated all the film history. I learned more about the early western motion picture industry than I ever expected to.

I can recommend this book.

[Jeanette]

"Myths are neither true nor untrue, but the product and process of man's yearning. As such, they're the most primal thing bonding us to other people. Yet the phenomenon is much more than a snake feeding on its own tail. Myths gather momentum because they provide hope.
- Cynthia Buchanan, 'Come Home, John Wayne, and Speak for Us'" (loc 6)

"...in 1824 the Mexican government officially opened the province to foreign immigration. Every able-bodied white man could claim 4,428 acres for just thirty dollars in one of the privately owned colonies that Mexican authorities had sanctioned in hopes of creating a buffer between their small communities and hostile Indian tribes to the north." (loc 273 // interesting in light of the currently pervading perspective that white men stole all native land)

"Houston sympathized with many of them and celebrated his adoptive Cherokee heritage. He concluded early on that Indians, like whites, came in many varieties, some trustworthy and some not, and that it was important to be able to discern between them." (loc 518)

"Even the term 'Comanche' was created by others. It was derived from the Ute Indians, who described their foes as Kohmahts, 'Those Who Are Always Against Us.' The Comanches called themselves Nemernuh - 'the People' - a name that suggested that non-Comanches were less than human. There was in fact not one overarching Comanche nation but rather a collection of bands that spoke the same language and recognized each other as distantly related even while living in separate geographic areas. There may have been a dozen or more of these bands: among the larger and more noteworthy were the Penateka ('Honey-Eaters'), who dominated southern and central Texas; the Nokoni ('Those Who Turn Back') in the northeast region; the Quahadi ('Antelope Eaters') in the northwest and New Mexico, and the Yamparika ('Root Eaters') in western Kansas and southeastern Colorado. There was no central authority, no chief shose word was law or could be considered binding on the others, no rulers and no subjects." (loc 552 // reminiscent of the tribalism within the Middle East)

"The intense brutality reflected the harsh conditions Comanches faced. Food and other resources were scarce. These were meant to be shared with kinsmen, not with others, and violence reinforced this code. The modern image of Indians - nurtured by the Native American rights movement, revisionist historians, and the film Dances With Wolves - has been one of profoundly spiritual and environmentally friendly genocide victims seeking harmony with the land and humankind. But the Comanches were nobody's victims and no one's friends. They were magnificent, brutal, and relentless." (loc 568)

"Most of the captives were abducted from small defenseless villages in northern Mexico. One rough estimate suggested there were at least two thousand captives by the early 1800s. Besides their need for labor, the Comanches had another economic motive for abduction. Ever since the first exchanges between native peoples and Spanish authorities, trade in human beings had been part of the equation. Prisoners were taken as slaves but also held for ransom or to exchange for prisoners held by the other side. Humans became just one more commodity, and commodities were negotiable." (loc 710)

"The Battle of Pease River is one of those violent episodes in Texas history where fact and legend collide uneasily, leaving later generations to grope for the truth amid contradictory claims and shifting sensibilities." (loc 1193)

"Some twenty thousand Indians could barely manage to subsist in Nebraska, 'while whites will be able to feed two million off its soil.' Still, while they might be living at a mere subsistence level, Indians were a powerful military threat. There were after the Civil War some 100,000 potentially hostile Indians out of a native population of 270,000 nationwide, and they were highly mobile and increasingly well armed. Sherman had but 20,000 soldiers. He knew he had to stay on the offensive and keep his enemy on the run. He had in mind a winter campaign to destroy Indian horses and supplies and harass them into surrender. It was the same strategy that had crippled Georgia and the Deep South during the Civil War. 'In the end they must be removed to small and clearly defined reservations or must be killed,' Sherman wrote. Sherman and his soldiers were not exterminationists. Unlike the Texans, they would fight until their enemy was subdued, not destroyed. For the cavalry, the war against the Comanches was a military campaign with strategies and tactics, not a blood feud. Their methods could be brutal and ruthless: soldiers killed women and children, destroyed livestock, and torched homes. But they operated out of a sense of professional duty more than personal hatred. The Comanches themselves could tell the difference." (loc 1742)

"Sheridan believed such women were no longer worth rescuing, having suffered the classic 'Fate Worse Than Death,' and it might be best if they perished by murder, suicide 'or the providentially directed bullet of a would-be rescuer.' While it seemed like a deranged and twisted notion, Sheridan's formula captured the nightmares and obsessions of many whites - their need for retribution, yet at the same time their deep-seated belief that women sexually abused in such a fashion were fit only for death." (loc 1791)

"The two generals set extermination of the vast herds of American bison on the Great Plains as a policy goal in order to deprive Plains Indians of their primary source of food, clothing, and shelter. Professional hunters, trespassing on Indian land, killed more than four million bison by 1874. When the Texas legislature considered a law banning bison poaching on tribal lands, Sheridan journeyed to Austin to personally testify against the measure." (loc 1960) // foolishness that drastically altered and maybe ruined the land while they attempted to ruin the people

"The Kiowa-Comanche-Apache agency was beholden to Congress and to a byzantine bureaucracy, both of which had their own goals and imperatives; concern for the safety and welfare of its Indian wards was far down the list. As stipulated by Medicine Lodge treaty, Indians were expected to embrace white schools, private property, and Christian values. Having defeated the Indians in battle, the white world was now determined to obliterate their identity as well. The agency was supposed to ease their transition from nomadic warriors to gentleman farmers yet was stunningly ill equipped for the task. The land allotted for agriculture was barely arable, subject to regular drought and lurking insects, and unsuitable for growing corn, the main staple. Its poor quality served only to reinforce the traditional Comanche aversion to farming. Government rations, as promised at Medicine Lodge, were essential for the Indians' survival, yet Fort Sill was 165 miles from the nearest railhead. The government was supposed to deliver 10,000 pounds of flour, 2,000 pounds of bacon, 825 pound of coffee, and 1,650 pounds of sugar as well as a beef ration to the 3,000 Indians each week. But the supplies came erratically, if at all, and were subject to profiteers who delivered maggot-riddled staples and spoiled meat." (loc 2273) // government 'welfare' being poorly executed and unreliable? ...shocker

"His [Quanah] fame became a passport that allowed him to enter worlds that other Indians were not welcome in. Once in Texas, he recalled to his cousin Susan St. John, he had sat down in a train coach across from some white businessmen. He was always careful when he rode the train to dress in his finest dark wool suit from the haberdashers in Electra, Texas, but he never hid his warrior's braids, which gave him away as a Comanche just as his pale blue eyes betrayed his white origins. The men wanted this obvious Indian evicted from the coach and some of them went to get a conductor, who proceeded to inform them that the man in question was the famous Quanah Parker. Suddenly the mood changed. The men shook his hand and engaged him in conversation. As far as they were concerned, Quanah Parker was a celebrity." (loc 2885)

"Neda Birdsong, one of Quanah's surviving daughters, was the closest thing to a family leader. Educated at the Carlisle Indian School, she had composed the epitaph on Quanah's granite gravestone, and she was deeply disturbed at the prospect of digging up her father's and his mother's remains. 'If we were in a war . . . and I were asked to give my father's house, I would walk out of this door without one word,' she told and interviewer at the time. 'But in a time of peace it seems to me they could take a little more thought and make some better plans.'" (loc 3165) // when the US Army wanted to seize some of the land Star House was on for a firing range in 1956

"'In social moments, as at dinner, DeMille becomes a host of the superlative, old southern gentleman type, in violent contrast to his angry tornadoing at all other times,' Alan wrote them." (loc 3406) // the author of The Searchers while he was working as a screenwriter for CB DeMille before writing it

"After working intensely to churn out a script he was proud of, Alan was bitterly disappointed by the picture itself. The giant squid looked like 'the world's most bewildered inner tube' despite all the money DeMille spent on special effects." (loc 3407)

"Frank Nugent said he learned a lot from John Ford. 'Character is not shown so much by what is said as by what is done,' Nugent wrote when he first started working with Ford. 'Characters must make decisions.'" (loc 4456)

"In your travels may there be
Beauty behind you
Beauty on both sides of you
And beauty ahead of you." (loc 5167) // Navajo wish to John Ford when making him an honorary tribe member during the filming of The Searchers at Monument Valley

"John Ford later said, the dedication was one of the fondest memories of his career. Ford liked being the Tall Soldier, just as he liked being the Great White Father. 'More than having received the Oscars, what counts for me is having been made a blood brother of different Redskin nations,' he later declared. Better even than winning an Academy Award, said the man who had won four." (loc 5174)

"'When you can come to the conclusion that putting the horizon at the top of the frame or the bottom of the frame is a lot better than putting it in the middle of the frame, then you may someday make a good picture maker. Now get out of here." (loc 5673) // John Ford to a young Steven Spielberg

[Vali Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history, both of American cinema and the forming of America. The reader does not need to be a fan of Westerns to appreciate the depth of this entertaining read from Glenn Frankel. Highly recommended for fans of John Wayne, John Ford, and American Western history.