@LydiaConwell@exile.social The movie is not racist. You have to understand that Ford makes you look through the eyes of a racist, but that doesn't mean the movie is or Ford was. (He was beloved by indigenous people. That's one of the reasons he shot at Monument Valley, because he loved the people there.) And even that is not the point. Racism has nothing to do with the movie. Forget about that already. The movie is about someone who, when he finally returns to his family, loses it. He's suddenly left alone, not belonging anywhere. That fills him with rage. You could say racism is a McGuffin here. He could be raging about something else entirely. But the point is that you go through what he's going through. It's the story of a man destroyed by hate.

The genius of John Ford is that, in a modern movie, you would be judging Wayne's character, even if the director said: “I wanted the audience to see the story through the eyes of my psychopathic killer character.” John Ford says: “I don't give a fuck. He's going to be the hero all the way through.”

But, seriously, saying _The Searchers_ is racist is like saying _The Silence of the Lambs_ is transphobic of that it endorses cannibalism.