THE MISSING
US, 2003, 137 minutes, Colour.
Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd, Eric Schweig.
Directed by Ron Howard.
Over the decades Ron Howard has shown himself to be a director eclectic tastes in genres but a director who knows how to make well-crafted films and entertainments. His films range from Parenthood to Apollo 13 to EdTV to The Grinch and his Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind. Now he has made a western. Most reviewers will compare it to John Ford's The Searchers and complain that it is a less effective remake or complain that it does not treat the themes of Indians and whites in the way that Ford did. This comparison is of academic interest, perhaps, but it does not do justice to The Missing.
It needs to be said at the beginning that this is often an extraordinarily beautiful film to look at, the landscapes of New Mexico, snowy ranges, bright deserts, majestic canyons and mesa tops. We are conscious of these landscapes as the context for what goes on, the West in 1885. Howard has also drawn excellent performances from his cast. Tommy Lee Jones has becomes something of a visual icon over the years, a craggy and worn face, an embodiment of hard years of experience. This suits him perfectly as Jones, an artist from New York who abandoned his family and went to live with the Indians, adopted their way of life and religious beliefs and rituals and who eventually returns to be reconciled with his daughter.
Cate Blanchett proves once again that she can enter any role and make it completely her own. She has an enormous versatility. This time she is a strong woman of the west, a survivor, a practitioner of medicine, bringing up two daughters in near-isolation. When one of her daughters is abducted by a group of renegade military led by a mysterious Indian with a reputation of being a witch, she sets off with her younger daughter in pursuit, finally accepting the help of her estranged father.
This means that the film works on several levels: a western chase and rescue mission, an exploration of relationships and prejudices between whites and Indians, a story of family alienation and reconciliation. It works well at all these levels.
1. The impact of the film, a character portrait, relationships? Indian themes? The American west?
2. The tradition of John Ford, The Searchers, Indians pursued by whites, rescue missions? Issues of racial prejudice?
3. The New Mexico landscapes, the widescreen photography, the snow, the forest, the desert, the mountains, the canyons, the natural beauty, terror? Nature as the context for this pursuit? The atmospheric score?
4. The opening: Maggie, the outhouse, Dot? Indications of the mundane way of life, isolated, the ranch? Maggie and her daughters, Brake? Work, the house, her work as a doctor, extracting the tooth, her speaking Spanish? The tensions in the household, with Lily, wanting to go to Cleveland, to hear her voice recorded, critical of her mother? The comments on her relationship with Brake? The setting for the pursuit and search for Lily?
5. Tommy Lee Jones' iconic presence as Jones? His arrival in the west, Brake and his suspicions, pulling the gun on him? His answers, settling in? Coming into the house, Maggie's harsh reaction, his not being able to eat rabbit, his being in the barn and drawing? His story, coming to the west, the artist, his wife, leaving wife and children, his story about the hawk, it flying away and his not returning because the hawk was still flying? His life with the Indians, the twenty years, their satiric name for him, his wives, children and their deaths, his acceptance of Indian rituals and beliefs, learning the language? Bitten by a rattlesnake, not being able to eat rabbit, coming to reconcile with his family for survival, his offering the money and Maggie's refusing? Maggie treating him as a doctor, her resentments? The girls and Dot's curiosity about her grandfather? His leaving, Maggie finding him in prison?
6. The day they travelled to the town, Maggie waiting, time passing, the horse returning alone, Emiliano dead, Brake and his being tortured to death, her finding Dot, her tearful reaction, the story of the abduction? Maggie and her decision to go, Dot and her firmness that she had to accompany her mother?
7. Their arriving at the town, the discussions with the sheriff, the fair in town, the telegraph message, the military going in the opposite direction, no men being available? Her letting her father go free from jail, bargaining with him to find Lily, the travelling to the homestead, finding the dead bodies and the mother and baby gone? This being visualised for the audience? The arrival of the military? Their looting, their suspicions of Jones, wanting to hang him? Maggie saving him again?
8. Pesh-Chidin? and his visual appearance, reputation as a witch, the story of his birth, his ability with spells, with substances? Blinding the photographer, drugging Jones? Leader of the renegade gang, the troops from the army, the whites and the Indians? The trading with the girls, seven an unlucky number, his taking the girls, taking Lily? His personality, his control of the group, his sinister dominance, his fingernails, deaths? Taking photos? The photographer, taking his photo and the group, his suspicions, blinding the photographer and his death? His finding Maggie's brush, casting the spell on her? It being repelled by Jones putting the beads on his daughter? His killing the pursuing Indian, the brutal treatment of Jones? The girls gone, the Mexicans arriving, his wanting their horses, shooting them?
9. Cate Blanchett's portrait of Maggie, the background of her life, her father leaving, her mother, the unknown father of Lily, her husband and Dot? A strong woman, the house, the farm, her work as a doctor? Her relationship with Brake, Lily critical, Dot devoted to her mother? Her grief at the deaths? Her decision to pursue the Indians and find Lily, Jones and the bargain with him, her dealing with the sheriff, the military, at the house? The hard journey, her surviving, camping by the river, the canyons and the floodwaters, Jones and his cutting Dot free? Her prejudice against the Indians? The mission and its seeming to fail, Dot and the reflection of the binoculars? The pursuit? Losing her brush, her illness? Her not leaving the mountaintop as Jones ordered? Her faith in him? The final attack, the rescue, the vigil, talking as father and daughter, his confession, her not wanting to forgive him? The final fight, the confrontation with Pesh-Chidin?, Jones attacking him and their both dying falling over the cliff? Her grief at her father's death, bringing the body back, forgiveness and reconciliation?
10. Lily, the awkward age, wanting to go to the city, to get away from her mother? Dressing up to skin the deer? Abducted, gagged, her ability to skin deer, getting the knife, freeing the mother after trying to save the child? The mother shooting herself and alerting the Indians? Receiving the cross from the Indian, her screaming and alerting the Indians and so causing his death? The reconciliation with her mother? Dot, her age, experience, openness to things, interest about her grandfather, in the water, with the binoculars, the guns?
11. Jones, the confrontation with the Indians, his plan of attack with his friend and his son? The attack, the violent treatment and his being left for dead? The final attack, the vigil, his expression of love for his daughter, going over the cliff and giving his life for his daughter? Achieving some kind of redemption?
12. The film and the presentation of Indians, the prejudiced attitudes of 1885, the military with their prisoners, the bigotry, Christianity and its harshness, considering Indians beneath them, the Indian religion and traditions and their being seen as superstitions? The role of the renegades?
13. The sketch of the military, pursuit of the Indians, the prisoners, the leader, the confrontation with Jones, the eagerness to hang him, the looting?
14. The authorities in the towns, trying their best, unable to help Maggie?
15. The trade in girls, the abductions, the ill-treatment, dressing them up and making them up, selling them across the Mexican border and their being lost? Pesh-Chidin? and his confrontation of Lily and threatening her with an unhappy life?
16. The end of the 19th century, the beginning of the modern era, the camera, telegraph, recording voices - indications of changing times?
