Also the same medal that Scar ended up wearing.
Did it look anything like this? http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/keeble/images/medalLarge.jpg
I've looked around a little on the internet and haven't found anything yet, and the FAQ is empty for this film.
EDIT: I found a scene with the medal on youtube, pause the video at 1:19 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzCsWnZCrEM
Read the trivial page, last item on the list as of this date.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049730/trivia
Happiness is a belt-fed weapon.
The medal is very significant symbolically, because it signifies the medal was given
for soulless acts, but Ethan will only find peace when he reclaims his soul through an
act of self-sacrifice that signifies he's laid down his sword, which is symbolized by him
returning Debbie home alive.
FOX Aryan News: We're fair, but our audience is unbalanced.
One of the things I've wondered is if that medal were for fighting in the Indian Wars. Red Cloud's War had just ended in 1868 and was fought against the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapho. That would explain John Wayne's prejudice.
Ethan hadn't come home right after the Civil War; he went somewhere.
I can't buy into the idea that the medal was from the Mexican War - that war ended in 1848.
But if it's a FRENCH Medal, the French intervention in Mexico, also known as the Maximilian Affair and The Franco-Mexican War ran from around 1862 to 1867,...as for Ethan's prejudices against the Commanches, well everybody who lived in the region who WASN'T a Commanche probably felt the same way.
NM
Gosh Darn! I knew I should have majored in history. Thanks. It does have that French Croix de Guerre thing going for it, doesn't it? It's just a bit fancier than the crossed swords on the French Croix de Guerre.
I would like to know the story behind this medal. I guess we'll just have to ask the Prop man.
Maybe what he has is the medal they gave to the Cowardly Lion :)
Kmorla:
Heck, I didn't know either; I just read it in the trivia section:
"The medal Ethan Edwards gives to Debbie is not a Confederate or Union Army medal. It is a French medal awarded to mercenary soldiers who fought between 1865 and 1867 for the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. This medal implies Ethan served in the French Mexican Expedition during his mysterious three year absence and also explains his fluency in Spanish."
NM
Hell, that makes sense...somehow i always thought it was never a US army payroll or a US bank job...good thinking
shareNo. You are mistaking. The medal is in fact "orden Svetog Save treceg stepena" (http://sr.wikipedia.org/sr-el/%D0%A1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0:SavaIIIrevers.jpg). It is the medal that Serbian kings are giving from 1883 till present days. This particular medal is probably the one that John Ford received during WW2 for his war contribution from, at that time, king of Yugoslavia.
shareThe Serbian medal does indeed look very much like the one in the movie; but Debbie's "locket" has a green ribbon with red edging, not the blue and white one that goes with the medal.
As for Ethan's prejudice, when little Debbie runs out of the cabin to hide, she crouches in front of the tombstone of Ethan and Aaron's mother, killed at age 41 by the Comanche.
"The value of an idea has nothing to do with the honesty of the man expressing it."--Oscar Wilde
Yes, it has green-red ribbon. It was changed for the movie, too go with the story.
shareBeing that the film is set in the late 1860's, I doubt a Serbian medal that was first issued in the 1880's is the medal Ethan gives Debbie. Much more likely the French medal mentioned above. It resembled the Legion of Honor- also a French medal.
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae
Just because a prop is out of place in real life doesn't mean it can't be used in a movie. Plenty of props are anachronisms in movies about older times, especially westerns. One other such anachronism in 'The Searchers' is the knife that Marty carries, it's clearly a K-Bar knife of modern vintage. And the pistols and rifles carried by nearly everyone are of slightly newer vintage than the late 1860s - early 1870s, especially the Winchester Model 1892 repeating rifle tat everyone carries. It does make sense that if John Ford was presented a medal that looks exactly like the one used in the movie, that he would use that with a more Mexican-looking ribbon to fit the role.
Come see a fat old man sometime!
You're on to something. He had to reclaim his vanquished manhood having lost the war against the Union so he turned on the American aboriginals or Mexicans-whatever. Few understand he was a beaten man like most who lost the civil war.
shareI always thought it was a Confederate medal.
shareHere is an excerpt/quote from the film's screenplay regarding the medal:
ETHANshare
How about this?
It is a gold medal or medallion -- something appropriate to Maximilian of Mexico -- suspended by a long multi-colored satin ribbon.
DEBBIE
Oh! LOOK! My gold locket!
She holds it high for mother -- and all -- to see. Martha takes it and reacts at its weight.
MARTHA
It's solid gold...Ethan, I don't think she's old enough...
ETHAN
Let her keep it...Just something I picked up in Mexico.
Martha reluctantly surrenders it to Debbie's eager hand. Aaron hasn't missed the word "Mexico" and looks sharply at Ethan.
Perhaps he wanted to reclaim his lost manhood from being on the losing side in the American "un"Civil War and looked to earn it by killing Mexicans or Injuns or whoever was in his rifle sights. He was a busted up repressed failed male looking to reclaim his manhood. Pity those who became his target.
shareOne way to look at it is that Ethan "turns to the dark side," that is he is consumed by hate and a need for revenge from the time Comanches kill his parents. He seeks vengeance on the Comanches, then joins the CSA Army to transfer his hatred to the Union Army, when the CSA loses he goes south and joins Maximilian against Mexico, and finally returns home to continue his war against the Comanche. He is finally redeemed at the end of the film plot spoiler here when they rescue Debbie and he renews his bond with her. He finds his way back to the light.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.