The Searchers (1956)
Dir: John Ford
Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, Vera Miles
My relationship with John Wayne films began in high school when I had to read True Grit for an English assignment. Naturally, I watched the movie as well. In college, I took a film history course and out of 16 films, we screened only two westerns. The films were Stagecoach and Red River, both starring John Wayne, which immediately gives one an impression of the long shadow he casts over the genre. In the years since, I’ve seen a number of his films, but somehow The Searchers slipped by unseen.
The film begins three years after the Civil War has ended. Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) is a former Confederate soldier returning to his family’s home for the first time since the war began. His reunion is cut short, however, when a nearby rancher’s cattle go missing and the Texas Rangers come knocking on the door of the Edwards’ home for assistance. Ethan and his brother’s adopted son, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), agree to join the Rangers in their search, but after riding for hours, the men discover the cattle slaughtered and left in the desert to rot. Realizing that the missing cattle were meant to draw them off their land, they hurry back only to find the home destroyed – burned to the ground during a Comanche Indian raid. Everyone has been killed except the two daughters, Lucy and Debbie, who have been taken by the invading Comanche. Ethan and Martin begin a five year journey to find the murderous tribe and rescue the girls…if they are still alive.
The Searchers is an adventure story, but the dramatic backbone is a man dealing with his prejudices. The film excels during the scenes that concentrate on the relationship between Ethan and Martin as they search for the girls. Ethan is an openly racist character and Martin is one-eighth Cherokee, which makes their ‘partnership’ uneasy and provides the characters with plenty of tension. From the opening scenes, Ethan shows only disdain towards Martin because of his Indian blood. Even before the attack, he consistently downplays any relationship that Martin has with the rest of the family and degrades him openly throughout the film by calling him “blanket-head.” After the attack, he is able to use that racism to fuel his vendetta as he searches for the Comanche tribe that abducted the girls. Ethan is ruthless, going so far as to shoot out the eyes of a dead Comanche so that he “…won’t be able to enter the spirit land” and wildly shooting at a herd of buffalo because “…killin’ buffalo’s as good as killin’ Injuns in this country.” As the seasons pass, and the hope of finding the girls unspoiled diminishes, the film veers into some dark territory that may make fans who have only seen John Wayne’s more heroic roles a bit uncomfortable.
Wayne is usually thought of as a great movie star rather than a great actor, but his performance in the film is certainly deserving of some recognition. Ethan is a character who had his entire world turned upside down when his side lost the war, and he wandered for three years, unable to give up the fight. Just as he’s finally able to set his saber down and return to a normal life, his family is taken from him. He’s a man dealing with tremendous loss who cannot control his grief as it brings out every undesirable quality hidden within. Wayne beautifully externalizes the inner rage and the character’s fears in subtle ways that may have become overly sensitive or too grandiose with a different actor, but which suits the battle-hardened, man’s-man character of Ethan perfectly.
In contrast to Ethan’s ruthlessness and bigotry, the character of Martin is portrayed as more humane, despite his Indian blood. Even when Ethan tells him that his mother’s scalp is proudly displayed on the Comanche Chief’s trophy spear, Martin is not blood-thirsty. He remains loyal to the task of saving the girls, whereas Ethan’s judgment is clouded by hatred. Martin knows that the longer the search goes on, the more important it is for him to be there to remind Ethan of their true purpose. Jeffrey Hunter does a fine job with the character’s arc from an eager-to-please boy to a fully-matured man who will need to stand up to his ‘Uncle’ Ethan before it’s all said and done.
Unfortunately, considerable time is spent on a sub-plot involving Martin’s girlfriend, Laurie (Vera Miles), and her growing frustration in his absence, which results in her engagement to a rival. While these scenes may be necessary to illustrate the passage of time and also to add levity and thematic value – paralleling a failed romantic history between Ethan and his brother’s wife (Dorothy Jordan) which is hinted at during the film’s opening scenes – they run too long, feel like they belong in a different movie, and take away from story’s true focus. What the audience really cares about is whether or not they find the girls, and whether Ethan can set aside his prejudice and accept Martin in spite of his mixed heritage.
I found The Searchers to be a challenging film, one that I needed time to chew on before understanding my own feelings towards it. While the film features a very simple plot, it’s treasured as one of the finest examples of the western genre because of the complexity of Ethan Edwards. He’s both heroic and deplorable. The film dares you to love him...and hate him. Ultimately, it does not pass judgment, revealing the truth that both the light and the dark is within us all.
