THE SEARCHERS (1956) JOHN FORD

The mission of Ethan (John Wayne), is to search for his nieces who have been captured by Cherokee Indians. He also desires to kill as many Indians as possible.

We start out in Monument Valley in a home with three kids and a mother and a father. An outsider approaches the house, and this man happens to be Uncle Ethan, who has been in the war and is now finally returning. During his stay at his sisters house, a group of Comanche Indians comes and raids the house killing his family and capturing his two young nieces. Ethan is very upset by this, and his goal now is to find the group they are with and rescue them.

His family had adopted a boy named Martin, or Marty (Jeffrey Hunter), who is a 1/8^th Cherokee. Marty was fortunate enough to be with Ethan at the time of the killing, and therefore the only other family member Ethan has. Together they travel across the United States in search of their beloved family members. On the way, they run into obstacles, see friends and encounter new people, as well as Indians. Ethan discovers on their journey, that Lucy was raped and killed, driving her fiancé to suicide, in the means of him charging the Indians on his own. After much traveling and talking to other groups of Comanche, Marty finds himself a wife, who eventually gets killed, and after five years they finally catch up with Scar. Once they get to Scar, it seems to Ethan and Marty that Debbie will forever be a Comanche. Once they discover this, Ethan loses all hope and wants to return home; Marty, however, will not give up and goes after Debbie, and as it turns out after once rejecting to leave, she complies and goes home with a steady heart.

In this movie, it is the first time we see the opening shot from the inside looking out at the vast Monument Valley. A shot that keeps the viewer inside, with a sense of claustrophobia and protection. John Wayne’s character, Ethan, lifts up his niece, Debbie, and this is an important moment showing the connection of family, and the everlasting love. We see this scene again, at the end of the movie after Ethan and Marty’s tedious journey. Ethan lifts up the older Debbie (Natalie Wood) and at this moment we see that Ethan wanted Debbie to come back the whole time even though he was convinced that she was full Comanche. This the first time we see racial tension with in a family. Although they are not blood related, Marty and Ethan, Marty is still family to Ethan. Marty is 1/8^th Cherokee Indian, and since they are from the south, and the movie was made in the 1960’s, a time where racism is still a big debate, the tensions are even higher than what could normally be expected between family members. In this movie we also see more violence. Not only fights between races, but fights between men and violence towards women. Wars between races have been seen in the past western movies, yet fights between two men have now become ritualized and must follow a pattern. In The Searchers we see a fight that has guidelines such as, no biting and no kicking, as well as a ritual of walking in circles a few times before throwing the first punch. In movies to come, fighting might become more like this and have an even more ritualistic feel to it. In one scene we also see Marty kick his Indian wife down a hill. We have not seen this much aggression in violence towards women. The Searchers was a hit when it was released into theaters and some believe this movie is one of the best western movies of all time. John Ford and John Wayne, we tip our cowboy hats to you.