Top Movies #12

The Searchers (1956)

“Injun will chase a thing till he thinks he's chased it enough. Then he quits. Same way when he runs. Seems like he never learns there's such a thing as a critter that'll just keep comin' on. So we'll find 'em in the end, I promise you. We'll find 'em. Just as sure as the turnin' of the earth.” – Ethan Edwards

John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards represents the troubled figure that built the American frontier: the loner, the wandering explorer, who had to have been murderous, cold, and even racist to acquire this new land for settlement. This type of hero represents all these elements, but he is also strong and determined. As Ethan says, he is a critter that just keeps coming. This type of hero, however, is one that contemporary America would choose to forget; for men like Ethan are outsiders and have no place in the civilized world. Martin, Ethan’s one-eighth Cherokee nephew, represents the ideal civilized American: heroic, protecting, brave, morally righteous, and even with some hints of cultural diversity. Martin is what we have come to identify with as the good guy, while Ethan is left to wander.

The song that opens the film asks the question: “What makes a man to wander/ What makes a man to roam?” The film never satisfactorily answers this question. We know Ethan fought in the civil war, on the losing side. We know his whereabouts during the proceeding couple years are unknown. He won’t talk about it, but it is clear that whatever he was up to, it is not something he is proud of. And he clearly has affections for his brother’s wife when he finally shows up. His history is perhaps better left a mystery. Why ask questions? Who cares how the West was won so long as it was won? This notion reflectively criticizes the many atrocities, especially to the American Indian, that occurred during expansion and settlement.

When the film opens we are presented with a character, in John Wayne, who is a racist, murderous, obsessed bigot. Issues rarely addressed in contemporary Westerns are presented here, such as the representation of the Other and issues of identity. While The Searchers does not take a strong stand against racism, it does present us with a hero who is wholly complicated: an inherent ascription of a man who is as racist as Ethan.

In John Ford films, dance and celebration are commonly seen as a symbol or affirmation of civilized society. It is an affirmation of social belonging. For those who have seen My Darling Clementine, it features a scene where Wyatt Earp and Clementine partake in a dance upon the foundations of a church. The crowd cheers them on, signifying Wyatt’s acceptance into the community. There is a scene in The Searchers where Ethan and Martin return from a failed search for the kidnapped Debbie and find a celebration taking place in the Jorgensen home. Ethan does not enter. Ethan is not privileged the same acceptance as Wyatt Earp because he has made choices that leave him on the fringes of civilized society, and whether this is a function of Ethan’s own self-prescribed condemnation of his uncivilized actions and beliefs, or whether he is simply banished from a community that cannot accept his problematic character, we may never know.

But one thing is certain in the final frames of the picture: it is love, not hate, that Ethan has found at the end of his quest, dropping off his rescued niece as he turns, framed in the darkened doorframe of the Jorgensen house and set against the vastly beautiful landscape of Monument Valley, and walks away alone. The door closes and the audience is left in darkness.