***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** At a glance, `The Searchers' would appear to be your typical John Wayne vehicle: a spaghetti western with cowboys, Indians, and one seemingly unstoppable hero on a noble mission.
But Ethan isn't your typical hero - he's an anti-hero, at that. He's a former Confederate soldier who never gave up his oath and seems to have never given up the war either (he `doesn't believe in surrenders'). His mission seems less a noble quest than it seems a vendetta.
The story opens on the frontier of the West: from within a darkened interior, a door is opened and we look out on a sunny day in the picturesque Monument Valley (where the movie was filmed, but not set; a recurring personal touch of director John Ford). As the members of the Edwards family go about their daily work, we see a puff of smoke rising in the distance, a blur of movement - someone approaching the house on horseback.
Moments later the horseman arrives: Ethan Edwards, brother to Aaron (the father of the Edwards household). Everyone gives Ethan a warm welcome, and though he returns the favor to the children, he is not so amiable with the adults. Ethan is terse, stiff, and quick-tempered, and isn't one to mince words. He makes it clear to the family that he's just passing through - all the better, for Ethan may be a wanted man.
Before Ethan has a chance to move on, the local authorities show up unannounced. The Reverend Captain Samuel Johnston Clayton, who pulls double-duty as both a minister and a sheriff, is gathering up a posse to search out a group of Indians who have been bothering settlers in the area.
The Rev. Clayton recognizes Ethan, and figures him a probable suspect in a number of recent crimes. He wants to take him to stand trial, but until then he'll have to ride with the posse. Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), a friend of the family who is part Indian, opts in for the posse as well.
While the posse is away from the Edwards house, they are attacked. The posse realizes only too late that they have been duped, and by the time anyone makes it back to the house, it has been burned to the ground - however, there is evidence that the two girls may have been kidnapped and not killed like their parents. Ethan sets out to find the girls, as does Martin and the rest of the posse.
After Ethan gets fed up with and separates from the rest of the group, he and his begrudged partner Martin continue to follow the trail of the Comanche who took Debbie and Lucy. As the others depart, Ethan comments than an Indian `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.' Ethan Edwards is that critter.
As the title would suggest, the point of this move is not how it ends - after all, it's called `The Searchers,' not `The Finders.' The movie admits as much when Ethan says that he'll find the kidnapped girls `just as sure as the turnin' of the earth.' Whether they will find them is never much of an issue.
What makes this film compelling is the journey itself, and what changes the two men go through as they search not just for Debbie and Lucy, but for meaning. Ethan is a man driven by hate. Martin is driven by a need to prove himself to Ethan. By the film's end, both men have a turn of personality; Ethan has slaked his thirst for revenge, and Martin has found Debbie and proved himself to Ethan.
John Wayne's portrayal of a bitter plains drifter with a deep-seated hatred towards Indians, especially Comanche Indians, is among the best performances of his career. He imbues Ethan Edwards with a simmering loathing that comes across in every line of dialogue, to the point that his thrice-uttered line, `that'll be the day,' became a national catchphrase. In a film where most characters are at least tolerant, if not respectful, of Indians, Wayne's Ethan stands in stark contrast as a man who isn't willing to give an inch. When the posse stumbles onto an Indian burial site, Ethan shoots out the body's eyes. Not because it will do them any practical good, but because without his eyes, the Indian can't enter the after life and is instead doomed to `wander forever between the winds.' For Ethan, the saying `the only good Indian is a dead Indian' just isn't enough.
It must be said that most of the romance subplot between Martin and Laurie Jorgenson (Vera Miles) felt tacked on, but it did serve a good purpose: a bit of comic relief from the unrelenting loneliness of the West and the steely hate of Ethan. Much like Shakespeare's comic interludes between acts in his tragedies, the romance/comedy scenes bookend particularly suspenseful or troubling parts of the film.
The lighter parts feel more than just `tacked on;' they feel almost inappropriate when viewed in the context of Ethan's character. The audience watches with unease during these scenes because who knows how Ethan will act; he's out of his element. The very state of being indoors is off-putting for him, as demonstrated by the movie's final scene when the door to the house closes as Ethan turns and walks away, never having entered. The insides of houses are not his world; it was the frontier of the West, his search for Debbie, and his ongoing hatred of the Comanche that made up his world. Without those things, Ethan is a man without the purpose he sought to fulfill throughout the course of `The Searchers.'
`The Searchers' is a film that is both enjoyable and thought-provoking; a quality that many of John Wayne's other westerns lack.
But Ethan isn't your typical hero - he's an anti-hero, at that. He's a former Confederate soldier who never gave up his oath and seems to have never given up the war either (he `doesn't believe in surrenders'). His mission seems less a noble quest than it seems a vendetta.
The story opens on the frontier of the West: from within a darkened interior, a door is opened and we look out on a sunny day in the picturesque Monument Valley (where the movie was filmed, but not set; a recurring personal touch of director John Ford). As the members of the Edwards family go about their daily work, we see a puff of smoke rising in the distance, a blur of movement - someone approaching the house on horseback.
Moments later the horseman arrives: Ethan Edwards, brother to Aaron (the father of the Edwards household). Everyone gives Ethan a warm welcome, and though he returns the favor to the children, he is not so amiable with the adults. Ethan is terse, stiff, and quick-tempered, and isn't one to mince words. He makes it clear to the family that he's just passing through - all the better, for Ethan may be a wanted man.
Before Ethan has a chance to move on, the local authorities show up unannounced. The Reverend Captain Samuel Johnston Clayton, who pulls double-duty as both a minister and a sheriff, is gathering up a posse to search out a group of Indians who have been bothering settlers in the area.
The Rev. Clayton recognizes Ethan, and figures him a probable suspect in a number of recent crimes. He wants to take him to stand trial, but until then he'll have to ride with the posse. Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), a friend of the family who is part Indian, opts in for the posse as well.
While the posse is away from the Edwards house, they are attacked. The posse realizes only too late that they have been duped, and by the time anyone makes it back to the house, it has been burned to the ground - however, there is evidence that the two girls may have been kidnapped and not killed like their parents. Ethan sets out to find the girls, as does Martin and the rest of the posse.
After Ethan gets fed up with and separates from the rest of the group, he and his begrudged partner Martin continue to follow the trail of the Comanche who took Debbie and Lucy. As the others depart, Ethan comments than an Indian `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.' Ethan Edwards is that critter.
As the title would suggest, the point of this move is not how it ends - after all, it's called `The Searchers,' not `The Finders.' The movie admits as much when Ethan says that he'll find the kidnapped girls `just as sure as the turnin' of the earth.' Whether they will find them is never much of an issue.
What makes this film compelling is the journey itself, and what changes the two men go through as they search not just for Debbie and Lucy, but for meaning. Ethan is a man driven by hate. Martin is driven by a need to prove himself to Ethan. By the film's end, both men have a turn of personality; Ethan has slaked his thirst for revenge, and Martin has found Debbie and proved himself to Ethan.
John Wayne's portrayal of a bitter plains drifter with a deep-seated hatred towards Indians, especially Comanche Indians, is among the best performances of his career. He imbues Ethan Edwards with a simmering loathing that comes across in every line of dialogue, to the point that his thrice-uttered line, `that'll be the day,' became a national catchphrase. In a film where most characters are at least tolerant, if not respectful, of Indians, Wayne's Ethan stands in stark contrast as a man who isn't willing to give an inch. When the posse stumbles onto an Indian burial site, Ethan shoots out the body's eyes. Not because it will do them any practical good, but because without his eyes, the Indian can't enter the after life and is instead doomed to `wander forever between the winds.' For Ethan, the saying `the only good Indian is a dead Indian' just isn't enough.
It must be said that most of the romance subplot between Martin and Laurie Jorgenson (Vera Miles) felt tacked on, but it did serve a good purpose: a bit of comic relief from the unrelenting loneliness of the West and the steely hate of Ethan. Much like Shakespeare's comic interludes between acts in his tragedies, the romance/comedy scenes bookend particularly suspenseful or troubling parts of the film.
The lighter parts feel more than just `tacked on;' they feel almost inappropriate when viewed in the context of Ethan's character. The audience watches with unease during these scenes because who knows how Ethan will act; he's out of his element. The very state of being indoors is off-putting for him, as demonstrated by the movie's final scene when the door to the house closes as Ethan turns and walks away, never having entered. The insides of houses are not his world; it was the frontier of the West, his search for Debbie, and his ongoing hatred of the Comanche that made up his world. Without those things, Ethan is a man without the purpose he sought to fulfill throughout the course of `The Searchers.'
`The Searchers' is a film that is both enjoyable and thought-provoking; a quality that many of John Wayne's other westerns lack.