The Searchers: What on Earth is Going on in Ethan Edward’s Head?

The Searchers is a movie that has long been associated with other popular movies when it comes to the debate about the best pieces of cinema. Though the film first debuted in 1956 this John Ford classic is listed near the top of many critical polls, including a number seven spot on the ‘best of’ lists of the British Film Institute and Sight & Sound as well as number twelve on a similar ranking for the American Film Institute.

There is no denying that The Searchers is a beautiful piece of visual art. The parallel opening and closing shots, along with striking framing and cinematography that fills the screen throughout the run time, is evidence of why this specific Ford title has kept a place among the untouchables such as Citizen Kane and Casablanca. It is an entirely American film that is representative of not only the potential of the Western genre but of the United States’s innovation in the movie industry during the late 1950s. While there is no denying that The Searchers is a masterpiece in its technical and visual accomplishments, have the themes and content have more of an anti-racist meaning than some think?

The film begins as Ethan Edwards, our main character (John Wayne), arrives at his brother’s homestead. His whereabouts were unknown for quite some time following the American Civil War and his unexpected arrival in a tattered gray jacket gives insight into the Ethan’s belief system. His smile is evidence that he is happy to be back among his relatives but immediately the appearance of Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) changes his demeanor to something of annoyance. Martin is the adoptive son of brother and his wife who were took the orphaned boy in after a raid.

The first exchange between Ethan and Martin sets the base for the film’s structure:

ETHAN

Oh… Mistook you for a half-breed.

MARTIN

Not quite… Quarter Cherokee. The rest is Welsh… So they tell me.

Though ‘half-breed’ is not exactly the worst of terms Ethan could have used regarding Martin’s Cherokee heritage, there is a certain race tension that is established once Martin makes his entrance into the film. He is the unlike the rest of the family who have attempted to raise him like their own despite his ‘otherness’. Sure, the rest of the polite pioneer family have taken him in but Ethan’s reappearance reminds everyone that Martin will never fully be seen as white.

I haven’t taken the time to state the names of the rest of Ethan’s family because (if you’ve seen the film you’ll know this but) they all die or are captured in a Comanche attack except for Martin. This first act occurrence not only takes away the people that Ethan loves most in this world but leaves him with his not-blood-related nephew as his only kin. This event leaves Ethan with little hope but since the body of his niece Debbie, famously portrayed by Natalie Wood, is not found on the scene, he is determined to set out into the unknown to find her.

This all happens within the first fifteen minutes and tells the audience all we need to know about Ethan.

1. Ethan is a loner.
2. Ethan is a little upset that the South didn’t win the Civil War
3. Ethan’s not the biggest fan of Native Americans (aka HE’S RACIST)

But remember: at this point in the film it is to be understood that Ethan is the protagonist and the Comanches, who were mostly played by local Navajo extras, killed his family and all the other Native tribes are the evil force at work in the Wild Wild West. His hatred for all that is Indigenous is evident in the scene where he just shoots at the buffalo for no rhyme or reason other than to destroy something that is useful to the people he despises.

When the two finally see Debbie, she is dressed as a Comanche and is reluctant to go with her two relatives who have spent the better part of a decade trying to locate her in the vastness of the West. She is married to the leader, Scar, the killers of her family. She says:

I remember, from always. At first I prayed to you: “Come and get me, take me home.” You didn’t come…These are my people. Go. Go, Martin, please!”

As Debbie says, Ethan pulls out his gun in attempt to kill the girl he has been looking for. Though the journey and adventure that led Ethan through a changing of his manhood, like any character in a decent screenplay, he still believes his niece to be tarnished, impure, and ruined because of her association, especially sexual association, with the Comanches. The biggest irony is that the film overtly hints that Ethan has been intimate with many Native women, maybe even Martin’s mother which could make him a dad to the boy he’s been hating on the entire time! But of course, the double standard of racism is not rational but rather sexist. Martin doesn’t allow Ethan to kill Debbie, at least in that moment, and Ethan goes on to take out his anger on Scar by scalping him, a common practice of the white man though stereotype says otherwise.

The end of the film and what happens is disputed after the three return home, because of course Debbie ends up changing her mind after her husbands murder. Some think Ethan succeeds in killing Debbie before departing empty handed, mimicking the open scene of his unexpected return at the beginning of the film. Honestly, I don’t believe that because that goes against my biggest issue with the film which is this: I believe that John Ford thought he was making a very obviously anti-racism film that would be seen as radical.

This theory has been articulated through many academic articles, mostly by non-Native authors, who see Ethan as a broken man who is attempting to come to terms with his racism. The ‘savage’ stereotype that is played into is supposed to be ironic, eventually pointing a finger in the face of the main character as he realizes he is just as at fault for the violence as the Natives who he hates so much. Of course, showing the difference in Navajo or Comanches would take away from the bit of perspective the audience gets from Ethan’s ideas so putting all Natives as interchangeable only expands upon the intended message the director is wanting to share.

Even I think The Searchers is really a clever film and I will defend it as John Ford’s best in regards to Native representation (but that’s not saying a whole lot when you look at the role Natives play in the rest of his filmography). The set up is purposeful to show an ignorance in the main character that I believe was lost on many of the viewers in 1956 and continues to be lost on the people today, some of who have even named their children after Ethan (I’m not joking).

If John Ford’s purpose was to make a point about the hypocritical stance of racism and land disputes that had happened in this country, he still made no point to humanize Natives as people. Purpose does not absolve artists from continuing to enforce negative stereotypes. And we know today that the stereotypical imagery and characterization in western films like The Searchers still is at play as ignorant people think we have all gone extinct or that we only exist on the helmets of those guys that just played in the Superbowl.

John Ford basically made a white savior film in the sense that he saw himself as the one who would show that all men are ‘savages’ which is the term our Declaration of Independence so nicely refers to us as (Thanks Founding Fathers) and to point the finger back into the face of the white man and say “but whose land is this really?” I say, “Okay John, I see what you were trying for and it was a pretty movie but no.” Thankfully it is 2020 and we have talented Native filmmakers who are taking control of re-branding our narrative because Creator only knows we can’t handle another misrepresentation like this. The Searchers has stuck around for many decades for a reason. Do I think it’s top 20 of all time worthy? Now that’s a discussion for a different time and place.

I could talk about this film for HOURS but I know y’all won’t read 13,000 words in one sitting so I’m thinking of writing on more issues in this film like Martin and his Cherokee blood quantum, Martin’s odd marriage to the random Native woman, and the appropriation of Native goods that can be seen throughout Ethan’s settings throughout the entire movie.

Originally published at https://www.sheavassar.com on February 3, 2020.