Trail Blazers

It is difficult to distil down to one single idea how the story elements in the 1956 film The Searchers work to create such a palpable and at times visceral visual treat. The film is the seminal western. It shows the white man Ethan Edwards as a matter-of-fact racist who openly expresses his hatred of the Indian to anyone, and the success of the story relies on the thrust of Ethan’s bigotry.

Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) is a former Confederate soldier who returns to see his brother Aaron and his wife and children three years after the Civil War has ended. With no explanation as to where he has been since the South’s surrender, Ethan has a large cache of freshly minted Union Gold and his saber and uniform he never gave up- this is a man who may have lost the war but by no means has lost his desire to fight for what he believes is right. A loner by nature and aggressively self-reliant Ethan has a deep bias against Indians. Martin Pauley (Jeffrey Hunter) has been adopted by Aaron after the half-breed’s mother was killed by Comanche Indians. Ethan and Martin join a band of Texas Rangers to go out and find what they think is some renegade Indians who have poached some local farmers stock, but they discover that they have been duped by a band of Comanche Warriors lead by a Chief named Scar (Henry Brandon) who kills Aaron and his family. Ethan and Martin discover that Scar has everyone except two young girls Lucy, and Debbie the 9-year old daughter of Aaron. For the next 5 years Ethan and Martin search the Texas landscape and surrounding environments for Scar and the kidnapped girl Debbie who they know is with the Indian. During the search Martin is driven by his love for his sister and the need to rescue her and many times he comes to blows with Ethan who is driven by hatred for the Indians and the desire to kill the Indian Chief Scar.

John Wayne in his performance willingly shows the harsh character traits of Ethan in his obsessive search for the kidnapped young white girl Debbie living with the Comanche Indians. His character exhibits a knowledge and particular insider informative of the Mid-Western Indians and their belief and language but his performance always hints at some past wrong that Ethan has suffered.

We surmise that the grudge Ethan holds against the race of Indians, Native Americans, is one built up from long exposure to the race and their customs, a culture he neither agrees with fully nor desires to condone. In many ways Ethan’s rigid attitude is what has founded America and the existing attitude that whoever can take from the country is the rightful dominant governing force. As he says to a native early in the film in his quest to find the kidnapped girl Debbie: “You speak pretty good American… for a Comanch”.

Analysts have read many things into the film including a parallel to America’s involvement in Viet Nam and recently the Bush government and our involvement in Iran. Aside form the politics of the film the visual treat supplied by Winton Hoch, cinematographer and screenwriter is something to behold. The widescreen Cinemascope really shows off the low horizon of the Texas landscape and one can almost feel the dust blowing across the prairie.

The viewer will side with Ethan as his beliefs are shown to us given the circumstances of the film story, but these characteristics are troubling when viewed alone. Scenes are designed to show Ethan’s point of view in relation to either Indian cultural mores or a law of the ruling white man.

What crystallizes these elements in the film is how Ethan’s spirit stands out when compared to his own people and compared to Indian culture. Ethan stands tall because in his entire demeanor he represents the viewer regardless of culture- we may disagree with his methods, and his harsh attitude but this is what the film states as the qualities that have made America a great country, especially in terms of foreign oppressors and our country’s involvement with allying ourselves with others globally.

Ethan represents the free spirit in us all, the same thing that allows us to see the world in perspective. Upon discovering a dead Indian, buried in a shallow grave by his tribe, Ethan pulls his Colt 44 and shoots out the eyes of the corpse, desecrating the body to prevent it from entering Heaven- his desire to show disdain for the religious customs of the Indian at some point indicates that he has considered those customs and may even have lost faith in them. When Ethan takes the harsh obsessive point of view he does in his quest for the young white girl it is to recapture and preserve the white spirit that holds the future of his own race, a noble gesture in the context of the film.

Given what we have learned from history about the settling of the West this is difficult to accept. We know that the American Indian was robbed of his land and killed off by the White Settlers, and in our Post-Modern view we understand the tragedy of this genocidal act, but accept it considering that without this racist act to kill off the natives, most of us American would not be here to read these words.

It is precisely this juxtaposition of ideas and themes and filmic elements that makes The Searchers such a powerful film. The film makes a hero of racist Ethan but also shows the Indian leader Scar as a sadistic killer as well, while at all times surrounding each character with others who are kind, or understanding or in some cases innocent bystanders in the grand battle being waged.

We are told by Scar that he takes scalps but never shown it; it is suggested that Scar will exploit the kidnapped white women but we are not shown it. Most of the terrible things that Scar is known for as well as many of the other Indian atrocities are told to us by Ethan.

In the one selection of scenes when Martin’s letter is visualized for us as Laurie Jorgensen (Vera Miles) reads in the voice over, we see the Indians as peaceful and willing to trade with the white man. Luc, the Indian “wife” that Martin adopts is an overweight benevolent Indian Squaw willing to take care of the white man, and ultimately her fate is determined by the larger war of wills over the kidnapped white girl Debbie.

Even when Ethan and his band of white horsemen storm the Indian village to save Debbie, we see the majority of the village as innocent women and children attempting to avoid the onslaught of white assassins.

The moment of triumph, the White Man confronting Scar happens off-screen, ostensibly without drama, and this is a let down to Ethan (and to our own sense of poetic justice as implicated in the White Man’s quest) whose motivation throughout the search is to kill this leading force and Indian Hero. Even the image of Ethan outside in the elements as his extended family remain indoors remind the viewer that this character must live this way according to his code and in spite of it.

The Searcher is that film that you will want to return to over and over as a great western but also as a great metaphorical tale about whom we are as people and as individuals living in a powerful nation. The edition I have includes an excellent Biographical featurette narrated by the Duke’s son Patrick Wayne all about the Monument Valley days where John Ford returned to shoot many of his films.

I found the VHS for 99 cents and the DVD for $6 dollars at Half.com.