The Searchers is a great Western film that follows a story of a Civil War veteran who struggled to save his niece from another tribe in West Texas. The story was happening during the early 1950s an 1960s. Honestly, this film allowed me to experience how one’s race and kinship shape one’s way to live in the world. In this film, the settings of the story are designed in the wilderness of West Texas where people are living with violence and wars. Nonetheless, it is in such a unique social background that director Ford wants its audience to see how people make their lives during that period.
In this story, Ethan is the only one who is highly expected to find his 8-year-old niece Debbie. In his process of finding Debbie, Ethan is accompanied by his nephew Martin who is Debbie adopted brother. However, Ethan treats Martin always in a harsh way because he does not really acknowledge Martin and Debbie as true relatives but rather two mixed-blood adopted children. When he and Martin find Debbie, Ethan does not want to rescue her but to kill her because of her assimilation with Indians. However, Martin has struggled to stop his uncle’s wrong ideas and protect his sister. Though Ethan did rescue Debbie from the chief Scar and return their home finally, the kinky depiction of his racism forces me to consider whether Debbie and Martin and even other indigenous Indians will struggle to survive with his or her race? Or birth? I feel a little confused about the answer.
One of the moments in this film stood out to me is when Ethan sweeps Debbie onto the saddle, saying “Let’s go home, Debbie.” The scene functions as a transition of the whole story for implying Ethan’s obsession of dignity, dominance, and redemption for his Indian slaughter. The middle shot of Debbie and Ethan allow the audience to see how the eye contact between the two characters goes. Also, the sound at background becomes softer at this scene that helps enhance the relationship between Debbie and Ethan and push forward the plots to the audience. Most importantly, in the scene, the costume of Ethan and Debbie have separately enhanced their own identity. Ethan’s standard cowboy look and Debbie’s indigenous cloth and hairstyle have paved the way for their different fortune and life.
One of the critical conversations I read about the film is from film critic David Thomson. For this film, Thomson said that he has been compelled to watch The Searchers again and again and every time he’s not sure how it’s going to end…this resonates with me a lot because the mystery of Ethan’s morally ambiguous figure is a little hard to capture for me. Throughout the film, Ethan is portrayed with a kind of dual personalities, such as he both wants to return to Debbie’s home and leave that home, and he both wants to rescue Debbie and kill Debbie. These dual characteristics of Ethan make it a little hard to conclude where the story goes and what a person Ethan is.
In another way, the themes of this film are family, racial prejudice, and sexism are going to resonate with the society we are living in. Many scenes of the film are about the Edwards family members talking to each other in the small cabin or standing at the door to welcome the return of Ethan and Debbie separately. This is a big topic of the society where each one sees family as a big part of their lives. What’s more, women in this film are portrayed as sexless and inferior to men, which can be observed from the Comanche tribe where women and children imprisoned and white women are raped and become wives of Scar. This is depicted as an unspoken theme in this film but I feel that it has made a big difference to the society because it allows people to identify what kind of a relationship between women and men should be established in this society. Overall, from the filmmaking techniques such as the mise-en-scene, the themes of racism, family, and sexism, and the storyline, The Searchers allow the audience to experience what a Western film is like and what white settlers and Native Americans were living together with violence and tolerance. Most importantly, what makes it a great film is largely because what the characters are experiencing gives the audiences a deep thought about gender, family, and race we are experiencing in daily life.
Frankel, Glenn. “‘The Searchers’ was influential film in its day and still resonates today.”washingtonpost. Retrieved from