The Searchers
With the rise of the blockbuster in the 1970s, the Western officially lost its foothold as the dominate genre in American cinema, never to recover, despite great efforts by Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, the Coen Brothers, and others. That is unfortunate, because the Western is the the only movie genre that is, unquestionably, American. After all, the fundamental tale it told had to do with the American frontier, about people finding land for themselves in relatively territory. Off all the filmmakers in the first decades of cinema, nobody did more right by this genre than John Ford, who made countless films with John Wayne that looked at the West from several angles, telling stories where morality is rooted in the black-and-white values many people held to for a while.
Their most famous collaboration, by modern standards, is 1956’s “The Searchers,” and after two decades of traditional narratives, they dared to tackle the bigotry and hate that was always at the surface of the genre that gave us cowboys vs. Indians. It was a bold move, to be sure, and bolder still by casting Wayne (the all-American symbol for old-fashioned machismo and heroism) in the role of Ethan Edwards, an unrepentant racist whose hate fuels his journey when his brother’s family is killed by Indians, and his nieces (Lucy and Debbie) are taken captive. His views were commonly held at the time, so for many audiences, Ethan was an unquestioned hero, but with the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s, such motivations were becoming less and less popular. Yes, his sense of rage came from a place of personal tragedy, but it exposed a bigotry that doesn’t distinguish right from wrong, and paints a whole culture as in the wrong.
I’m still woefully behind when it comes to watching John Ford’s films– to date, only “The Searchers” and “The Grapes of Wrath” have been seen. That will change, to be sure, but both films are fascinating and important looks at a director who understands that the world doesn’t operate in black-and-white terms, although the genre he worked most in helped codify such simple morality. There are tough times for the characters in both films, but we understand the motivations they’re operating under. Well, in “Grapes of Wrath,” at least; the longer Ethan searches in this film, what he’s planning on doing when he eventually finds Debbie is unclear (he finds Lucy’s body early on). The obvious answer is to rescue her, but what if she’s been “spoiled” by the Comanches? With someone as filled with hate as Ethan (who looks down on family friend Martin for being even 1/8th Comanche), that’s a sin on par with having Indian blood itself, so killing her isn’t out of the question. This is part of the film that being the inspiration for Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese when they made “Taxi Driver” 20 years later, with Travis Bickle trying to “save” Jodie Foster’s prostitute from the life she has because of Harvey Keitel’s pimp, Scout. Whether she wants to be saved or not is one of the great tensions of that film’s second half, and of “The Searchers,” as well.
The film is based on a novel by Alan LeMay, and scripted by Frank Nugent (Ford’s son-in-law), who wrote 10 films for Ford. Watching the film for the first time in many years, I was reminded of how complicated and entertaining “The Searchers” is. Sometimes, it’s a little “too” entertaining, with subplots regarding a love story between Martin and Laurie, the daughter of a family who takes Ethan and Martin in on their journey, that distract from the central story, especially when a misunderstanding leads to Martin marrying an Indian woman. Yes, it helps bring some levity to an otherwise dark story, but is unnecessary on a thematic level. It’s also completely forgettable, as I completely forgot about it in the years after watching the film. Seeing it again, I don’t feel like my memories were missing out on anything. The power of John Ford’s film lies in it’s rich visuals (filmed at Monument Valley, Ford’s favorite location); Wayne’s performance, which is a daring reinvention of his heroic persona; and it’s challenging look at the basic formula of the Western genre, and seeing how harmful it had become in a changing world, and how complicated life in the Old West he made so many films about was all along. That’s what people remember most about “The Searchers,” and with good reason; it challenges the viewer to rethink what they knew about the time period, and it’s what keeps the film vital to this day.
