Aiden Thieme

Joseph Mealey

ENDI 1320

21 September 2022

The Duality of Human Nature in The Searchers

John Ford’s 1956 film The Searchers chronicles the five-year journey of

confederate veteran Ethan Edwards (portrayed by John Wayne) in an obsessive attempt to

rescue his captive nieces from a native Comanche tribe. Multiple themes are dealt with

throughout (racism, coming of age, moral ambiguity) but one of the more subtle and

more consistent is one that challenges the audience to ask what it means to be “civilized”,

and where the line between that and chaos is drawn. Ultimately, the film allows us to

explore this through the actions of both parties (the frontiersmen and the native

indigenous peoples they oppose) being both “civil” and “savage.”

The film wastes no time in establishing the theme of juxtaposing normalcy and

chaos with the brutal slaughter of Ethan’s well-to-do family by the native Comanche tribe

happening within the first third of the opening act. While being the inciting incident that

sets the story into motion, it serves to solidify the film as a product of the time (when

nearly all depictions of Native peoples in media were that of being stoic, fierce killers, an

issue that could be an analysis all in itself). From then on, the movie goes back and forth

passing the role of “savage.” Not long after, when the search party led by

General/Reverend Clayton stumbles upon the body of a deceased native, Ethan shoots the

corpse’s eyes out to prevent his soul from finding its way to the spirit world in Comanche
religion. While not blatantly taboo, there is discord amongst the group (notably Clayton)

on Ethan’s lack of hesitation in making the cosmic insult. This is also the first of Ethan’s

several manic episodes, the second happening during the search party’s chase and

cross-river battle with the native tribe that had been stalking them (the latter’s actions an

instance of predator/prey imagery heavily associated with savagery). Even after the

search party forces the opposing natives to retreat, Ethan continues to shoot wildly before

he is stopped by General Clayton, livid with the former’s lack of ethical warfare and

commands him to allow their retreat. This also serves to humanize the natives to an

extent not usually seen in Western films like this of the time. However, this moment is

short lived as the plot has Ethan discovering shortly after that the tribe have killed Lucy

(the elder of Ethan’s two nieces).

The remainder of the film mostly consists of Ethan and Martin simply tracking

down Debbie, so there are few displays of “savage” or “civil” behavior. The notable

instances that do occur are once again in a pair, with one being a domestic scene of

Martin trading with an amiable native tribe and the other being another one of Ethan’s

moments of crazed gunfire (this time at aimed at a herd of bison in hopes he can decimate

the native’s source of food during the winter months). Though it is in the third act that the

most striking instance of both sides occurs. After finally locating the tribe that took

Debbie all those years ago, Ethan and Martin are brought before the chief face to face and

in a surprising act of hospitality, chief Scar invites them into his tent to talk, an act that

can be seen as the epitome of civilized conflict. Despite this, Ethan crosses the line

entirely when after seeing Debbie has been taken as a wife by Scar, he is seemingly
resolute to kill her, as he would rather see her dead than let her live in the culture which

he so despises; His hate and readiness to act on it being demonstrative of how unhinged

he has become. Though amidst the final conflict (in which Scar is killed by Martin) after

Ethan gives chase to and finally corners a fleeing Debbie, all of the animalistic and raw

traits that shrouded him throughout the film wash away. He sweeps up Debbie just as he

did at the beginning of the film proclaiming, “let’s go home.”

The Searchers is considered one of the greatest and most influential western films

of all time (both for its commercial/critical success and the filmmaking techniques it tent-

poled), though one of the most striking aspects of the movie is the equality with which

the brutal and most awful of human nature is distributed between the characters in

conflict with each other. There were few stories in Western media at the time where the

protagonist was equally if not worse than the antagonist. While to goal of movies is

entertain, they also teach us; this sort of character writing humbles us by showing that

heroes are flawed but can still do good. Which is a lesson that we can learn to better

ourselves and feel uplifted, just as we are meant to in the final minutes of the film as

Ethan and Martin finally return with Debbie on horseback.