Reflections on characters and
themes in “The Searchers”
Directed by John Ford
Screenplay by Frank S Nugent,
based on the novel by Alan Le
May
Starring John Wayne, Jeffrey
Hunter and Vera Miles
Aaron Edwards and most of his family have been
attacked and kidnapped or killed in a Comanche raid. Ethan, Aaron’s brother,
accompanied by a young family friend Martin Pawley, set out on what will become
an epic search for Ethan’s niece, Debbie.
One of the central themes, and the one which underpins
all others, is family. Family provides security and purpose in spite of all
hardships as members of the various families seen in the film pull together to
survive, support one another (in spite of superficial bickering), and to make
something of their difficult lives. Family life is certainly idealised, though
within acceptable limits, and here the hard-working, principled and devoted
family members are likely to be regarded as “normal”, with recognisable
relationships, traits and quirks.
Men are seen as practical and hard-working providers
offering home and physical security, while women are clearly the driving force
providing comfort and guidance. Men are also seen as somewhat tongue-tied and
clumsy in matters of love, while women are clear-headed and show common sense.
Love, in several different forms, is also one of the
main driving forces behind the action – be it love in the form of family
devotion, friendship or youthful passion, love propels most of the characters
and indeed may be seen as the very reason for all of Ethan’s woes as love has
brought him into conflict with family values and devotion.
Ethan loves his brother Aaron’s wife and she is in
love with him. Nothing is said or explained, but it is clear through a series
of gestures, looks and silences that there is a strong bond of affection
between them. Similarly, Ethan’s hatred of Comanches is never fully explained,
though we may impute considerable and perhaps awful experience, given his
detailed knowledge of their ways.
The fact is, however, that the roots of Ethan’s rage
and racist hatred may lie not so much in his experience with them, but even
more fundamentally in his deeply felt but impossible love for Martha, his
brother’s wife. Just as love can lead to happiness and fulfilment, so its
deprivation can lead to feelings of discontent, non-fulfilment and then
resentment.
Ethan Edwards is a driven man – driven away by an
impossible love as a result of which he must choose between hurting himself or
others, driven by principle which led him to put others before himself, and
finally driven by bitterness and resentment which have eaten away at him as he
has lost not just his love and his family, but also the beloved nation he
fought to defend.
Having lost his country and his very way of life, with
no-one to offer comfort or commitment, Ethan allows himself to be so
overwhelmed by anger and bitterness that he questions the very values he
(presumably) set out to defend and (it is suggested) he commits criminal acts
including robbery and perhaps even murder.
In the intervening period between his departure and
his return we may assume, through his knowledge of Comanche ways, that apart
from participating in the Civil War, he has been an Indian fighter and a
hunter, among various other possible occupations. It has been suggested that
his behaviour and entire manner are due to some innate racism, and while it is
undoubtedly true that he displays racist attitudes, it should be pointed out
that Ethan is equally dismissive of virtually everyone and whatever values they
live by – be it Indians, his own brother (with whom he is decidedly tetchy at
the start of the film), the Reverend, the army or traders. Ethan is equally
disillusioned with them all. It is not so much that he is cynical, more that he
has lost the edge of idealism and sees things clearly.
It would be easy to write Ethan off as ruled by hatred
and negativity, suspicious and dismissive of everything, but how did he arrive
at this point?
I would suggest that the answer to that question lies
in the profound dissatisfaction coupled with a sense of loss and pointlessness
arising from the situation with Martha. His emptiness and resentment
undoubtedly led to a loss of direction and then rebellion – rebellion against
life itself. Perhaps by putting himself in harm’s way he hoped to put an end to
his emptiness, but his anger was greater than his despair and this fuelled his
spirit, leading him ever farther down the path of disillusionment and bitterness.
Now, after his return, the loss of his brother, his
brother’s two older children and of course the woman he loved, only serves to
compound that anger and bitterness, though now they are crystallised into a
single purpose (to retrieve his niece) and a single object of hate or channel
for all his feelings (Comanche chief Scar).
Ethan’s sense of loyalty to family (and perhaps the
fact that the kidnapped Debbie is the daughter of the woman he loved) fuels his
determination to find Debbie and save her from life with the Comanches. This
search becomes an obsession and provides his whole purpose for living. He
channels all his energy and efforts into finding the girl, aided by the younger
and much more idealistic Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter).
Together they strike a good, if somewhat uneasy,
balance between experience and idealism. Martin represents hope and faith (in
the sense of confidence in their purpose and a positive attitude), while Ethan
is the world-weary existential “realist” all too willing to see the worst in
people. Neither would be successful in achieving their purpose without the
other.
Ethan, however, becomes almost consumed by the search
for Debbie, so much so that he appears to lose sight of the very reason for
their search, and indeed of himself, as the anger, hatred and effort he uses to
fulfil his purpose become more important than his objective. As a result,
because Debbie has lived as a Comanche, he no longer regards her as his niece
and makes it clear he would prefer to kill her, as he would any other Comanche.
Strongly enigmatic, Ethan is not a pleasant man, yet
we want and hope that he will find some happiness. Perhaps because we have some
understanding of his situation (even if we don’t approve of his attitudes), and
we admire his determination to find Debbie, we feel there is a good man beneath
the gruff façade, and we want him to find some way to release that other man.
In the end it is idealism that saves Debbie (in the
shape of Martin Pawley), though this would not have been possible without
Ethan’s grim determination. Ethan cannot bring himself to kill Debbie – perhaps
he sees Martha in her as he comes face to face with her, or perhaps he has
found some common humanity. Like many events in the film, this is not explained
and this may be one reason for the film’s enduring popularity. It invites
people to ponder over Ethan’s motives and reasons. It also suggests, perhaps,
that people’s actions cannot be fully and logically explained.
At the end of the film, we are left with what must be
one of the most famous shots in cinema history, and one which says far more in
a few seconds of wordless movements, gestures and framing than pages of
dialogue could put across.
Ethan was and is a loner. An outsider. Searching for
Debbie gave him a purpose, and that purpose is now fulfilled. Now he must face
the nothingness of his normality, while the others return to their normality.
He is an outsider whose dogged determination based on bitterness and hatred
meant that he was what was needed in extreme circumstances, but there is no
place for him in “normal” life. If Ethan had managed to let go of his rage and
bitterness, they would probably not have succeeded in finding Debbie, yet these
very qualities mean that he has essentially become a social outcast.
There are striking resemblances between Ethan and
Scar, the Comanche chief responsible for Debbie’s kidnap. Both are driven by a
desire for revenge after an acute sense of loss and grief (in Scar’s case, the
killing of his sons in a massacre perpetrated by white men), and both are prone
to sweeping generalisations, holding entire races responsible for the woes that
have befallen them. Toward the end, Ethan even scalps Scar’s dead body, showing
that each is as bad as the other.
Racist hatred and a blind desire for revenge may
provide a powerful driving force, but one which is nothing but destructive.
Surely the suggestion here is that as long as this cycle of hatred and revenge
continues, social and moral progress is not possible.
Hope is offered in the shape of Martin Pawley who is
willing to move on and put the past behind him. Perhaps men like Ethan and Scar
were needed at one time, in certain circumstances, but as time and
circumstances change, so they must change or withdraw in order to allow
progress to take place.
Beautifully photographed and produced, the film
remains enigmatic, perhaps, as suggested above, because not everything is fully
explained and so we, the audience, are more engaged as a result.
Exciting, emotional, thought-provoking and even
humorous (a phenomenal achievement, to be able to mix what amounts to tragedy
with comic undertones!), the film is a monument to the talents of all those
involved, and the fact that it has endured in the memories and affections of so
many for some seventy years is surely the greatest testament to quality any
film can receive.
Thank
you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it of some
value.
Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk)
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