Searchers, The

Starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford, The Searchers is one of the most haunting and influential representations of Native Americans in Hollywood cinema. Although the film received mixed reviews when first released in May 1956, its reputation began rising among critics, filmmakers, and scholars in the 1970s. Today, it is ranked by the American Film Institute as the greatest Western film of all time. Many Native Americans applaud the film's nuanced portrayal of race relations but also wish The Searchers had been bolder in portraying the consequences of white racism on the American frontier.

The Searchers begins in 1868, with the arrival of Ethan Edwards at the Texas ranch of his [Page 1898]brother Aaron; sister-in-law Martha; nephew Ben; and nieces] Debbie and Lucy. The next morning, Ethan joins a posse to pursue alleged cattle rustlers, only to discover that Comanche warriors have lured away the men in order to attack the Edwards home. By the time Ethan returns, the Comanche have killed Aaron, Martha, and Ben, and have kidnapped Lucy and Debbie. Ethan and others—including Martin Pauley, his adopted nephew who is one-eighth Cherokee and whose parents were killed in an earlier Comanche raid—begin their quest for vengeance and their search for 9-year-old Debbie and 16-year-old Lucy.

They discover Lucy's body but later lose track of the Comanche, causing everyone but Ethan and Martin to give up the search. Much later—five or seven years, depending on varying interpretations—Ethan and Martin finally find Debbie in the tepee of Scar, the Comanche leader who had captured her. With the help of the U.S. Cavalry, Ethan and Martin attack the Comanche camp. Martin kills Scar, and Ethan retrieves Debbie, bringing her to a white homestead not far from where the story began.

The film's primary source was Alan Le May's novel The Searchers (1954), which had been inspired by the real-life case of Cynthia Ann Parker, a 9-year-old white girl captured by Comanche in 1836; she lived willingly among the Comanche for 24 years before being recaptured by Texas Rangers. However, Ford—along with screenwriter Frank Nugent—made several significant changes to the novel, particularly to make Ethan more sinister and to make Martin part Native American. The film version also benefited from Max Steiner's musical score, which incorporated Native American and American folk leitmotifs, and from Winton Hoch's color cinematography, which took full advantage of location shooting among the magnificent rock formations of Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation. As was his custom, Ford cast Navajos to play the Native Americans (Comanche, in this case), but, he used a white German actor (Henry Brandon) to portray Scar.

In most Western films before The Searchers, the lines are clearly drawn between civilization (represented by white settlers and communities) and savagery (represented by Native Americans, or in some cases by white outlaws). In Ethan's case, those lines are blurred. He fully understands Comanche ways and even speaks their language, as well as some Spanish when he encounters Mexican Americans in New Mexico Territory. Conversely, the film humanizes Scar by explaining that whites had previously killed his two sons. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, Ethan and Scar defiantly stand face to face, mirror images of each other.

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