John Ford’s 1956 film The Searchers is commonly understood to be one of the finest Westerns of all time; much of that is due to John Ford’s gorgeous cinematography, but the lion’s share of the film’s appeal rests on the captivating nature of John Wayne’s character Ethan Edwards. The dubious nature of Ethan Edwards’ heroism is at the heart of the film - a mysterious stranger who rides into town after a long absence, Ethan’s behavior and attitudes change the other characters around him in an irrevocable fashion. Because of his dry, easy wit and effortless confidence, it is easy to see the heroic elements to Ethan in The Searchers; however, the film’s text fails to reward him for these attributes, and paints his ruthless efficiency and skill as coming from a dark place that leaves him haunted, almost like a ghost. The Searchers also has bigger fish to fry, that of the relationship between fiction and historical truth (especially as it relates to the Indians). While Ethan’s animosity towards the Indians is one of the more justly criticized parts of his personality in the film, Ford’s depiction of the Indians borders on clumsy and insensitive even when emphasizing the historical truth of Indian erasure and eradication during the Old West.
Ethan Edwards, as a character, fits a lot of the stereotypical Western definitions of a hero. He is skilled with a gun, has cunning tactical knowledge, and is strong in heart and conviction. However, where Ethan deviates from the standard sense of a hero is a sense of idealism; he does not fight for greater causes, but simply to safeguard his family’s interests. At the beginning of the film, Ethan rides back into the lives of his family, who have not seen him in a very long time. His family greets him warmly, but because he has been gone for so long, and because of whatever presumed experiences he had during his absence, he does not feel connected to them. In early scenes, he can be seen eating dinner separately from his family, further illustrating this disconnect.
Ethan’s skill with a rifle and pistol imply to the audience he has experienced a great deal of warfare and violence in his life, but it is never explicitly discussed beyond the implicit understanding that he fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. The most we get as exposition for Ethan’s past is the reverend’s line about how he “fits a lot of descriptions” (Ford, 1956). He also refuses to actually align himself with the Texas Rangers whenever he works with them, and he is shown giving a medal from the Mexican Revolution to his niece at the beginning of the film. This allows Ford to showcase Wayne as a man with a storied past, one which has heavily skewed his worldview towards violence and hatred of the Comanche, as well as authority. These elements are more akin to the antihero than the hero, though he remains a compelling figure nonetheless.
Ethan’s lack of heroism is made much clearer when placed next to Jeffrey Hunter’s Martin, a more overtly heroic character. Charismatic, idealistic, and with a lot to learn, Martin’s wet-behind-the-ears wannabe gunslinger takes the protégé role to Ethan’s mentor, learning both how to be a hero and how to stand apart from Ethan. One of Ethan’s most clearly defining antiheroic characteristics is the fact that he plans on murdering his niece Debbie if and when they find her, as she would no longer be their family but one of his hated Comanches. By consistently sticking up for Debbie, Martin establishes himself as the superior hero – when Ethan says that she would be better off dead than married off to “a Comanche buck,” Martin angrily replies that she would be better off alive and a Comanche than killed (Ford, 1956). The pairing of Martin and Ethan allows the film to explore this moral ambiguity, with Ethan as the effective-but-amoral leader and Martin as the inexperienced, but idealistic hero. Martin’s freshness emphasizes Ethan’s weariness to the world, further showcasing the elements of his character worthy of criticism.
Ethan Edwards is shown to be nearly synonymous with the lawlessness and unforgiving nature of the Old West. John Ford films him entering and exiting the film from the emptiness of the frontier, almost making him an extension of the cruel environment these characters live in. Ethan is never surprised by anything in the film, noting his great experience with the frontier and his tremendous cynicism. In the opening shot, Ethan rides in on a horse from seemingly out of nowhere; in the final shot, a weary Ethan looks out at the vast frontier, framed by the doorway of the house. Ethan clearly has a more tranquil and content relationship with the West than he does with his own family, as this shot demonstrates; he does not belong with them, but on his own. This emphasizes the tragic nature of his character, a broken man who simply does not have anything left to live for.
His central moral failing is his racism towards the Comanches, which is what chiefly fuels his quest to find Debbie. He constantly disparages them in dialogue, showcasing a racism that justified the genocide of the Native Americans. By rightly showing this to be Ethan’s primary character flaw, Ford examines the issue of anti-Native American racism as a societal problem that leaves people broken. Interestingly, Scar’s motivation for killing white men is also revenge: “Two sons killed by white men. For each son, I take manyscalps.” ) Ethan’s animosity toward the Indians, as well as his metaphorical status as an avatar for Western influence in the Old West, leads this portrayal to connect deeply with the ideas of American violence towards the Indians.
At the same time, the film’s relationship with Indians is far from equitable. Scar, the dreaded enemy of Ethan and the film’s antagonist, is played by a white man, and the Comanches on the whole are portrayed as violent savages. While there are many gentle Indians shown in the film, they are primarily women; the “Comanche squaw” Martin inadvertently marries and the kind Indians they trade with are mostly, if not all, female. Comanche men are implied to rape and scalp women and children, and their ambushes are seen as unwarranted. However, considering the historical truth of the Indian experience, it was Europeans and Americans who struck the first blow: “Since the Indians stood in the way of unlimited access to North America's magnificent landmass, the Indians would have to be eliminated. And so they were” (Stannard 4).
Between the Trail of Tears, the Indian eradication effort, and other initiatives, the United States government had a systematic approach to destroying the Indian population. Like Ethan, their animosity was borne out of (or justified by) their racism: “Recognizing that the faint of heart might think his plan "to hunt Indians as they do bears" to be a bit extreme, Stoddard acknowledged that he might agree ‘if the Indians were as other people’, but in fact the Indians were wolves ‘and are to be dealt withal as wolves.’” (Stannard 6). By considering these people less than human, it became easier to dispose of them. In this way, Ethan in The Searchers exposes this greater universal truth, and successfully conveys this behavior as anti-heroic. Martin, the one-eighth Indian with the large heart, is the true hero of the story.
In conclusion, John Ford’s The Searchers uses John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards to explore the racism inherent in anti-native relations and its corresponding violence in the Old West. Ethan is a romantic loner, a man with a dark past who is haunted by the violence he has had to perform; at the same time, he relishes the quest to look for his niece as an excuse to hurt and kill Comanches. Ford frames Ethan as being synonymous with the Old West, as he disappears and reappears out of the landscape like an avatar for American influence. His great skill at fighting comes at a cost to his soul, echoing the loss of humanity that Americans experienced as a result of their anti-native efforts. The film posits a kinder, gentler future where women are not killed because of their association as Indian, and where partly-Indian heroes can rise to the occasion and overcome the cynicism of the Old West.
Works Cited
Ford, John (dir.) The Searchers. Perf. John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1956.
Film.
Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University
Press, 1993. Print.
