The Searchers

I remember in the 1980’s, a friend told me that the Searchers is one of the greatest Western and he was right. 

The movie begins with Ethan Edwards returning to his brother’s range after an eight-year absence, fighting for the Confederacy and there is a hint that he also fought  in the Franco-Mexican War as he gave his niece Debbie a medal from the Mexican campaign. There is an element of mystery as he has gold coins, but we are never told how he obtained them or for that matter, how he obtained  the number of “Yankees dollars.”  What we do know he can speak Spanish which he does in talking with Hispanics during the search for his niece and he can communicate with Native Americans.   His loyalty to the confederacy as he refuses to take an oath to join the Rangers.

Due to Comanche raids and missing cattle stolen , the Rangers go after the Comanches only to realize that this ploy was designed to get them away from the real targets, ranches. The Rangers themselves nearly get trapped before escaping their own ambush.  Meanwhile Ethan’s brother ranch is burned with his brother and wife dead and two daughters, Lucy and Debbie missing.

Martin Pawley, Debbie adopted brother, joins the quest in searching for Debbie and Lucy along with Brad Jorgensen, Lucy fiancé.  Ethan finds Lucy dead and Brad is murdered after riding into the Comanche as an attempt to extract revenge for the death of fiancé.

The quest begins with Martin and Ethan but there is tension as Ethan doesn’t view Martin as family and one reason maybe that Martin is part Indian.  Winter arrives and the snow loses the trail before returning to Jorgensen’s farm. Jorgensen daughter, Laura, joyfully welcomes Martin and there is a letter waiting for Ethan from a trader named Futteman, who claims he has information on Debbie.  Ethan wants to go alone but Marting joins him.

It is here we find that Debbie may be alive and taken by Scar, the chief of Nawyecka band of Comanches.  The journey continues but, in the meantime, Martin writes to Laurie about what has happened as he describes how Ethan kills Futteman as Futteman attempts to steal money from Ethan and during a trading session, Martin accidentally buys a wife.  We also find out that even among native Americans, Scar name produces fear as Martin’s “wife”  leaves the two when she hears Scar name.  Later she is found killed along with a band Comanches by soldiers.  Martin wonders why the soldiers massacred her and other women. 

The quest continues for nearly five years as they find Debbie, who is living as one of Scar’s wives and tells Martin and Ethan that she will remain with Comanches. Ethan decides to kill her rather than allow her to remain a Comanche and Martin in one of the more dramatic scenes of the movie shields Debbie before Ethan is wounded by a Comanche arrow.   As we get to the ending, Debbie coming to Martin and Ethan may have been more of an effort to get them to leave before Scar comes after them. 

The five-year journey appears to end without Debbie, and Martin finds that Laurie Jorgensen is getting ready to marry Charlie McCorry who has been courting Laurie while he was engaged in this five-year odyssey. The wedding is interrupted by a fist fight between Charlie and Martin and then a nervous young lieutenant Greenhill states that Ethan’s  friend Mose Harper located Scar.   Scar presence means that Jorgensen and their neighbors are under threat and The Reverend Samuel Clayton who doubles as the Captain of the Rangers orders an assault on the Comanche camp despite being outnumbered but before the charge begins, Martin is allowed to sneak into the camp to find Debbie ahead of the assault.  Martin rescues Debbie and kills Scar, while Ethan scalps him. Ethan chases Debbie down and Martin pursue Ethan to protect Debbie, but Ethan embraces Debbie and takes her to the Jorgensen’s ranch and the film ends with Martin reuniting with Laurie and Debbie unites with the Jorgensen’s family and as everyone meets with each other going into the house, Ethan watches before walking out.

Ethan biggest fears that even if they find Debbie, she will be more Comanche than White.  Ethan own view is that he not will only kills Scar, the Indian chief who kidnapped Debbie but Debbie herself for in Ethan’s mind, it is better to kill Debbie than allow her to live as a Comanche. Martin wants to return Debbie to society.

We are treated to land that is harsh and the suffering of the those who had the fortitude to tame this land.  Aaron and his family are victim of harshness of the land trying to farm the land while in danger from Indians. Mose Harper offers some humor relief as Ethan’s friend and Martin unwittingly buys a wife when he thought he was buying a blanket.   Many modern sensitivities may be insulted at how native Americans are treated but for many of those who lived side by side with Indians, viewed them as potential enemies.  We saw two distinct cultures side by side but unable to live together, thus violence was the result.  Martin himself asks when he witnessed the aftermath of a massacre conducted by soldiers, why did they have to do this?   Whites are capable of violence as their Indian counterpart. 

Martin owns view of Debbie may be related that her parents took him in, and he acknowledge to Ethan that he does have Indian blood but “one-eighth” to make the case he was as white as brothers and sister.  Ethan doesn’t view Martin as kin, just adopted. But when surrounded by Scar and wounded later in the movie, Ethan leaves his belongings to Martin as they are near the end of the quest.  Maybe the last sign that Ethan view Martin as family is when at the end, he embraces Debbie and brings her back. When rescued by Martin near the end, she is ready to come home.  Scar is a portrayed as blood thirsty warrior, but he is defending his way of life against the encroaching of Whites in his territory and for him, it is total war including the murder of women and children and the favor is returned by the Whites.  Ethan and Martin find a Comanche camp where women and children are murdered including the Indian woman that Marin accidently buy. 

The film is as much a Greek tragedy as it is a western as both men engage on an odyssey that begins as hopeless journey with the odds against them that they find Debbie and not certain if she is not beyond hope in their own mind when they do find her.  The journey ends with Debbie united with her adopted brother and become part of the Jorgensen’s family but not before tragedy beginning with the massacre of Ethan’s brother family including Debbie sister, Lucy who is raped and murdered after the raid.  

As for Martin, he spends five years on a journey that his girlfriend Laurie regrets him taking, and she decides to marry Charlie McCorry.  As for Ethan, he is a man hardened by life and war, cynical about the world around him, understanding his opponents and yet capable of hating them as well.  Ethan hardness and cynical is counter by Martin’s own more gentle side who view Debbie as redeemable and more empathetic even to the fate of his enemies.