Individualism In The Searchers

As Ethan rides towards his brother’s homestead, he is greeted by awestruck stares. He rides with the brutal desert behind him, sun glaring at his eyes while his brother’s family is framed in shadow of their own home. A hopeful tune plays in the background as he approaches. In this opening scene of The Searchers John Ford establishes Ethan—played by none other than John Wayne—as the rugged individualist, the one who tames the wilderness. This cowboy is integral to the “Myth of the United States,” he is the one who tames the savage wilderness its residents (Durham). However as the film unfolds, Ford explores Ethan’s tortured psyche, his motivations, his neuroticism, even the Indians and their motivations in order to deconstruct deconstructing the myth in order to show that the cowboy is a relic of the Old West.

In order to set up the myth, Ford must establish the primary antagonist: the Comanche. Our first encounter with the Comanche occurs at

dusk. The elongated shadows and foreboding music build up the tension. Aaron and his wife are flustered; they board the windows, pace around the house in a panic. When Lucy finally figures out that the Indians are coming, she lets out a blood-curdling shriek as the camera zooms in on her face. Their youngest child, Debbie, still oblivious to the gravity of situation is told to play a game where she must hide behind the tombstone of her grandmother. However a human shadow creeps up on her, as the music crescendos we see the face of a Comanche warrior dressed in stereotypical face paint and feathers. He is stoic and unmoving (Ford). This first encounter establishes the Indians as something the audience should fear. They arrive just before night, at dusk. The elongated shadows of the house and desert plants set an ominous mood. The Comanche warrior, who kidnaps Debbie, seems to feel no emotion. By framing their attack this way Ford establishes the Comanche as inhuman. No longer are they a people defending their land, now they are a force for our heroes to overcome. Lars Jorgenson words after finding out his son had been killed by the Comanche exemplify this point: “It’s this country that killed my boy” (Ford). Lars words indicate that the Indians are not people who made their home on this land, rather that they themselves are part of the savage wilderness that our cowboy must overcome. The way Ford portrays the Comanche as a part of the wilderness ties directly with the American myth, because “the master narrative of the US proclaims there were no Indians in this country, only wilderness ‘vacant land’” (Durham). According to Durham, this allows us to justify the horrid acts against Native Americans necessary to create the United States.
These horrifying acts against Native Americans happen constantly throughout the film. In an effort to claim the land, the Texans must set up a ranger corps whose jobs are nothing more than to shoot Indians down. The Union soldiers massacre an entire village, not even sparing the women. Ethan exists as an even more extreme version of this violence. For example, when the rangers stop shooting at retreating Indians, Ethan continues shooting at them. However, in the preceding scene, the Indians again are introduced as a force for the cowboy to overcome. This subdues any empathy we might feel with the Indians. As the rangers marched through the wilderness, they see a silhouette of in Indian riding horse on top of the hill. From the hill emerge more horses and more savages. Then on their other flank emerges another group of Indians, now they outnumber our heroes and the ominous music builds suspense. Now the three groups walk parallel to each other slowly, however the camera remains fixated from our heroes’ point-of-view. When the formations break, the scene becomes an all-out chase and the music changes from ominous to adrenaline-inducing. This build-up and release allow for a satisfying conclusion to this scene. The rangers make it across the river, tempting the Indians to charge at them. When the Indians attack, the rangers destroy them, seemingly every shot hits and they force the Indians back. However, even though the Indians retreat Ethan keeps shooting until he is stopped by the Reverend Captain Sam.
Even though the rangers and Ethan kill many Indians, our first reaction is not one of disgust. We find ourselves supporting our heroes execute this heinous act. It is important to note the way they set up the massacre. The Indians are the first shown as shadows, foreboding music plays in the background, we can see the tension in our heroes faces as they continue their march forward. We view the whole spectacle from our heroes’ perspective, which emphasizes how the Indians outnumber them. Compare this to how the Indians are portrayed, up to this point. As of yet, we do not see the Indians as humans: we do not find out about their motivations, their stories, and their lives. We do not see the situation from their point of view. Once again the Indians are shown not as people, but as something our heroes must overcome. When the rangers shoot at the Indians, they do not kill people; they defeat the trials that come with trying to conquer this land. This makes Ethan’s outburst almost justifiable, however Reverend Sam stops him saying “Let them bury their dead” (Ford).
A third of the way through the movie, we are reminded that the Indians are more than just something our heroes fight against. Reverend Sam’s insistence on letting the Native Americans retreat reminds us that the Indians are people too. This somber reminder of the horrifying acts these people commit in order to conquer this land humanizes the Indians. Yet, there is still a sense victory from this scene. However we start to see that our cowboy is not the most honorable man in the world. Up to this point Ethan’s true nature has only been implied. This is the first time we see his brutality called out. Despite this we still want our protagonist to succeed. We want Ethan to rescue Debbie from the Comanche. Because he seems to be motivated by the prospect of finding his niece and bringing her back to civilization we can allow ourselves to justify his actions.
Later in movie however, Ethan’s true motivations become much easier to see. He was not intent on saving his niece rather he wants to avenge his family’s death. In doing so his initially racist view on Indians changes into feelings of pure hatred for the tribe that killed his brother, the Comanche. His hatred extends so far that he defiles their dead by removing their eyes to prevent them from entering the afterlife and near the end of the film he scalps Scar—the leader of the Comanche—in retaliation for scalping Lucy. This repetition of traumatic acts perpetrated by the Indians against his family suggests that what preoccupies Ethan is the idea of avenging his family, not rescuing Lucy. In accordance with psychoanalytic theory Ethan repeats his trauma indicating an obsessive neurosis fixated on revenge against the Indians: “He reproduces it as a not as a memory but as an action; he repeats it” (Freud). Ford uses music to reflect the repetition of trauma: when Ethan tells Lucy’s fiancée how he saw Lucy dead, a deep bass accompanied by a melancholy violin plays in the background expressing a sense of foreboding and sadness. The same piece is repeated when he sees Lucy’s scalp in Scar’s collection. Using these repetitive elements furthers the idea that the Indians have traumatized Ethan explaining how he gave up on Debbie so quickly as opposed to Martin. For Martin rescuing Debbie was the main objective, he does not feel the immense loathing for Indians that Ethan harbors. Ethan however, so obsessed with hatred for Indians, wants to kill Debbie after he sees her assimilate herself into the tribe. Like many patients Freud observed Ethan does not display very many outward signs of his obsession. When he talks with the Indians he seems rather cool and collected, however he tends to repeat aspects of his initial trauma: seeing the dead, scalped bodies of his family.
This repeated defilement of dead bodies is an atrocity both sides commit. However, the film only shows the white man commits the murder, the white man scalps the body, the white man raids a town. Even in our first encounter in the Indians we do not see them do malicious acts. Ford neglects to show the Indians burning Aaron’s home or to show the scalped corpse of Lucy. One of the great ironies of The Searchers is that even though the Native Americans are portrayed as something to be feared, they never win a fight. Even when they outnumber the rangers by a factor of two they cannot win. The tone with which they portray the Native Americans does not match what we see. Similarly, Ford portrays the white man—specifically Ethan—with a tone that implies his actions is justifiable. For example the music that accompanies raiding the village is exciting, not melancholy, even as we watch them kill women and children without hesitation. This is how Ford primarily deconstructs the “Myth of the United States,” using irony to show how truly monstrous the actions of both sides are. But true to history, the Natives are the ones who die.
One of the most startling examples of this occurs when Ethan and Scar meet face to face. Ford spends much the movie building up Scar’s reputation. The other Indian villages do not even dare mention his name. Their expression changes to that of complete fear. Scar is supposed to be the avatar of the Texicans’ fear of Indians. However in the meeting Scar, the first startling surprise is that he can speak English. A trait that would mark him as more civilized from our protagonist’s point of view. Ethan even points this out saying “You pretty good American for a Comanche” (Ford). And Scar retorts, pointing out that Ethan can speak pretty good Comanche. Though he is able to speak Comanche, most of their meeting is conducted in English. Since “the choice of language…is central to people’s definition of themselves in relation to their natural and social environment” it is important to note the points at which Scar uses English and when he uses Comanche (Wa Thiong’o). He uses Comanche when barking orders and English to say “Two sons—each killed by white men…For each son I take many scalps” (Ford). One can see that Ethan and Scar ironically share a similar motivation: hatred for their enemies fueled by a desire for revenge. The cowboy and the Indian are supposed to opposite of each other—the rugged individualist versus the wild savage—justify their actions in the same manner, with revenge. Here is where the Ford breaks down the myth, the Indian and the cowboy have the same motivation. It blurs the line between the savage and the civilized. Their mutual hatred for each other makes them both human and wild.
When the film climaxes this strand hangs in the back of our minds, we no longer can look at the slaughter of the Indians as some sort righteous justice. Ford still sonically frames the raid as a classic victory for the protagonist, with exciting, adrenaline inducing music. But, visually however we see a slaughter, this creates a cognitive dissonance. Now that we know the Comanche fought the Americans in retaliation, the massacre looks brutal, almost savage. However the Americans are still the protagonists so we ought to feel some sense of victory. This can be seen when Ethan finally rescues Debbie, and carries his damsel in distress all the way home, however even this feels hollow. We know that Ethan did not want to actually save Debbie in the first place. He was more consumed with the idea of revenge against the Comanche than saving his niece. After he scalps Scar, he can now save Debbie because his primary goal was completed.
The empty resolution to saving Debby is evident in the final scene.

Ethan stands alone outside back against the sun. The beginning in the movie is reflected in the end. However one startling difference remains: he does not enter the house with the rest of his companions. Instead he goes outside staying the wilderness. Our cowboy knows he does not belong inside. He belongs where he can continue his borderline savage behavior. His family and friends fade into black as he stands outside while a folk song plays in the background. It is a bittersweet moment, as we have followed Ethan throughout his ordeal Ford has exposed his conflicted motivations, his borderline savagery. In this final shot, we can see that the cowboy is an antiquated concept that cannot exist as we move forward. Ethan knows this. His part in the “Myth of the United States” cannot be understated, however he cannot go on as a part of the myth. There is no longer wilderness to conquer, the enemy has been defeated, our hero has no purpose. He is rendered

impotent.