The Searchers

¶ … Searchers:

A product of an age past or offering the possibilities of a revisionist reading?

Many films of the classic age of Hollywood spanning from Gone With The Wind to The Searchers are products of their time. That 'time' includes racist attitudes that would be unacceptable today in modern cinema. However, it is still possible to appreciate films like The Searchers. One way is to read these films critically, understanding and historically contextualizing rather than endorsing the views they express. Another way is read 'between the lines of the film,' suggesting alternative readings to the apparent surface meaning suggested by the plot.

An excellent example of this is exemplified in Brenton Priestley's essay "They ain't white. Not any more. They're Comanche': Race, Racism and the Fear of Miscegenation in The Searchers." In this essay, Priestley cites John Wayne's disgusted reaction when confronted with two white women who have apparently reverted and 'gone native.' This could be seen as an expression of his character's self-defeating racism and the racism that has driven the tribe to violence, rather than something endorsed by the film's director. In fact, according to Priestly, The Searcher's director John Ford had a relatively sympathetic view of the plight of Native Americans. However, the genre itself was so tainted that completely reconfiguring the traditional Western narrative to question the morality of the conflict with the native population was impossible. The film, Priestley argues, has contradictory messages: Ethan (as played by John Wayne) "hates Indians for their savagery and takes their scalps for killing his relatives; he despises Martin Pawley's Cherokee blood and makes him his heir; he wants to kill his niece for becoming a squaw and he embraces her and takes her safely home. Ethan is a monster and he is John Wayne" (Eyman 449, cited in Prats 278, cited by Priestley).

The fears of miscegenation (either by willing sexual intercourse or rape) are so deep, several of the characters suggest that it is better to be dead than to 'go native.' The film does not endorse these character's articulated views, however, given the fact that Ethan's niece Debbie is ultimately allowed to live and is embraced by her uncle. By forcing the viewer into such a critical stance regarding the character's views, even Ethan's views, he or she is encouraged to question other accepted tropes of native-white relations, Priestley believes.