![]() Ethan and Martin, conversely, are rough and tough. The women are docile, but feisty, domestic engineers, swooning over men and cooking. THE SEARCHERS was made before the days of political correctness. Can Martin stop Ethan before he murders Debbie? Back at their home, a final showdown with the Indians ensues, with the goal to pull Debbie from the clutches of Scar. An Indian arrow stops Ethan just in the nick of time, and he and Martin barely escape. Ethan thinks she is no longer white and wants to kill her when she secretly visits their camp, but Martin protects her, a creek bed standing between him and Ethan, signifying their differences. Inside the camp is now a grown Debbie (played by a young Natalie Wood). Ethan and Martin hit the trail again, Martin purchases an Indian wife, and they find the Comanche camp run by a wicked chief named Scar, who is out to avenge his sons killed by white people. Although Martin is attracted to her and she to him, his sense of duty is greater, and he leaves her disgruntled and desirous to marry. Enraged, Ethan and Martin vow to search the whole west to recover Debbie from the Indians.Īs they search, they spend long nights out on the open range, visit saloons for tips, shoot at some Indians, shoot at some robbers, and make a pit stop at the home of the neighbors, the Jorgensens, where Martin is romanced by their anxious daughter, Laurie (Vera Miles). On returning to the home, they find the house burned, the adults brutally killed (off-screen) and little Debbie kidnapped. Are Ethan’s feelings for Martha, his brother’s wife, one of the reasons he didn’t return after the War? As Ethan leaves with the others, Martha and little Debbie stare into the distance after them.Įthan, Martin and the Rangers eventually find the cattle slaughtered and realize it was all a trick to get the men to leave so that the Comanches could raid Aaron and Martha’s homestead. In one of the classic shots of American cinema, Clayton, played by Ward Bond, deliberately looks away as Martha lovingly gives Ethan his Confederate coat while Ethan kisses her on the forehead. Ethan makes Aaron stay with the women, while he goes out with Martin and the Rangers. The Captain comes to enlist Ethan’s help in rounding up a neighbor’s cattle that was stolen by Comanche Indians. The next morning at breakfast, further interruptions occur when Sam Clayton, a reverend and a captain of the Texas Rangers, arrives. Because Martin is part-Indian, the bigoted Ethan treats him with disrespect, his eyes revealing the hatred within his heart. One-eighth Cherokee Indian, this young man was adopted by the Edwards family after Ethan saved him as a youth from Indian attack. During dinner, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) arrives. All are happy to see Ethan, and Ethan brings out gifts, relics from the war, and then they all have dinner. Ethan is greeted by his family including his brother Aaron (Walter Coy), Aaron’s wife Martha (Dorothy Jordan) and their two children, teenage Debbie and Lucy. Looking haggard and weary, Ethan was a Confederate soldier. The story begins three years after the Civil War with Wayne playing Ethan Edwards, approaching a frontier home. Highly praised, beautifully photographed, with John Wayne at his most complex, and with a great supporting cast, this movie is vastly entertaining and covers such topics as revenge, family, racism, trust, and diligence as Wayne and his companion search for a white girl kidnapped by Comanche Indians. John Ford’s western, THE SEARCHERS, starring John Wayne, is considered by many to be the greatest wetsrn ever made and Wayne’s best performance.
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