"The Searchers" Movie Analysis by Katelyn :)

I’ve seen John Wayne movies before, but I’ve never really analyzed them like this and really thought about what I was watching. This time when I watched “The Searchers” in class it gave me a whole new outlook on not only westerns, but also movies depicting cowboys and Indians in general.

In this movie one of the biggest things that I noticed was how much John Wayne, or his character Ethan is idolized. Even if he does something his family and friends don’t agree with, they still respect him and his decisions the most. They believe what he is doing is right and for the good of the family. I also notice that by watching this movie in 2012 we can see how dated this movie is because Ethan can get away with saying things that are extremely racist and sexist. However, despite the fact that he’s being close-minded and unreasonable, at the end of the movie we still see him as the hero as well. One of the main reasons we see him as the hero is because of how the movie is filmed. Every time Ethan is on screen the camera is being pointed up at him, making him seem like a tall, almost Godly figure. Also every time Ethan says something racist or sexist, it all seems like tough love. We know he loves those girls and we reason with the fact that he hasn’t managed to shoot Martin just yet, so deep down he must really like him enough to keep him around and not mean the things he’s saying about him.

Contrasting Ethan in this movie is the Indian tribes. In this movie, Ethan sees all Indians as equals, meaning they are all savages, no matter what tribe they actually belong to. Because we see Ethan as the hero, not because he is actually the good person here, but because for the most part he is a civilized human being much like our own,  we associate ourselves with him and are more likely to then see the Indians as the enemy just like him. But that’s beside the point here, now to get back on track. Whenever you see an Indian on screen, they are accompanied with some dramatic and spooky, tribal-sounding drum beats. Also the cameraman films them from a straight on, more upfront and aggressive stance, and not from down low like he does with Ethan. Believe it or not this little camera trick makes a huge difference as to how we perceive the Indians in the movie.

From the movies projected “stance” of the filmmakers we are also lead to believe that the Indians are savages as well. This is probably because we are simply not allowed to see their side of the story. When Ethan kills someone, he flat out tells us why he killed them and why it was the right thing to do. When an Indian kills someone, we just see a dead body and nothing more.  The Indians in the movie are not given a voice, so as the “jury” in this situation we are left to see them as the villain.

It’s unfortunate that the observations above are all common themes throughout movies like these, because they have left the image of the American Indian very skewed for future generations.