History Film / TheSearchers

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The final escene of the movie suggest, and WordOfGod confirms that the ultimate fate of Ethan Edwards is to wander ''"between the winds," '' like the Indians believe will happen to anybody whose corpse has no eyes, [[LaserGuidedKarma and the destiny Ethan has invoked over]] [[DesecratingTheDead a dead Comanche in the middle of the movie by shooting his eyes from his corpse.]]

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The final escene of the movie suggest, and WordOfGod confirms that the ultimate fate of Ethan Edwards is to wander "between the winds," like the Indians believe will happen to anybody whose corpse has no eyes, [[LaserGuidedKarma and the destiny Ethan has invoked over]] [[DesecratingTheDead a dead Comanche in the middle of the movie by shooting his eyes from his corpse.]]

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Martin is pursued by "Look," the portly Comanche woman with him he has an AccidentalMarriage. She refuses to leave him alone because she doesn't speak his language and ignores all of his nonverbal horror at her presence. Even if he did find her attractive, he would likely want to get rid of her anyway, since he was already beholden to Laurie. Later, he completely ignores the obvious advances of a much more conventionally attractive Latina dancer.

* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: Or unlucky, considering how long she has to wait-Laurie Jorgensen. When Martin suggests they start "going steady," she pointedly tells him they have been going steady since they were three years old and it was about time he found out about it.

* WouldHitAWoman: Ethan rather savagely kicks his [[AccidentalMarriage accidental bride]] and AbhorrentAdmirer down a hill. Alarmingly, this is played for comedy.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Martin views "Look," the plain, portly Comanche woman that he accidentally marries, as this. She's not aggressive towards him; as a matter of fact, she is very friendly, gentle and submissive. He probably wouldn't have treated her as such if she were tall, thin and sexy. However, his interactions with Laurie show that he's still awkward even when he deals with the woman he actually loves. And [[spoiler:he's clearly shaken up when they learn Look was killed in the Cavalry raid]].
* AccidentalMarriage / AccidentalProposal: Martin Pawley thinks he's buying a blanket from some Indians. Turns out he's married one of them instead, "Look". Ethan Edwards thinks it's hilarious. He is also rather nicer to the unexpected bride than her "husband," despite the fact that she's a Comanche. Still, he does laugh at her expense when Martin roughly pushes her away.

* AlliterativeName: '''E'''than '''E'''dwards.

* [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie And Then John Wayne Was A Zombie:]] The final escene of the movie suggest, and WordOfGod confirms that the ultimate fate of Ethan Edwards is to wander "between the winds," like the Indians believe will happen to anybody whose corpse has no eyes, [[LaserGuidedKarma and the destiny Ethan has invoked over]] [[DesecratingTheDead a dead Comanche in the middle of the movie by shooting his eyes from his corpse.]]
* AntiHero: We'll give you one guess.

* BigBad: Chief Scar.
* BigDamnHeroes: Averted. Ethan ''knows'' the rangers can't make it in time to stop the raid on the homestead. He stops to water and rest his horse, visibly worried about what is going to happen to his family. The rest of the rangers ride off, hoping they can make it back in time to save everyone. They don't.

** Mocked in dialogue to hilarious effect.

* CaptainObvious: Lars Jorgensen, noting how puzzled Laurie is by the sudden reference to "the late Mr. Futterman" in Martin's letter, comments "That means Mr. Futterman is dead, by golly!" PlayedForLaughs, but also for DramaticIrony, since we know Martin is tactfully sidestepping any mention of the fact that Ethan killed Futterman in self-defense.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The racism endemic in white Texan society in the 1860s and 1870s, where someone being 1/8th Cherokee was still a big deal, is not airbrushed out - even Laurie, one of the most sympathetic characters of the movie, is affected by it.
** That and Laurie telling Martin that Debbie isn't worth saving after so many years of being a Comanche ''prisoner'' (possibly even forced to have children), and that her own mother would ''want'' Ethan to kill the girl.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Look. Her real name is T'sala-ta-komal-ta-name (Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky).

* GoodShepherd: Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton.

* PoliceAreUseless: Inverted. When U. S. Cavalry Lieutenant Greenhill tells Texas Ranger Reverend Clayton that their company can't be ready to raid the Comanche camp tomorrow, Clayton just tells him to stay out of their way.

* PyrrhicVictory: Ethan rescued his niece from the Comanche but she's gone native too long and will probably never recover. The quest also revealed Ethan's cruelty to his family and destroying their esteem for him. All he can do is walk back into the wilderness where he is better off.

* ReturningWarVet: Ethan is a Confederate vet who returns to west Texas in 1868.

** Comical music plays as Martin pushes his Comanche wife T'sala-ta-komal-ta-name down a hill.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The film was inspired by real events. In 1836 Comanches abducted one Cynthia Ann Parker. She was raised by them, became a member of the tribe and gave birth to a son. One day US soldiers attacked the tribe's encampment and "recaptured" her. However, she did not want to leave "her people," and regretted this and the loss of her son for the rest of her life. Fiction, however, has nothing on truth: Her son, Quanah Parker, became a Comanche leader and fought the army for many years. When he and his band finally surrendered, he went to live among whites and became a successful businessman.

* WillTalkForAPrice: Futterman would talk to Ethan only for money.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: For a racist hatemonger, Ethan Edwards knows a great deal about Comanche rituals and culture, he's far better informed about native tribes and their habits than the part-Cherokee Martin (who was raised among the Settlers). This is {{Lampshaded}} by Scar who notes that Ethan speaks "good Comanche".

The search drags on for years. Martin decides that he wants to start going steady with his childhood friend Laurie Jorgensen (Creator/VeraMiles); naturally, the fact that he won't give up the search for his sister complicates the relationship. Meanwhile, Ethan and Martin find that they don't quite see eye-to-eye on the nature of their real mission: Martin wants to rescue his sister; Ethan wants to kill some Comanche. And as far as Ethan's concerned, if Debbie's been married to one of those "bucks", she's no better than a Comanche...

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Martin views "Look", the plain, portly Comanche woman that he accidentally marries, as this. She's not aggressive towards him; as a matter of fact, she is very friendly, gentle and submissive. He probably wouldn't have treated her as such if she were tall, thin and sexy. However, his interactions with Laurie show that he's still awkward even when he deals with the woman he actually loves. And [[spoiler:he's clearly shaken up when they learn Look was killed in the Cavalry raid]].
* AccidentalMarriage / AccidentalProposal: Martin Pawley thinks he's buying a blanket from some Indians. Turns out he's married one of them instead, "Look". Ethan Edwards thinks it's hilarious. He is also rather nicer to the unexpected bride than her "husband", despite the fact that she's a Comanche. Still, he does laugh at her expense when Martin roughly pushes her away.

* [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie And Then John Wayne Was A Zombie:]] The final escene of the movie suggest, and WordOfGod confirms that the ultimate fate of Ethan Edwards is to wander "between the winds", like the Indians believe will happen to anybody whose corpse has no eyes, [[LaserGuidedKarma and the destiny Ethan has invoked over]] [[DesecratingTheDead a dead Comanche in the middle of the movie by shooting his eyes from his corpse.]]

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: T'sala-ta-komal-ta-name is only known as "Look", but she allows Ethan and Martin to call her this to make it easier for them to say.

* SoundtrackDissonance: "Garry Owen", the actual marching song of the 7th cavalry, plays over a scene of the US cavalry returning from slaughtering an Indian village and hustling the survivors (mostly white women captured by the Indians) off to a fort.

** The ballad "Lorena", a favourite of the Confederate Army, for emotional scenes involving Ethan, his sister-in-law Martha, and Debbie.
** "The Bonnie Blue Flag", a Confederate theme tune, is briefly heard at the beginning, as Ethan returns from the Civil War.
** "Yes, We'll Gather by the River", John Ford's favourite hymn, is performed both at the funeral and at the wedding.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The film was inspired by real events. In 1836 Comanches abducted one Cynthia Ann Parker. She was raised by them, became a member of the tribe and gave birth to a son. One day US soldiers attacked the tribe's encampment and "recaptured" her. However, she did not want to leave "her people", and regretted this and the loss of her son for the rest of her life. Fiction, however, has nothing on truth: Her son, Quanah Parker, became a Comanche leader and fought the army for many years. When he and his band finally surrendered, he went to live among whites and became a successful businessman.
* VictoriousChildhoodFriend: Or unlucky, considering how long she has to wait-Laurie Jorgensen. When Martin suggests they start "going steady", she pointedly tells him they have been going steady since they were three years old and it was about time he found out about it.

* {{Brownface}}: Scar was played by Henry Brandon, a blue-eyed German. The Comanche extras are played by actual Navajo from Monument Valley, Utah (and they speak Navajo instead of Comanche, much to the confused amusement of Comanche moviegoers).

** With a little MemeticMutation: it directly inspired Music/BuddyHolly's song of the same name, for example. This also happens to be one of the only two songs that the Quarrymen, who eventually became Music/TheBeatles, ever recorded -- Music/PaulMcCartney owns the acetate upon which those were recorded, which is the only original copy that was ever produced.
* ChekhovsGun: Lieutenant Greenhill's sabre. See BrickJoke.

* DeadpanSnarker: Ethan. But then, this is Creator/JohnWayne we're talking about.
** Scar has his moment of snark, too. See IronicEcho, below.

* DontCallMeSir: Or Uncle Ethan. Or Methuselah.

* DueToTheDead: Ethan desecrates a Comanche corpse to drive home the point that he's not a nice guy.

* FreudianExcuse: Chief Scar, whose son was killed by whites.
** As noted above, Comanches killed Ethan's mother. Not to mention the massacre at the start of the film, which only thrives his racism.

* GoingNative: [[spoiler: Debbie assimilates into Comanche life in order to survive. This is the thing Ethan fears most, and considers killing her.]]

* HiddenDepths: For a bigot, Ethan certainly speaks "good Comanche", knows a lot about different Native Tribes, understands nuances and communicates with them. He's even more knowledgable than Martin Pawley, the liberal AudienceSurrogate.
* HollywoodAtheist: Ethan frequently makes disdainful comments about religion throughout the film. At one point he describes Christianity to a reverend as "by what you preach", rather than "we preach" which suggests that he doesn't consider himself Christian anymore.

%% * Jerkass: Ethan is genuinely a jerkass, but he can't quite abandon his humanity like he wants to.

* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: Subverted repeatedly in the fistfight between Marty and Charlie. Which begins with a cute ritual of laying down a piece of wood and spitting over it.

* JerkassFacade: Ethan is genuinely a Jerkass, but he can't quite abandon his humanity like he wants to.

* NestedStory: An unexpected, sophisticated use of this in a Western. Much of the second act is made up of flashbacks framed by Laurie reading Martin's letter to her aloud.

* StarCrossedLovers: Ethan and Martha. It's purely {{subtext}} in the film, but [[WordOfGod according to a John Wayne interview]], John Ford hinted many times that Ethan may have been the father of Lucy and Debbie. There are many meaningful glances between the two, he kisses her a little ''too'' tenderly on the forehead, and when he returns to find the homestead burning, it's not his brother's name or anyone else he calls out - it's ''Martha.''

* AnnoyingLaugh: Charlie [=McCorry=]'s signature HAWH HAWH HAWH!

** That and Laurie telling Martin that Debbie isn't worthy saving after so many years of being a Comanche ''prisoner'' (possibly even forced to have children), and that her own mother would ''want'' Ethan to kill the girl.

* TrailersAlwaysLie: Sort of, in regards to Ethan. The narration in the trailer plays up his "courage" and paints him as an unconquerable hero--and downplays his flaws to anger and loneliness. It ''shows'' the moment where he pulls the gun and tells Martin to "stand aside" from Debbie, but audiences almost certainly assumed there would be a justifiable context.

** ''Film/TaxiDriver'' is one as well, also about a bigoted anti-hero trying to rescue a young girl from a situation she doesn't entirely want to be rescued from.

** Ethan was called Amos in the novel.

''The Searchers'' is a 1956 {{Western}} film directed by Creator/JohnFord, starring Creator/JohnWayne, Jeffrey Hunter, and [[SceneryPorn Monument Valley, Utah]]. It's widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

The search drags on for years. Martin decides that he wants to start going steady with his childhood friend Laurie Jorgenson (Creator/VeraMiles); naturally, the fact that he won't give up the search for his sister complicates the relationship. Meanwhile, Ethan and Martin find that they don't quite see eye-to-eye on the nature of their real mission: Martin wants to rescue his sister; Ethan wants to kill some Comanche. And as far as Ethan's concerned, if Debbie's been married to one of those "bucks", she's no better than a Comanche...

* StockholmSyndrome: Whether Debbie has developed this with the Comanches or is eager to be rescued is one of the eternal debates surrounding this film. When they first find her, Debbie says "These are my people" and rebuffs Ethan and Martin. But at the climax she's happy to see Martin and wants to leave immediately. The book is a lot clearer on the topic. Debbie had repressed the memory of the raid, but talking with Martin and Amos made her remember that Scar killed her family, so she wanted to get away from him.

* AdaptationNameChange: Ethan was called Amos in the novel.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler: Amos dies in the book. In the film, the final shot implies that Ethan is "doomed to wander between the winds forever" or that he's going to step out and commit suicide off-screen]].

* StockholmSyndrome: Whether Debbie has developed this with the Comanches or is eager to be rescued is one of the eternal debates surrounding this film. When they first find her, Debbie says "These are my people" and rebuffs Ethan and Martin. But at the climax she's happy to see Martin and wants to leave immediately. Of course, Scar is so intimidating that, even if she hated being with the Comanches, Debbie probably understood that it would prudent to not let him know about it.

* StockholmSyndrome: It gets a little confusing, because at first Debbie says "These are my people" - but then, when her stepbrother sneaks into the Comanche camp to rescue her, she is happy to see him and wants to leave immediately. The scene where Debbie follows Ethan and Martin can be interpreted either way. Scar could've had her give them mixed signals to lure them back into camp, or he sent her to deliver the "leave me alone" message, but she purposely defied him by not being totally committed to what she was saying, and Scar wasn't expecting the sneak rescue attempt.

* UnwantedRescue: It's actually a bit ambiguous whether [[spoiler:Debbie really wanted to be rescued, depending on whether you think she had StockholmSyndrome or not. Her anguished, slightly confused expression when the Jorgensens take her in at the end of the film shows that she wasn't exactly thrilled about being "reunited" with a neighbor family, since her real family is gone]].

* StockholmSyndrome: It gets a little confusing, because at first Debbie says "These are my people" - but then, when her stepbrother sneaks into the Comanche camp to rescue her, she is happy to see him and wants to leave immediately.

* AllThereInTheScript: In the screenplay by Frank S. Nugent, the medal Ethan Edwards gives to Debbie is identified as "a gold medal or medallion" awarded by Emperor Maximilian of Mexico to mercenary soldiers who fought between 1865-67 for the Emperor Maximilian's French forces against Mexican revolutionaries. This medal implies Ethan served in the French Mexican Expedition during his three-year absence and also explains his fluency in Spanish. In reality, the medal being used is the Order of St. Sava, a decoration of the Kingdom of Serbia established in 1883 to recognize civilians for meritorious achievements. Creator/JohnFord was an admirer of Serbian people and heritage since his war days and probably came in possession of the medal through his friendship with Creator/PeterBogdanovich, who has Serbian roots.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Martin views "Look", the plain, portly Comanche woman that he accidentally marries, as this. She's not aggressive towards him; as a matter of fact, she is very friendly, gentle and submissive, so it's clear that he wouldn't have treated her as such if she were tall, thin and sexy.

* CavalryOfficer: Pat Wayne as the green Lieutenant Greenhill.

** Going from Charlie singing "Skip to My Lou" to a fully-orchestrated version of that song when the film cuts to Ethan and Martin trudging through the New Mexico desert.

* CaptainObvious: Lars Jorgenson, noting how puzzled Laurie is by the sudden reference to "the late Mr. Futterman" in Martin's letter, comments "That means Mr. Futterman is dead, by golly!" PlayedForLaughs, but also for DramaticIrony, since we know Martin is tactfully sidestepping any mention of the fact that they killed Futterman in self-defense.