History Film / TheSearchers

* NoPlaceForMeThere: Debbie is back home, Martin and Laurie have reunited and can start planning their future, Mose gets to rest in his rocking chair, but Ethan realizes that he has nowhere left to go and the world is changing around him, so he wanders away from the Jorgensen house as the film ends.

* NoPlaceForMeThere: Ethan at the end, as he realizes he is no longer welcome with the family he saved.

* SingingVoiceDissonance: Charlie [=McCorry=] talks with a dopey hayseed twang, but when he sings to Laurie he's revealed to have a smooth, pleasant singing voice (as well he should, since he's played by Ken Curtis, who was previously not only a member of the Sons of the Pioneers, but also briefly took over as Jimmy Dorsey's featured singer after Music/FrankSinatra went solo).

* SingingVoiceDissonance: Charlie [=McCorry=] talks with a dopey hayseed twang, but when he sings to Laurie he's revealed to have a smooth, pleasant singing voice (as well he should, since he's played by Ken Curtis, who'd been a featured vocalist with the legendary Western group Sons of the Pioneers before he turned to acting).

* LeeroyJenkins: Lucy's fiancé Brad Jorgense rides directly into the Indian camp upon learning of her death and is killed.

* GenreDeconstruction: Of TheWestern. The hero is unabashedly racist towards Native Americans - even toward his own adopted nephew, who is one-eighth Cherokee. He's still the hero, however, while his Comanche counterpart dies shamefully. And he's really no more racist than many of the other characters. What really makes him frightening is that he's both racist and insane.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The great state of Texas with its fairly distinct landscape is contained in the fairly small Monument Valley, Utah, where Ethan Edwards and Martin spend years circling the same valley over and over again.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Martin is pursued by "Look," the portly Comanche woman with whom 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.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: They stumble across some of this done by the Comanches early in the film as well as a random Indian woman killed by the cavalry later in the movie. The general point is that on both sides there is GrayAndGreyMorality and innocents, both settlers and natives, truly suffer in this crossfire and there's blood on everyone's hands.
** The second scene foreshadows a similar one in ''Film/LittleBigMan'', featuring the same unit, the 7th Cavalry, and their regimental tune, "Garry Owen".

''The Searchers'' is a 1956 {{Western}} film directed by Creator/JohnFord, starring Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/JeffreyHunter, Creator/VeraMiles, Ward Bond, Creator/NatalieWood, and [[SceneryPorn Monument Valley, Utah]]. An [[TheFilmOfTheBook adaptation]] of the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, it's widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

The film and book, and their real-life sources, are near-perfect embodiments of TheCaptivityNarrative. They have been cited in studies about how such narratives continue to influence American life and attitudes towards women and Native Americans to this day. Susan Faludi's ''The Terror Dream'' has an entire chapter on ''The Searchers'' and its influence on the media images and political attitudes with which America responded to the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror September 11, 2001 attacks]].

* ChocolateOfRomance: Frontier variation, as Charlie brings Laurie a bag of "boiled sweets" when he visits.

The search drags on for years. Martin decides that he wants to start going steady with his childhood friend Laurie Jorgensen (Miles); 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...

''The Searchers'' is a 1956 {{Western}} film directed by Creator/JohnFord, starring Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/JeffreyHunter, Creator/VeraMiles, Ward Bond, Creator/NatalieWood, and [[SceneryPorn Monument Valley, Utah]]. An adaptation of a 1954 novel by Alan Le May, it's widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/de5751b7779238be4c57cbad3e4f1f9a.jpg]]

''The Searchers'' is a 1956 {{Western}} film directed by Creator/JohnFord, starring Creator/JohnWayne, Creator/JeffreyHunter, and [[SceneryPorn Monument Valley, Utah]]. An adaptation of a 1954 novel by Alan Le May, it's widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

When Ethan rides out with the Texas Rangers to apprehend some cattle rustlers, a Comanche war party attacks the homestead, kidnapping young Debbie (Creator/NatalieWood) and murdering the rest of the family. Ethan sets off in pursuit, accompanied by his nephew-by-adoption Martin Pawley (Hunter).

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...

* MixedAncestry: Martin Pawley is 1/8th Cherokee. Ethan mocks him for this, but ultimately comes to regard him as a son regardless.

* NotSoDifferent: Ethan and Scar. Scar speaks "good American" for a Comanche, Ethan speaks "good Comanche" for an American. Likewise both of them fought the United States, Ethan Edwards as a Confederate, and Scar as a Comanche, and are out of place in the expansionist Union. Ethan became a mercenary after the South Lost, while Scar works as a freelance bandit and Indian raider for Mexicans on the Border.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Ethan hates Indians, and he's not shy about expressing it, which oddly makes him [[AtLeastIAdmitIt more honest than the other settlers]] who behind closed doors, [[NotSoDifferent share his extreme views about captive women and miscegenation]].

* MusicOfNote: The Music/MaxSteiner score.

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

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: The final scene of the movie suggests, 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.]]

* BarredFromTheAfterlife / DesecratingTheDead: A group chasing a Comanche war party finds the grave of a dead Comanche. One man angrily smashes him with a rock but Ethan pulls out his gun and shoots out the corpse's eyes. When asked by a Texas Ranger/Preacher what good that did, Ethan answers that by what the preacher believes, nothing, but the Indians believe that if he has no eyes he can't enter the afterlife and just has to wander ''"between the winds"''. Ironically, the final shot implies heavily that [[spoiler:this is Ethan Edwards' fate as well]].

* SeekingTheMissingFindingTheDead: Ethan and Martin ride out to find Martin's two sisters, but they soon find the older sister's body.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** Ford's ''Film/TwoRodeTogether'', which is basically ''The Searchers'' revisited as a black comedy. Henry Brandon even plays a Scar-like Indian chief.
** Alan Le May's literary follow-up to ''The Searchers'', ''The Unforgiven'', which was later [[Film/TheUnforgiven adapted into a film]]. In many ways it's an inverted ''Searchers'', with a native (Kiowa) girl raised by a white Texans, while her tribal relatives look for her.
** Creator/PaulSchrader wrote several screenplays that were modern variations on the ''Searchers'' plot, like ''Film/TaxiDriver'' (also about a bigoted ShellShockedVeteran anti-hero trying to rescue a young girl from a situation she doesn't entirely want to be rescued from) and ''Film/{{Hardcore}}'' (a devoutly religious father leaves home to find his daughter, who's been roped into the world of pornography).

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

* Jerkass: Ethan is an abrasive and racist person, though he can't quite abandon his humanity like he wants to.

''The Searchers'' is a 1956 {{Western}} film directed by Creator/JohnFord, starring Creator/JohnWayne, Jeffrey Hunter, and [[SceneryPorn Monument Valley, Utah]]. An adaptation of a 1954 novel by Alan Le May, it's widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife / DesecratingTheDead: A group chasing a Comanche war party finds the grave of a dead Comanche. One man angrily smashes him with a rock but Ethan pulls out his gun and shoots out the corpse's eyes. When asked by a Texas Ranger/Preacher what good that did, Ethan answers that by what the preacher believes, nothing, but the Indians believe that if he has no eyes he can't enter the afterlife and just has to wander ''"between the winds"''. Ironically the final shot, [[spoiler:implies heavily that this is Ethan Edwards' fate as well]].

* AntiHero: Ethan is a racist and abrasive man, but he's out protagonist, and he's trying to rescue an abducted girl.

* 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.]]

* AMinorKidroduction: That's Natalie Wood's little sister Lana playing Debbie in the opening scenes where Debbie is kidnapped.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife / DesecratingTheDead: A group chasing a Comanche war party finds the grave of a dead Comanche. One man angrily smashes him with a rock but Ethan pulls out his gun and shoots out the corpse's eyes. When asked by a Texas Ranger/Preacher what good that did, Ethan answers that by what the preacher believes, nothing, but the Indians believe that if he has no eyes he can't enter the afterlife and just has to wander "between the winds". Ironically the final shot, [[spoiler:implies heavily that this is Ethan Edwards' fate as well]].