The+Searchers

 toc =**OVERVIEW**=

Jeffrey Hunter Vera Miles Ward Bond Henry Brandon Natalie Wood || Ethan Edwards Martin Pawley Laurie Jorgensen Rev Capt Samuel Johnston Clayton Scar (Cicatrice) Debbie Edwards (older) ||
 * **Director** |||| John Ford ||
 * **Year** || 1956 || ||
 * **Actors** || John Wayne

=KEY SCENES=

Rev Clayton averts his eyes
In this scene, Martha is tenderly helping Ethan prepare to leave to chase the rogue Indians. The Reverend Captain Clayton averts his eyes when, at first, he admires her attractiveness and then when she and Ethan share a moment. Throughout the film, there is the subtle suggestion that Ethan had had an affair with his brother's wife and that perhaps the girls are, in fact, his children.

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Ethan curses the dead Commanche
Ethan's character is brilliantly formed; he is the hero of the film, yet he behaves so despicably. Here, Ethan breaks all moral codes by shooting a dead Commanche in the eyes, denying him entry into the spirit land, cursing him to wander between the winds. This represents a larger idea in the representation of the conquest of indigenous peoples. Ethan's intimate understanding of Commanche beliefs and customs is not derived from a love of the culture; it is borne of a pathological need to destroy.

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The ending
The truly is one of the greatest film endings ever constructed. In this scene, we have the relief of Debbie's return to her home, but then we have Ethan unable to enter, cursed to wander between the winds just as he had cursed the dead Commanche whose eyes he shot out.

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=LEARNING ABOUT VIEWING=

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