The Searchers is certainly not your typical Western. And in the film John Wayne has what is for him definitely not a typical role. Here Wayne is no hero. He plays Ethan Edwards, a man who it is hinted has some rather shady incidents in his past. And he is also a rather repugnant Indian-hating bigot. You can make the argument that there are some good reasons for the hatred which consumes Ethan. But it's all a bit much. Ethan is very much an anti-hero, maybe even a villain. So this is not the stereotypical "cowboys good, Indians evil" Western. Not everything is so cut and dry. But Ethan Edwards can't, or won't, see it that way. He is a man with a one-track mind and a man with a mission. That mission is quite simple. Hunt down and kill Indians. And find his young niece Debbie who the Comanche Indians have abducted. But after all the time Debbie has spent living amongst the Comanche she is, in Ethan's eyes, irrevocably tainted. So this may not be a rescue mission. Maybe Debbie needs to be killed too. Oh dear.
So the film's central character is exceedingly unlikeable. But that certainly doesn't doom the movie to failure. A villain can be just as compelling as a hero and Ethan Edwards is surely a compelling character. However there are enough things working against the film which make it less than the all-time classic it is often remembered to be. For starters Wayne just doesn't have enough support from the rest of the cast. Jeffrey Hunter has the other big role as Debbie's one-eighth Indian adopted brother Martin Pawley, the one man who accompanies Ethan for the entirety of his long quest. And much too often the powerful Wayne leaves Hunter looking like a lost puppy dog. It's a case of a young actor being no match for a Hollywood legend. With so much of the movie being about the interactions between these two characters that is a problem. Ward Bond makes a decent impression in playing a Texas Rangers captain who also happens to be a reverend. But this character is absent for too much of the picture to have any great impact on the proceedings. A few more characters turn up as part of a romantic subplot but that storyline falls rather flat. The only thing that really is memorable about that whole section of the film is how incredibly annoying one character is. Ken Curtis plays the part, that of hopeless hayseed Charlie McCorry, and as he vies for the affection of Laurie Jorgensen you can't help but cringe. It's that bad. Laurie, played by Vera Miles, is much more interested in Martin anyway. Miles gives a pretty good performance but all this little love triangle serves to do is detract from the main storyline.
And that main storyline has its own issues as well. Ethan Edwards is such a hateful man and that makes it often hard to embrace the story. Often there really is not much of a story anyway. Once the story has been set up it's a long, arduous hunt for Ethan and Martin. Lots of time passes but very often there does not seem to be much of anything significant actually happening. Director John Ford provides us with some dazzling visuals. The scenery is spectacular. But even that doesn't quite ring true with the Monument Valley filming locations bearing little to no resemblance to the plains of Texas in which the story takes place. Artistic license I suppose. It's a film which has some good pieces but it never quite all comes together. The main storyline doesn't always engage. The subplots and attempts at comic relief don't work well at all. A few of the performances leave much to be desired. It is a unique opportunity to see Wayne in such an atypical role. But that only takes you so far. All in all it's a reasonably interesting film. But an all-time classic? That'll be the day.
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