The Searchers (1956)

BACKGROUND​
 

When Ford made The Searchers he had already begun to experience a seismic shift in his status especially in relationship to John Wayne whose notoriety began to overshadow his own. The more reactionary the fifties became the more John Wayne saw opportunity in appointing himself poster-child for the right. He was able to ingratiate himself to the corporate elite which had proven their interest in taking over Hollywood and eventually the entire culture. He may also have hoped to win points with his perpetually disapproving mother. 
 

By casting Wayne in the role of Ethan Edwards, Ford was repeating the same pattern that had occurred when he hired Henry Fonda to play Owen Thursday in Fort Apache eight years earlier. Both men were transitioning from playing heroic “everyman” to portraying wounded ambitious men of questionable values who had become inextricably linked to violence. 

 
 

 

PLOT SUMMARY

An American Civil War veteran turned mercenary embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches but intends to kill her if he believes she has been sexually contaminated.