KLR Searchers

In the very first scene of The Searchers, a plane desert landscape is “framed by the doorway of house,” suggesting the big open sky hitting the horizon of brown land was there before anyone and anything else (Tompkins 69). At the beginning of most scenes in the movie, all the viewers see is the land: the blue sky, the tan land, and some plants coming from that. From here, the scene either progresses with some dust in the distance suggesting someone is coming, or a character being zoomed in on, or even a house in the distance. John Ford, the director, made it a point to show the landscape came before all else.

Tompkins compares the pureness of the land to the creation of God, told in Genesis. God created the earth, the heavens, and light, which Tompkins identifies as “the constituent elements of the Western landscape” (Tompkins 70). Both in the opening shot of scenes as well as in the creation of life, the physical world came first to signify its importance to the characters in The Searchers.

Tompkins also mentions the idea that the main characters decipher the terrain from a distance. In The Searchers, both Ethan and Martin stop when they’re about to enter someone else’s territory and look for signs before they enter. At the beginning of their journey to find Debbie, Ethan and Martin stop at what seems to be the beginning of Indian Territory. Not finding a trace of life, Martin decides they ought to go back but only the experienced Ethan understands the true signs of the landscape. As Tompkins says, “the hero moves over the land with an intensity of concentration that turns his journey into a drama of exploration,” clearly evident in many scenes.

Tompkins assertions about the landscape replacing human feelings that men feel may be true in some other Westerns, but it’s very difficult to prove in this movie. Both Ethan and Martin go out for adventure. They actually like reaching their mini destinations: to eat, to get a drink, and even to sleep. I think her idea that men form an emotional attachment to the land may be true in other Westerns where there are less houses/pit stops, but it would be incredibly difficult to prove it in The Searchers.