RT "The Searchers"

In the opening scene of the film, The Searchers, by John Ford, it shows a nicely dressed middle aged women standing in the doorway of a darkly light home starring out onto the brightly shown desert landscape. Your eyes quickly shift to a man slowly making his way on horseback to the house, blending into the surrounding landscape, almost hesitant to return to the house. In the book, West of Everything, by Jane Tompkins, she explains that "men imitate the land in Westerns; they try to look as much like nature as possible"(72). As you are first introduced to this man, whose figure seems to blend smoothly with the desert landscape, you see that his face is hardened by the beaming sun and he seems to reflect the harsh environment around him. Jane Tompkins also suggests that the town, or in this case the home, "always threatens to entrap the hero in the very things the genre most wishes to avoid: intimacy, mutual dependence, a network of social and emotional responsibilities" (86). As the film progresses you view the main character as one who directly reflects this view expressed in West of Everything by Jane Tompkins. The main character, Ethan Edwards, played by John Wayne, never stays home for long. He stops by a town or home, gathers his supplies, rests, and returns to the untamed desert. In the ending scene of the movie, The Searchers, Ethan remains outside of the doorway of the home while the rest of the family returns to the safety of the home. The camera narrows in on Ethan, whose gazing out onto the desert, suggesting that he is not a man who can be trapped by the confines of society, rather is one who prefers the outdoors. Additionally, Jane suggests that, "the hero's palpation of the land really takes the place of sex with a woman" (82). This is shown by the second hero in the film, The Searchers, Martin Pawley, who leaves a woman shown often trying to seduce and keep him at home. Tompkins goes on to explain, "The man who leaves home and fireside and turns to the wilderness does so in search of something other than what they have to offer" (82). In the film it appears as though the unpredictable adventure that is the desert gives Ethan and Martin something the nuclear home can not, adventure, and this is what they really thirst for.
A part in which I disagree with Tompkins is when she states, "the hero's relationship to the environment is steady, knowledgeable, functional, and pleasure-giving" (81). I believe that the pleasure the hero obtains from the environment is directly related to the fact that it isn't steady. The hero's knowledge is what allows him to function in the unsteady environment and thus receive pleasure from it. If the hero was searching for something that was steady, they would be more prone to the way of life in the town; not the desert. In the film, The Searchers, the setting is constantly changing, there are different people around, different dangers, and a constantly changing ways of dealing with the situation. This is what the hero enjoys, something that isn't steady.