BE The Searchers

In the Western film, The Searchers, by John Ford, the vast and rugged landscape plays the lead role while the characters take a back seat. With every colossal mountain, winding creek and windy desert, the landscape becomes a more integral part of the film. While the characters produce the dialogue, the landscape has underlying messages that add to the complexity and attitude of the film. In, West of Everything, by Jane Tompkins, she elaborates on the pieces of the “Alpha and the Omega”. Throughout the entire film, the desert contributes to the search, to life and most notably to death. Tompkins’ states that “The desert is the landscape of death” (p. 70), which can be seen in many scenes in the film. For instance, when Ethan and his men travel out in search for the girls, one of their first encounters with Indians is depicted by the men traveling in a valley in the desert with the Indians on higher ground, surrounding the men. The lighting and music also contribute to the dark depiction of the desert. The desert holds almost all of the gun fights, raids, and killings, scalping and burning of villages. The landscape, specifically the desert, not only represents death but has a unique impact on the characters. Ethan, a rugged and fearless cowboy, has tamed the desert and understands its power. Ethan, more so than any of the other men, is rude, and arrogant but at the same time exhibits an understanding of the land. He understands when the horses need rest and grain after being pushed hard in the scorching heat of the desert. When the reverend trumps Ethan as captain and tries to create a plan, he willingly returns to Ethan to ask for advice and to let Ethan run the show because he is tested and proven himself against the tough conditions and unknown obstacles of the Western landscape. As Tompkins further explains, “Nature makes it obvious, even to the benighted, who her chosen are; the sage-dotted plains, the buttes, the infinite sky tell more plainly than any words what is necessary in a man” (p. 73). It is also evident in the film, and based off Tompkins’ quote, that men play a more prevalent role in developing and accenting the landscape. The final scene of the film is the perfect Western ending. The “lone ranger” of the group, Ethan, is staring into the vast desert of endless surprises while the family reunites. Although the desert brings death, the few who can conquer it, prefer it and choose to live with the harsh land.
Although, the man is more dominant character in Western films, the role of the women and love plays a part in The Searchers. Martin, the cowboy who throughout the movie toughens up and achieves close to a manly status as Ethan, fulfills one of Tompkins’ ideas. Tompkins argues that over and over again, the cowboy is alone. She discusses that the entirety of a cowboy’s life is filled by answering his primal needs and almost nothing more. But Tompkins includes, “ He does so in answer, perhaps, to the reader’s wish that the universe turn out, finally, to be a safe place for him also, not a mine field or a prison but a maternal home” (p.81). This idea is fulfilled in two ways by the character Martin. First, after Martin has lived off the land for years, sacrificed his blood, sweat and tears, he finally is reunited with his family. He goes from an inexperienced boy to a fearless man willing to die to protect his sister. Also, the audience’s wish for Martin’s success comes true when he arrives home and stops his love, Lourie, from getting married and gets her back. I guess the reward that the brutal land takes on a man trying to survive, allows for him to finally have luxuries in his life.