John Ford’s The Searchers is a subversive work in the Hollywood
Western genre that represents a time of transformation in the
American consciousness. The protagonist, Ethan Edwards, played
by the legendary John Wayne, is a man consumed with hatred; He
is a product of a nation founded on the conquest of others. To
elaborate on said conquest, we are dealing with mass murder,
slavery and the theft and rape of land. Ethan’s outlook is
understandable given the time frame in which The Searchers takes
place in the mid to late 1800s (post-Civil War), but also not
entirely inappropriate for the time when the film was released
in 1956 if we consider his racism as representative of America’s
attitude toward minorities in the early-mid 20th century, during
which Ford lived the majority of his life (he was born in 1894).
In the 50s, America’s views were beginning to evolve, and
Ethan’s arc in the film deals with this change. Ford and
specifically The Searchers have been criticized for being
racist, but this is an unfair c