The Searchers
The meaning of the movie the Searchers is never give up cause sooner or later you will find what you are looking for. I think that because they keep looking for Debbie and they eventually get her and take her home. Also because they want to give up but they don’t cause they keep their faith that she is still alive. That is what I think the meaning is.
Alexis Tennessen
The Searchers
This was a good movie, but to me it wasn’t the best in the world. I think the main “Lesson” of this movie was that you should love your surrounding people, family or not. Also, that you should be more focused on the people you love, instead of the things you love.
I chose this because of how Martin was adopted, but instead of going, and staying with the girl he loved, he went to find his adopted family. The other man that Martin went looking with didn’t even really care about his niece. He instead wanted to kill her for putting him thru the struggle of having to find her, and that she liked it with the Indians.
P.S. I really hope I wrote this essay for the right topic, because if I didn’t I did this all for nothing.
Jenni Schanen
The Searchers
In the movie “The Searchers” there are 2 main themes. The 1st theme is that Ean learns who he really cares about. The 2nd theme is that Ean learns who he really is inside. Ean learns these things while seeing his family members get killed by Camanches and while searching for Debbie for 7 or so years. He learns these things through the experiences of seeing Martha and his brother killed so brutely. Including Lucy, who he found later. Also if you paid attention closely to the movie, you learn that Ean’s mother was killed by the Camanche’s too. These experiences shaped who he is. That’s part of the reason he looked for Debbie for 7ish years. Those are the themes of the movie “The Searchers”.
Grace Jentsch
The Searchers
I personally think the hidden message in this is racistisum. First of all the Indians killed eathans mom which made him very vengeful inside. But on Scars side the white man was killing his sons. Plus adventually Scar killed all of his family besides Eathen’s little niece. So he physically set out for a quest for vengeance, but personally inside he wanted to brutally murder the Indians like they did to his family. I even noticed this I thought Eathen was a bit aggressive towards Marty emotionally at first and I believe this is because he is part Indian. When Eathen and Marty finally found the niece, Eathen was about to blindly kill her because she wanted to stay in the tribe. Also during the final battle I think Eathan’s vengeance was complete when he scalped Scars dead body because after that he did not want to kill his niece. That is what I believe Eathan’s Indian prejudice is about.
R.J. Leider
The Searchers
This is what is think the theme/meaning of “The Searchers” is. I think that this story is trying to teacher people to never give up. It teaches you that if you want to do something, or have a dream to chase after it, no matter how hard it may be. In the story, Eithan had a good bond with his whole family. They all greeted him with excitement and love. But then, when the Apache Indians came, they had to make decisions about where to hide everybody. The put little Debbie out by her grandmother’s grave, who was killed by the Apache Indians a few years ago. But while Debbie was heading to her hiding spot, a dog followed her, which caused her to be captured by the Apaches. But her uncle Eithan was determined to find her, no matter how long it took. Along the way, though, he had some very tough obstacles to overcome. But uncle Eithan wasn’t going to be stopped. He found his secret love, Martha, brutually murdered which hurt him horribly, but he wasn’t going to give up. He was shot by an arrow during one of the many encounters with the Indians. Uncle Eithan was also very intelligent. He knew how to set traps or set up the Indians to defend himself. It showed, too, that he would go on with his mission until it was complete. It took him 7 years to find Debbie, but he found her. Although when he arrived, she had been almost brainwashed by the Indians. She had become one of them. But his efforts still showed that if you are determined and believe in what you want to do, and do it with a positive attitude, you can do anything.
Kaylee Fischer
The Searchers
While we watched The Searchers earlier this afternoon, I noticed quite a few different themes inside the film. And I believe that the way they were portrayed was done incredibly. The fact that they were mostly repetitive made it extremely hard to miss the lessons that they were trying to make know.
Whether it had been in John Ford’s interest to leave his audience with a view of the world they hadn’t ever had before or not, I’ve got to say that he was successful either way. At least in my case.
The main theme of the movie I noticed was that living a life by harboring a hateful revenge only clouds your judgment, and unless you keep a clear mind, you may end up doing something you will definitely regret. Take how Ethan handled Deborah becoming a Comanche for example: The second she said they were her people, he was dead set on murdering her on the spot. Not even taking the time to consider she could be lying to him to protect not only him, but herself, too. If Marty hadn’t been in the way, she would’ve perished at the hands of her uncle without him ever knowing the truth.
Another hidden meaning I had picked up in the film was that one group may believe that they are correct, and another may think otherwise, but many people are too blinded by often-unrealistic stereotypes and racial differences to consider the fact that they may be wrong.
The Comanche Indians thought that it was justifiable to kill innocent white civilians because other white men had done them wrong by torching their villages and killing their people. But ending the lives of people who had nothing to do with what happened to your race out of spite and rage . . . does it really solve anything? All it honestly does is give the opposite group another reason to cause trouble.
Also, the white men believed that terrorizing the Indians because they were situated on land they wanted, and because they hadn’t been like their race, was okay. Really though, the Indians had a right to fight back against them to show what they believed in. But all of this continual fighting didn’t do much in the end. And many of the emotional wounds that a group thought would be healed by terminating their enemies, really didn’t go away.
The last big theme I saw in The Searchers was that usually your enemy is just like you. Sometimes if you really think about it, that fact might even be partly why you despise them.
Scar the Comanche Indian leader had taken the scalps of his victims as a way of getting revenge for his sons’ deaths. He also thought capturing a white girl and murdering other white people was a good idea. But Ethan had set his mind to killing as many Comanche Indians in return for the death of his family. Plus, in the end, he had scalped Scar. So is he really the better man in the story? Sure he’s considered the hero, but what if the film had been made from the point of view of the Comanche people? Ethan would no doubt be the antagonist.
Other than those, I noticed a few minor themes such as sometimes your superior isn’t always correct, and being a man and not taking the easy way out is often difficult.
I believe that The Searchers was an amazingly done film, even if it’s more than 50 years old. I also think that it has a story line that will change your mind about a couple things, and will teach you quite a few good life lessons.
Sarah Finch