Comparisons to The Searchers

Note: This may contain spoilers, since I am analyzing the plots of two films.

I watched The Last Hunt tonight and had to get on the IMDB to study it in comparison to The Searchers, starring John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter. Although the plots are not the same, they are somewhat similar. There were also several similarities between the two films I would like to discuss here.

First, like John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers, Robert Taylor's Charlie Gibson is a racist who hates Native Americans and exhibits a dark, nasty side to his nature. Wayne as Edwards is also in a dark mood and has no tolerance for those around him, but he was able to show a softer side in the end, unlike Taylor's character. Taylor's character was consistently mean and nasty - the only reason he ever showed any kindness was to manipulate those around him.

I think Ethan Edwards' character in The Searchers has a soft side for his family and this softens him in the end of the film, even though he keeps making racist threats about killing his niece throughout the film because she will have been with a Native American man by the time they catch up with her. Charlie Gibson in The Last Hunt has no soft side. His racism just goes hand in hand with his sadistic, beastly attitude. He even murders a harmless old man toward the end of the film - a person who has hurt no one. It is of interest that in the end of The Last Hunt, Charlie Gibson winds up frozen to death - frozen like his cold, cold heart.

Next, the musical theme for The Last Hunt is Garryowen, which is an Irish tune that is also one of the main themes running throughout The Searchers. The end of the main riff of that theme is a tiny bit different, but is essentially he same song. Why did the studio allow such a similarly themed film, in terms of the subject matter, to have one of the same tunes played throughout the movie?

The Searchers was released in March, 1956 and The Last Hunt was released in July of the same year. Both films had top stars. The Searchers was directed by John Ford at Warner Bros, while The Last Hunt was directed by Richard Brooks over at MGM.

One last note is that in The Searchers the Native Americans are giving as good as they get, ie, they attack the settlers, rape and kill them and are pretty scary, although there are scenes where the tables are turned and the US Army attack and murder a village of Native American families. I've always found the scene in witch "Look," the overweight Native American woman who follows Martin Pauley against his wishes, is kicked out of bed to be absolutely horrible. Its a scene in which Martin Pauley viciously kicks Look as she lay in her bedroll next to him, believing he had taken her as his woman. He kicks her so hard, with both feet, that she rolls out of the bed and down a hill, gets up and leaves.

I find that scene to be shocking in the disdainful way this Native American woman was treated. Its almost like the context of the scene is "you are a fat, Indian woman and you deserve absolutely NO respect." The scene is included as a humorous piece within the film, but it is really awful. As in The Last Hunt, these character are not the kind of men that are always good guys. The characters are shown in all their glory - warts and all.

In The Last Hunt the Native American characters are mostly sympathetic and there is a theme of racism in the film. As in The Searchers, the two main male characters clash over mistreatment of a young Native American woman.

If you've seen both films I would be interested in your thoughts about them, the similarities and differences, and whether you have any information or an opinion on why two such similar films came out months apart during the same year.