Maddyclassicfilms
"Could the film actually not be about finding Debbie at all. . . . is it actually about Ethan searching for the man who killed Martha and her family."
Seems both in the movie.
I read the novel decades ago (and unfortunately no longer have the copy) and in the novel Ethan (called Amos as I recall) is painted a much darker character. It is implied he seeks to perhaps kill Debbie because she has inherited his brother's ranch and cattle as his daughter. If she is dead, Amos is the next of kin and gets the property.
With John Wayne playing Ethan, John Ford could not, or certainly did not, go in this direction at all. Even hinting at such a sordid motive was out of the question. So everything is tossed onto emotional motives. Hate, racism, revenge. Concerning Scar the revenge motive is understandable. For Debbie, the desire to kill her comes across as over-the-top.
In the novel, the question of whether Amos would have killed Debbie is left mute, as Amos sees a girl fleeing the final attack whom he takes to be Debbie and rides up to her. She suddenly turns around and it is not Debbie. She shoots Amos before he can react and he is killed.
Now the novel and the film are two different creations, but I believe the alterations changed motives which were dark and mysterious in the novel into one which is merely murky and which is abruptly dropped at the climax, although the reliance on racism gives the movie its troubling undercurrent.
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