Interesting movie

I just watched it for the first time, and I found it surprisingly deep for a John Wayne western. I'm familiar with the Cynthia Ann Parker history, and I've been fascinated by the Comanche culture and history for some time. I expected The Searchers to stick to the hollywood schtick of the time, but it is surprisingly open-minded and deep about the Comanche in particular and the racial conflicts between whites and Native Americans in general, minus a few John Wayne standard-type scenes.

The most notable thing to me is how the Comanche scenes are quite limited, but the few that occur show them to be fierce, proud warriors. They seem competent and focused in battle, and while we don't get to see much else of their culture, they aren't portrayed as especially evil or good, just human. The only real exception to this trend is when Lucy's body is found and she is implied to have been raped. In contrast, the whites are portrayed as racist, vindictive, bumbling fools. I'm not sure if the intention of this was for it to be comedic relief or not, but to me it seems to be the first stirrings of hollywood beginning to see that Native Americans were not the evil stereotype, and that whites also weren't the good stereotype. Although the movie is slow and a bit hammy, the idea it presents is pretty transformative for the time, and John Ford's interviews suggest that this is what his goal for the movie was. John Wayne's character in particular is, until the very end, clearly the villain of the film, and the whites are shown to be more brutal than the Comanche by completely wiping out two villages.

Most interestingly, the only clear protagonist or "good" guy in the movie is Martin, the "half-breed" 1/8th Cherokee relative of Debbie. He, and potentially Laurie's parents, are the only people clearly shown to be moral in their views towards people, including the Comanche. Laurie's prejudice erupts near the end when she says even Debbie's dead mother would likely prefer if John Wayne killed her rather than let her live with the Comanche. Martin is shown to be generally accepting of people, while Laurie's parents are Scandinavian immigrants who clearly see the violence on both sides as a prejudicial waste of time. The movie is surprisingly honest and deep in dealing with a complex issue.

In the various threads of this movie, it's clear that many who have seen it are not familiar with the historical basis of what it depicts. I urge you to read about Cynthia Ann Parker and her experiences. S.C. Gwynne's book, "Empire of the Summer Moon" is a fascinating study of Parker, her son (and last leader of the Comanche) Quanah Parker, and the Comanche in general. The Comanche are not a tribe we hear about in most popular history anymore, certainly not as much as the Souix, Apache, or Navajo, but they were arguably one of the most successful, for a short time. They were certainly one of the most warlike, they were the only group to master selective breeding of horses, and they were the only group to master the horse and the art of cavalry in war. They were brutal and barbaric in war, but they also had an interesting tenderness in their culture towards each other and to children, even of other peoples.