Scene from The Searchers

Scene from The Searchers 

The scene where Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) finds Debbie and rescues her. This scene is of importance in the film, obviously as the whole film leads to this moment of Ethan and Martin finally finding Debbie and returning her home but also because it sees Ethan, the lonely uncivilised wanderer, change his mind on saving Debbie. It can be seen in a previous scene that as soon as he finds out Debbie was one of the Comanche and she said that she was one of them Ethan was prepared to shoot his niece but Martin, a one eighth cherokee which his brother Ethan and Martha adopted, steps in front of him.

The scene presents the ideas of how the classic western rugged individual with no place in the community or civilised life, as he is a disruptive figure, suddenly gains a sense of community and compassion setting aside his hatred towards the indians and once again accepting Debbie as one of his own, “Let’s go home Debbie.”. However, we do not know if he has this same view towards all indians, most probably not considering his comments towards native americans throughout the movie.

This beloved scene also portrays the classic masculine western hero. He has wandered the wilderness and finds the girl abducted by the ‘savages’. Even with a lot of his wrong doing through the movie and his racial prejudice, this one act of greatness is in a way his redemption in the film.