Similarities Between The Searchers

There have been many genres of film that are included in American film history; one of which is the Western. In the mid 1900's Western films were at their peak and Saturday afternoons would be spent watching cowboys and Indians battle until the end while watching comfortably from a movie theatre. Knowing this, it's not hard to understand why film makers later on would base plots and characters off of these mystifying films. The Searchers, made in 1956 by John Ford, was a movie that followed the journey of Ethan Edwards, a cowboy on a mission to locate his niece, Debbie, who was kidnapped by Indians. Although this movie lacked a sense of reality, among other things, its cinematography and intriguing characters insured there would be more than
a few true fans. One of which was Martin Scorsese who, when making the film Taxi Driver in 1976, based the character of Travis off of Ford's character, Ethan. Ford's influence can be seen not only in two main personality traits of Scorsese's character, but also in the last scene of the movie where Scorsese pays homage to Ford in the form of symbolism. The most obvious parallel of Taxi Driver to The Searchers is that of the main characters. In both films, the men are recent war veterans. Ethan, who has just returned from the Civil War and Travis, a recent veteran of the Vietnam War. Both men are still extremely bitter to the other side. Ethan, who fought in the South for the war, shows his disrespect to ethnicities by constantly assaulting Indians with racial slurs and violence. Travis, just like Ethan, believes that everyone around him is worthless. Blacks, Hispanics, even white prostitutes and pimps are completely disgusting to Travis and he will do anything to rid his life of them. Both men have no problem brutally killing those who are beneath them for whatever reason and commit acts of murder to these groups of people several times throughout each movie. Another similarity between the two films is that there are young women in both of these men's lives that they feel need to be rescued from the slums they have been trapped into.
Soon after Ethan returns from war, his family has been savagely murdered by Indians. But the hope that Debbie has made it out alive remains. The next few years of Ethan's life are spent searching aimlessly through the dessert for any sign of his niece. Finally, Debbie is found but feels little need to be rescued by Ethan. But with no regard to the way she feels, Ethan takes her out of the life she has become accustomed to and restores Debbie to her old society. Similarly enough, one night on the job, Travis sees a young girl named Iris, who is no older than fourteen, working the streets just as well as any other prostitute. Throughout the rest of the film, Travis does his best to save her from the pimp that has been running her life ever since she ran away from home. Quite like The Searchers, Iris never hints at wanting to stop the life she's living. The sexual corruption she has faced has made it almost impossible for her to return to the life of a teenager with no force. Even so, Travis devotes the next few weeks of his life to rescuing Iris from his version of hell. Although neither woman feels like the men's intervention in their lives was necessary, society looks at both men as heroes and their actions are awarded with much
praise. The last scene of Taxi Driver is without a doubt the most violent scene throughout the movie. Previously in the movie, when Travis met Sport, Iris' pimp, he referred to Travis as "cowboy" because of the boots he was wearing. But when he returns to the same spot in the last scene of the movie to kill Sport, he does so as an Indian. Complete with a Mohawk haircut, this image is additionally enforced by Sport's long, flowing hair and headband. Just as Ethan displayed the Indian side of his character while scalping Scar in the last scene of The Searchers, Travis shows Sport, and everyone else, how ferocious and untamed he really is. Staying true to the central belief of Western films, neither men show any mercy towards their enemy while murdering them. It is easy to see that these two films have more than a few similarities. Both men are clearly wanderers; their whereabouts from the end of the war's they fought in to the movies' beginning are unknown to the audience. Both the men's relationship with society is also bewildering. They can each be seen as the hero or the anti-hero. In theory each man is trying to do the right thing by saving these young girls, but in reality each man is clearly stepping over the line of rescuer versus ruthless murderer. Ethan and Travis however stay true to the principle ideas and beliefs of the Western genre. Both men clearly have nothing to live for, which explains their daring and risky behavior with criminals and untamed men. Throughout Taxi Driver, Scorsese showed a full understanding and respect for the film Ford created twenty years earlier. And although the classic Western is no longer a popular type of film being made, it is great to see that these films haven't been completely forgotten and will be recreated and changed for years to come.