Author explores how ‘The Searchers’ is not just another Western

Audiences in 1956 apparently didn’t consider “The Searchers” to be perhaps the best Western ever made.

Although the movie proved a commercial success, ticket-buyers seemed to shrug it off as just the latest Western directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne.

“It seemed to surprise Ford and Wayne, who thought they had done something special,” said Glenn Frankel, author of “The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend.” Ford, Frankel added, “was a victim of his own success, and people really didn’t tend to glom on to the movie’s deeper meanings.”

That changed with time. Not too many years later, some saw the film as an indictment of America’s treatment of its indigenous peoples. Others marveled at Wayne’s profoundly unsympathetic portrayal of Ethan Edwards, the Confederate veteran who for years looks for his niece, abducted by Comanches as a young girl. He’s driven, Frankel writes, by racism and revenge.

“There’s a more cynical audience during Vietnam and the civil rights movement,” Frankel said.

“One of the things about Westerns that you can’t help but notice is that, like every other form of popular entertainment, it adjusts to the needs of the people it is trying to get into the theater. And, as audiences became more cynical and sophisticated, the Western followed suit.”

Frankel writes about the movie but also traces the principal story back to its 19th century origins with the 1836 abduction of a 9-year-old girl in Texas by Comanches and the uncle who spent years searching for her. In 1954, author and screenwriter Alan LeMay published a novel inspired by this “captivity narrative.” LeMay’s focus, however, was not so much on the girl but the men looking for her.

Today, “The Searchers” gives audiences plenty to ponder. That’s good for Frankel, who insists that even after all his time spent thinking and writing about the movie, he still enjoys just watching it. In the past year, he said, he’s seen it perhaps 20 more times.

“For me, watching the movie is almost like visiting family, seeing the cousins you see only now and then,” he said. “I’m always happy to see it.”

Frankel speaks at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, following a 4 p.m. screening of “The Searchers” at the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St. For more info, go to kclibrary.org.

This story was originally published September 26, 2014 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Author explores how ‘The Searchers’ is not just another Western."