The name is absent

Appendix 3.2: Sample films - synopses and character lists

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE US 56

THE SEARCHERS dir John Ford US 1956

As the title implies this film tells the story of a kind of
odyssey of the nineteenth century American West. The
ostensible goal is to recover the only surviving daughter of a
family massacred by ^,a band of hostile Comanches'; but this
search, like an odyssey, has more profound implications than
the familial ties of one individual and indeed the real issue
of the film is an exploration of the values of the newly
formed United States, an exploration which will determine its
future. Great emphasis is laid on the settlers' perseverance,
on their selfless commitment to the stability of future
generations, on their disparate backgrounds, and so on. The
'civilised' Americans (the future) are opposed to the 'savage'
(uncivilised, childish, even inhuman) Indians who are
invariably represented as simple, or barbaric, or both.
Insofar as the Indians can be understood as, at best, in a
pre-civilised state, they stand for the past. Like the
hostile landscape they inhabit, they are a natural obstacle to
be overcome before the country can become the 'fine place' Mrs
Jorgensen expects.

As far as the protagonists are concerned the search is for the
recovery of Debbie Edwards (Natalie Wood) captured when still
a child by the Comanche band who murdered her parents, brother
and sister. But for the audience the duration of the search
which takes five years and occupies the entire length of the
film, invites attention to the various different
understandings of the reasons for the search among the
different interest groups represented. Hence the narrative
closure, the rescue of the now adult Debbie, implies more than
a simple resolution of the enigma 'will they find her', since
it also promises a reassessment of the rigid values of the
past which have been explored in the course of the search.
During the search, conducted by Debbie's uncle Ethan Edwards
(John Wayne) and her adoptive brother Martin Pawley (Jeffrey
Hunter), it becomes apparent that the young, mixed breed Marty
values Debbie's survival above all whereas the older Ethan,

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