As of Feb 01 21. The Searchers is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, set during the Texas–Indian Wars, and starring John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood), accompanied by his adoptive nephew (Jeffrey Hunter).Critic Roger Ebert found Wayne's character, … Ethan and Martin immediately … I wonder what the medal is and who has it now. Directed by John Ford. Our turnin' back don't mean nothin', not in the long run. 98. Detail. There's Lucy over there." The film takes place during the unstable feuding times of the settlement of the West and the family is torn apart by an attack from a warring Comanche tribe. When Lucy is found dead by Ethan, Brad in a craze rushes off to charge the Indians and is … Average score for this quiz is 11 / 15.Difficulty: Average.Played 1,959 times. 1 Ethan Edwards; 2 Mrs. Jorgensen; 3 Dialogue; 4 Taglines; 5 Cast; 6 External links; Ethan Edwards . The Searchers tells of the perilous and obsessive 5-year quest to find 10-year-old Debbie, the niece ... Martin among them, was out looking for what they thought were rustlers. That night, Futterman tries to shoot Martin … The editors of Military History magazine should not have included any … Ward Bond does avert his eyes, but that’s just as likely because a moment of tenderness between Martha and Ethan would be something he’d overlook out of gallantry in any event.“Ethan’s reactions are driven by something … (The Ruby Slippers--there were half a dozen pairs--have sold for over half a million dollars). Gradually, Martin realises that Ethan intends to kill, not … The two give Futterman money in exchange for the news that Debbie is held captive by Scar. The Searchers is a 1956 film about a Civil War veteran who sets out with his nephew on a quest to rescue his niece from Indians. Debbie tells Ethan that Lucy wears the locket Ethan gave her as a young girl, but not much since it makes her neck green. Only Ethan and Martin continue onward with the search for Debbie -Ethan, a virulent racist, wonders aloud if Martin is a “half-breed” but Martin is unsure, perhaps he is one-eighth Indian. He channels all his energy and efforts into finding the girl, aided by the younger and … Regarded today as arguably the greatest western film ever made, The Searchers is without question the finest film John Ford ever directed, and though dated today, the staggering power of Wayne’s performance remains for … But, I read somewhere that it was hinted at in the movie. CONCLUSION: While certainly a great movie and possibly the best Western ever made, “The Searchers” is not even close to being a war movie. He made a lot of films, true, and was truly great in a dozen of them, never greater than he was as Ethan Edwards in John Ford’s searing epic The Searchers (1956). Awesome; Characters; Film; Funny; Headscratchers; Heartwarming; Music; NightmareFuel; Quotes; Recap; Trivia; WMG; YMMV; Create New —-Debbie is Ethan's daughter. Having been gone for so long, Ethan mistakes the younger daughter Debbie for Lucy. CHARACTERS: Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), Debbie Edwards (kidnapped younger daughter), Lucy Edwards (kidnapped older daughter), Laurie Jorgensen (Marty's girlfriend), Reverend Clayton, Mose Harper (mentally challenged man), Look (Marty's Indian wife), Scar OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR JOHN FORD: The Informer (1935), Stagecoach (1939), The Grapes … In The Searchers" (1956), there many … I have not seen the movie in a few years. Ethan and Marty have traveled out of Texas into Colorado and parts north. With John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond. He had to find her...he had to find her... taglines. Of the two girls, it seems more likely that Debbie is Ethan's daughter, a product of the affair he had just before going to war. by . WMG / The Searchers Go To × Edit Locked. Ethan and Martha had an affair many years ago, resulting in the birth of Debbie. He lifts her up as she tries fighting him off. Ethan’s hatred of the Comanche and his consuming sense of revenge for the loss of the woman he loved drives him to the brink of madness, as he and Martin crisscross the territory in their pursuit of Scar. He has been gone 8 years and Debbie is 8 when he returns. by . Accuracy: A team of editors takes feedback from our visitors to keep trivia as up to date and as accurate as possible. Posted by 2 years ago. cfwente » 4 years ago (May 30, 2016 08:10 AM) Reply | Member since July 2015. Although no dialogue between the duo suggested it, a multitude of visual references to their relationship are seen throughout the film. But instead of making her daughter to do the right thing, Debbie backed her and promised to protect her. Ethan's dad knows his son has been framed Credit: ITV. This search becomes an obsession and provides his whole purpose for living. Ethan takes out a saddlebag and gives Debbie a medal. An American Civil War veteran embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches. Meanwhile, Martin confides in Lars's daughter Laurie, who is in love with the young man, his fears that Ethan may kill Debbie because of her long association with the Comanche. Contents. Written by Frank Nugent. The Indians had abducted the two little girls, Debbie and Lucy. Time and time again, the settlers suggest that death is a better fate than life … You will, consequently, feel stronger emotions watching them. Marty writes a letter to Laurie detailing his and Ethan's attempts to find Debbie.Charlie McCory delivers the letter and she reads it out loud to the family and narrates the next part of their journey. The Searchers: Was Ethan Debbie's father? This medal implies Ethan served in the French Mexican Expedition during his three-year absence and also … In the screenplay by Frank S. Nugent, the medal Ethan Edwards gives to Debbie is identified as "a gold medal or medallion" awarded by Emperor Maximilian of Mexico to mercenary soldiers who fought between 1865-67 for the Emperor Maximilian's French forces against Mexican revolutionaries. By comparing the changes made from the source novel to the shooting script to the finalfilm, a constant darkening of Ethan's personality is revealed-most of it directly attributable to director John Ford. Tragedy strikes when a local tribe attacks the farm, brutally murders Ethan's brother and sister-in-law, and carts off their young daughter Debbie (Wood). The family is all … Related quizzes can be found here: Searchers, The Quizzes There are 57 questions on this topic. The Searchers By Scott Allen Nollen In 1954, producer Merian Cooper, seeking material for a surefire John Ford and John Wayne Western, optioned Alan LeMay’s The Searchers, a novel about revenge-crazed Amos Edwards’ 10-year quest to track down the Comanche who murdered his brother and captured his niece. … With John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond. In any case, a great film with complex and subtle plot. the searchers is debbie ethan daughter. Three years after the Civil War, veteran Ethan Edwards (Wayne) returns to his frontier home, where he's greeted by his jubilant family, including Martin (Hunter), a part-Cherokee adoptee, now grown, who owes his life to Ethan. Ben asks, with an indignant tone. Archived. It's been hinted at only on … The Searchers. During dinner, Aaron's adopted son, part-Cherokee (one-eighth) Martin "Marty" Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), an orphan saved years earlier by Ethan from an Indian … Directed by John Ford. Laurie suggests that Ethan will put a "bullet in her brain," and that it's what her mother would want. This essay demon-strates that Ford viewed Ethan as a negative, psychologically damaged, and tragic figure. In the movie, Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) goes on a years-long quest to find his niece, Debbie, who has been abducted by Comanche Indians. The opening to The Searchers works like this: Once you have observed the key implications and inductively drawn them into the essential idea—that Ethan and Martha love each other—you understand the deepest meaning of the story and its events. Re: Was Ethan Debbie's father? Even after the war, Ethan stayed away from his brother's family to avoid dealing with the situation. And with its overtones of racism, it's also one of his most complicated. When … When Debbie is kidnapped, Ethan's long and relentless search is really driven by fatherhood, rather than family ties. The rest of the movie details Ethan and Martin’s long five-year search for the surviving daughter, Debbie, amongst the Comanche. The film was a commercial success, although it received no … Ethan's redemption is intended to be shown in that dramatic shot of reunion with Debbie, where he takes her in his broad hands, lifts her up to the sky, drops her down into his arms, and says, “Let's go home, Debbie.” The shot is famous and beloved, but small counterbalance to his views throughout the film--and indeed, there is no indication be thinks any differently about Indians. Directed by John Ford. John Ford's 1956 film "The Searchers" is one of the finest of the great director's career. Since the AFI named "The Searchers" the Greatest Western of All Time, then the medal that Ethan gives Debbie would be another Ruby Slippers and could be worth a lot of money. The Edward’s family represents a traditional unit of a mother, father, two daughters and a son. In The Searchers" (1956), there many implications that the kidnapped "niece" Debbie is actually Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) daughter, from an affair with Ethan's brother's wife. So Ethan’s quest for killing Debbie becomes an act of Filicide , setting up a parallel with the Greek Tragedy of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan war, who … --Lana Wood might know, she's still alive and living in Thousand Oaks, California. racism of The Searchers' central character, Ethan Edwards. Reflections on "The Searchers" ... Ethan's sense of loyalty to family (and perhaps the fact that the kidnapped Debbie is the daughter of the woman he loved) fuels his determination to find Debbie and save her from life with the Comanches. John Ford himself implied that Debbie was Ethan and Martha’s daughter out of wedlock, and the reason the connection wasn’t more implicit was because of the Censorship rules in the American motion picture industry at the time. While Ethan and Marty have spent the entire movie looking to save little Debbie from Scar's clutches, once they learn of her fate, it seems that she is safer with her new Comanche companions than with the white people back at home. Ethan has returned from the war and has come to stay with the family. ldreese33 » 4 years ago (May 30, 2016 07:54 AM) Reply | Member since February 2006. Believing the Comanche have abducted his young niece, embittered Ethan Edwards sets out to save her, accompanied by hot-headed Martin. An American Civil War veteran embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches. Classic John Ford western. Was Ethan Debbie's father? To Laurie's dismay, Martin then leaves to follow Ethan, who has departed without a word. It seems likely that Debbie is Ethan’s daughter, a product of the affair with Martha that he had just before going to war. The Searchers is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, and set during the Texas–Indian Wars.The picture stars John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood), along with Jeffrey Hunter as his adoptive nephew, who accompanies him.. Martha takes Ethan's coat and puts it in her bedroom's hope chest. He catches up with her in the same cave they were in before. Cast: John Wayne (Ethan Edwards), Jeffrey Hunter (Martin Pawley), Vera Miles (Laurie Jorgensen), Ward Bond (Reverend Captain Samuel Johnson Clayton), Natalie Wood (Debbie Edwards), John Qualen (Lars Jorgensen), Olive Carey (Mrs Jorgensen), Henry Brandon (Scar), Beulah Archuletta (Look), Ken Curtis (Charlie McCorry), Harry Carey Jnr (Brad … Searchers, The Fun Facts : Page 2 This category is for questions and answers and fun facts related to Searchers, The, as asked by users of FunTrivia.com. You could see that he mistakes Debbie for Lucy. Ethan searches for the girls with Martin and Brad (Harry), the boyfriend of Lucy. As he lifts her high into the air, she tells him: "I'm Deborah. The Jorgensen daughter, Laurie (played by Vera Miles -of Psycho and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance fame) is in love with Martin. You can now feel disgust and fury at Martha’s rape and murder, … This just makes his objective more fascinating. The medal, by the way, was awarded to Ethan for his service to Emperor Maximillian of Mexico for mercenary forces against Mexican revolutionaries. When The Searchers was first released … Close. Working on the adaptation for Warner Bros., Ford and Frank Nugent changed … The Searchers begins at the home of Ethan Edward’s brother’s family. By now, the search for Debbie has continued for a year or more. Ethan chases Debbie through a canyon as Martin follows, yelling for him to stop. 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