'The Searchers' scene review

(unfortunately I was unable to find the full scene where Ethan does shoot the body, but this depicts the earlier part of the scene and we have already seen it as a class)

This scene depicts the search party coming across a dead Indian that has been buried by his people and ends up with Ethan shooting at the body. These actions by Ethan seem to reflect the hatred that seemed to have been felt by many Americans of the time. According to 'Indian legend', the face of the dead is covered so to protect the eyes so that the soul will be able to see where to go to pass into the afterlife. Due to the fact that Ethan decided to shoot the body in the eyes, he was condemning him to forever wandering in limbo and never getting to the after life. The fact that Ethan knew to shoot him in the eyes suggests he knows about the legend, and therefore did this on purpose to cause more pain to the Indian in his afterlife. This shows the scale to which hatred was felt towards the Native people and that killing them was not enough, he felt like he needed to harm them in the afterlife as well.

The fact that Ethan knows enough about the Indian culture to know that shooting the Indian in the eyes is interesting as it would suggest that even though he has an apparent racist and has a hatred for them, he has taken the time to learn their legends, and even their language (as seen later in the movie). This almost contradicts the notion that Ethan has a hatred for Indians as you wouldn't take the time to learn about a culture that you hated. This can seem to contradict the hatred seen in the rest of the film, but may of been included so to create an understanding of Ethans actions and for dramatic effect.

Even after shooting the dead Indian in the eyes, Ethan then continues to shoot the body repeatedly until he is made to stop by the other men in the search party. One way that this can be interpreted is that he is releasing his anger out on, by what is suggested by the rest of the scene, one of the Indians that carried out the raid on his families house, killing most of them and kidnapping the remaining two girls. This almost suggests that the anger and disrespect towards the body was justified as he was just taking some sort of revenge and that the body almost deserved it. This could therefore be suggesting that, as an overall, all the violence and hatred was justified as this is what the Indians did to Americans, so therefore it was deserved - an eye for an eye. The other way Ethans multiple shootings can be interpreted, is that it was due to his racist view of the Indians and disrespecting one of their dead was a way to express his views and the apparent view of the rest of population. However, the fact that he was told to stop shooting can imply that his actions are not completely condoned by the rest and that he had gone too far.

It is important to note the fact that the way the Indians had buried the body of their fallen is one that contradicts the message that the film is putting across - that they are careless savages. The way that it seems they have taken time to bury their dead in a respectful way, and maybe of had some sort of burial ritual, gives the message that the Indians were a civilised and respectful people. This sign of civilised behaviour is also seen later in the film after the shootout across the river, whereby they take the time to retrieve the dead and take them back to their village so that they can be buried properly. This respect for the dead, therefore, shows signs of civilisation on the part of the 'savages' which almost humanises them and almost makes them seem like the same as the Americans as this is what they would of also done for their dead. The way that Ethan decides to shoot at the dead body can therefore be seen as his way of him letting out his anger at the fact that there may be a connection of similar civilisation to himself, which again reflects the hatred and racism towards the Native people as he doesn't want to be associated at all with 'savages'.

Overall, this scene has some very contradictory events to do with racism and hatred towards the Indian people. The understanding that Ethan has about Indian ways suggest that he doesn't hate them as much as his other actions suggest. However, Ethans other actions does seem to try to represent the apparent history of racism that was felt by Americans, due to the severity and multiple times he shoots at the body and the anger he conveys while doing it. The various things that are said and done to the body shows the complete disrespect for the Indian people and that the American felt that hurting them in real life wasn't enough, they hated them enough to cause them pain in the afterlife as well, which extends the believed history of racism.