The visual unconscious of
The Searchers is mediated by its anti-hero protagonist Ethan Edwards, played by John Wayne. Ethan operates at the centre of the visual field of the film from beginning to end. The film opens with a shot of his sister-in-law, Martha (Dorothy Jordan), seeing him walking in from the desert, while gradually the rest of her family, including the dog, come out of the homestead to see him. With the wind blowing into the faces of Martha’s children, Ben (Robert Lyden) and Lucy (Pippa Scott), it’s almost as if seeing Ethan has physical effects.
Between the film’s end and its beginning, the visual results of the various violent acts committed by the Comanche upon the settlers are seen only by Ethan. Some of the characters implore him to tell them what he’s seen, or let them see as well, all of which he prohibits. “Did they…? Was she…?” Brad (Harry Carey Jr.) cries to Ethan, concerning his kidnapped, raped, and murdered fiancé Lucy, to the latter’s