Morgan Adams-FromerBob WintersFilm 110The Seekers: a break with the classic westernSince the dawn of cinema, the myths embodied by westerns have maintained a hold on many captivated audiences, containing magnificent panoramas, glorified violence and the centuries-old struggle of man against nature. As is the case with many Westerns, John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers opens with a lone horseman set against the backdrop of a vast, unknown wilderness. As you settle into your seat, you might expect more of the tried-and-true formula that defined a western in this era, a well-defined hero to aspire to, acting as the culture's last bastion against the encroaching chaos that is the frontier wild and untamed. . While The Searchers conforms to conventional Western theorem, the film examines issues of race, integration and interracial relations seen through the eyes of a man living beyond the times he knows . A first step for future films aimed at investigating and critiquing current social issues through cinema. Ethan returns to his brother's farm after serving in the Confederate Army for a long time. Receiving a warm welcome, Ethan greets his "blood relatives" in kind, while rejecting the presence of their adopted, part-Indian son, Martin Pawley. Ethan's snub toward Martin is only the first indication of underlying issues in Ethan's psyche. Shortly after Ethan's return, he and Martin are recruited to temporarily join the Texas Rangers to pursue suspected cattle thieves. Upon finding the dead cattle, Ethan immediately realizes that the stolen cattle were just a diversion to lure the men and Rangers away from the settlers' homes. Hurrying back, they discover that the farm has been attacked by Comanche Indians, having burned it down in the middle of a paper...the, bigoted and will probably always be an outcast looking on from the outside. in, to cultured society. Martin, on the other hand, is not the initiate, but the true hero, the son of an interracial couple, protecting those who cannot protect themselves, nobly sacrificing his own desires and defending the concept of purity among women, but not to the extent that he will destroy it to achieve this preservation. Ultimately, Ethan momentarily turns his back on hatred, and instead of destroying what he sees as having been tainted, he opens his arms to it, welcoming Debbie back into white society. For Martin's role in the saga, he is accepted as a full member of the community and can marry there. With this result, Ford manages to undermine many of the traditions embedded in the western, while still addressing pressing cultural issues of the time..