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'The Searchers' was directed by John Ford in 1956, the film is classified as a western and its ideas were very much a product of its time, yet even recently many of its themes have been revisited in such highly acclaimed films as Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' and 'The Deer Hunter' by Michael Cimino.

The film critic, John Fyske defines myth as being a story that cultures tell to justify inequalities that exist within cultures. The Searchers' deals with myths regarding both gender and race, the gender views portrayed are very typical of America's 1950's patriarchal society, and the race issues mirrored the conflicts between the whites and the blacks during that same era.

The main plot of The Searchers' centres around the search for a missing white girl, named Debbie. The Comanches had attacked several white settlements, murdering and raping the settlers, but because Debbie was only a young girl she was kidnapped instead. Debbie's adopted brother Martin sets out to rescue her, along with her uncle Ethan played by John Wayne. Ethan had mysteriously returned from the wilderness prior to the attack, and leads a search party of local men in order to track the Comanches and rescue their stolen women', including Debbie. Ethan also wants to avenge the death of his sister in-law Martha, although nothing is spoken in the film, with regards to their relationship, it was clear from Martha's body language, and also Ethan's behaviour that the pair had forbidden feelings for one another. The search goes on for many years, and eventually only Ethan and Martin carry on, Martin's role as an apprentice is thereby examined.

The anthropologist, Lvi Strauss came up with the theory of binary oppositions, this is a method of understanding the meaning of something, by comparing it to what it is not. Both John Fyske and another film critic, Will Wright claim that westerns are structured on binary oppositions and The Searchers' is true to this also. The film is constantly contrasting the wilderness with the civilised homestead of the white settlers, the Indians who are thought of as primitive and savage, feel at home in the wilderness, whilst the whites do not. The white settler's way of life and traditions, are contrasted with that of the Indians, the ideas of villain and hero also arise, as do issues concerning the contrast between masculinity and femininity. The film is, however, untypical in the fact that it gives Scar, the Comanche leader a motive for his tribes actions, this being

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