The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 7 of 17)

br> Tempe, Arizona /p>

Sean Higgins's piece about The Searchers misses the reason why the film is respected in the first place. Texans and Comanches really did hate each other and saw each other as competing races. Wayne portrayed the character of Uncle Ethan with historical exactitude. Pretending that our ancestors didn't see the world as a struggle of peoples and faiths is historical nonsense. The Searchers is clearly meant to be an epic within a tragic context. If the Indians and the Texicans weren't in conflict, how would the story play out? Heroes do tend to have heroic flaws. Perhaps everyone works things out in Little House on the Prairie but for we adults stronger fair is more appropriate

p>Liberals and neo-cons live in a fantasy world without group differences and hatreds. Perhaps Sean Higgins is commuting from that world. br> -- Tom Meehan /p>

Thanks to Sean Higgins for his thoughtful piece on The Searchers after 50 years. I would, however, submit a different reading on the end of the movie where Edwards takes Debbie home: blood is thicker than water.

Ultimately, for a character like Edwards -- and for an icon like The Duke -- only family matters. He simply could not kill his only remaining blood kin.

Some kind of redemption from a racist heart? Nah. I imagine Edwards happily would have killed a few more Comanches if they had shown up to take Debbie back from him.

p>In my view, the pencil-necks can take their opinions and shove 'em up their peace pipes. The Duke did what he had to do, which is why so many of us love him like we do. br> -- Paul Foreman br> Alabama /p>

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