The Searchers - Miller

The alpha male cowboy’s dominant relationship with the land shows how strong he is through conquering something so powerful. In western films, the landscape is vicious, powerful, unforgiving, and most importantly unconquerable. Every person in westerns (that is besides the alpha male cowboy) lives in the town. The alpha male cowboy always lives out in the wild. He does this for the reason that he wants to prove how tough and how ‘bad’ he is by living out in the wild by himself. Tompkins states that, “perhaps more than anything else, nature gives the hero [the alpha male cowboy] a sense of himself” (Tompkins 81). This is especially relevant in the movie The Searchers. In this movie, the alpha male cowboy, John Wayne, lives by himself in the brutally rough desert. John Wayne does this as he wants to be isolated from the rest of society and he wants to prove himself, to himself, by prevailing in brutal environment. One scene in particular describes the alpha male cowboy’s relationship with the land and society very well. It is the last scene in the movie, and John Wayne has just dropped off the girl that he just saved. Instead of sticking around and boasting for glory, John Wayne walks into the abyss that is known as the desert. John Wayne does this to prove that he doesn’t need anyone or anything else in life, he is a self sustainable man, and he chooses to live in the desert, rather than just some empty house in the town while being antisocial, because it gives him a chance to prove himself, against an incredible force. It shows his toughness; to be able to survive in a setting, in which no one else even dares to travel into without being serve preparation.