John Ford’s The Searchers is one of the most divisive films in history. The 1956 Western has been thoroughly criticized by many, both at the time of its release and in the decades since, for its depiction of racist characters and themes. But it is also considered by many filmmakers and cinephiles to be one of the greatest technical achievements in the history of film and one of the best works in Ford’s storied career. It has been regularly cited by many of the most prominent filmmakers of later years as a favorite film of theirs and a significant source of inspiration for their own work. One filmmaker on whom the film’s influence is especially pronounced is Martin Scorsese.
The celebrated director behind such classic films as Raging Bull and Goodfellashas spoken publicly about his views on The Searchers, citing both his intense admiration for its craft and his more complicated feelings about its controversial content. Although 2023 saw the release of Scorsese’s first Western, the critically acclaimed Killers of the Flower Moon, the influence of The Searchers is actually more apparent in one of his famed urban crime films. Taxi Driver may be set in a version of New York City accurate to its 1976 release date, but its lead character, themes, and plot bear overt similarities to those of The Searchers. Consequently, studying the two films in relation to one another reveals and emphasizes many of the complicated nuances that make them both so fascinating.
'The Searchers' and 'Taxi Driver' Tell Similar Stories in Different Settings
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Beginning in 1868, The Searchers follows Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) who returns to his brother Aaron’s (Walter Coy) hometown in West Texas after a mysterious three-year period in which he was missing after the end of the Civil War. After a local Comanche tribe attacks the Edwards’ home, killing Aaron, his wife Martha (Dorothy Johnson), and their son and abducting their daughters Lucy (Pippa Scott) and Debbie (Lana Wood), Ethan and many of the local men, including several Texas Rangers, set out to rescue his nieces. But after several Rangers are killed in a Comanche ambush and Ethan finds Lucy dead, and possibly raped, most assume that Debbie will have been killed too. Only Ethan and Debbie’s adopted brother, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) continue to look for her, which they do for several years. Martin fears that Ethan’s hatred of Native Americans will lead him to kill Debbie if they find her, given that he has said it would be better to be dead than to live as a Comanche, but when they do free her from captivity at the hands of Comanche leader Scar (Henry Brandon), Ethan surprisingly shows mercy and carries Debbie back to her hometown.
The titular character of Taxi Driver is Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), a Vietnam War veteran struggling with insomnia and loneliness who takes a job driving a cab at night. Travis’ difficulties socializing and frustration with the state of 1970s New York lead him to become a vigilante, with him ultimately freeing child sex worker Iris (Jodie Foster) from her pimps, led by Matthew “Sport” Higgins (Harvey Keitel), who Travis kills in a brutal gun fight. The film’s final scenes show newspaper clippings praising Travis as a hero and a short reunion between him and Betsy (Cybil Shepherd), a woman he briefly dated, before he makes a nervous glance in his rearview mirror that suggests that his violent urges are still part of him.
What Was 'The Searchers' Influence on 'Taxi Driver'?
The most obvious similarity between the two films, of course, is their shared focus on the rescue of young women from captors with whom they are in toxic romantic relationships (the adult Debbie, played by Natalie Wood, is one of Scar’s wives). But they are also linked by their explorations of themes of racial hatred and violence, and how racism is connected to toxic masculinity. Although his rescue of Iris may make Travis seem heroic, the rest of Taxi Driver makes it clear that few of his motives are truly altruistic and that he is almost equally disturbed and prejudiced as Ethan is. Early in the film, Travis asks out a Black woman who works at the concession stand of the porn theater he frequents, oblivious as to why this is potentially off-putting. She refuses and threatens to call her manager when Travis persists and, from that point on, he is shown being visibly uncomfortable in the presence of Black people.
One of several scenes narrated by an entry from Travis’ journal rants about what he sees as the lawless, corrupt nature of the city. His internal monologue states “All the animals come out at night,” as he drives past a sidewalk on which the crowd is predominantly Black. He also emulates a racist passenger, played by Scorsese, who tells him of his plan to kill his wife and the Black man she is having an affair with, by buying the same caliber gun as the one the passenger had. The first person Travis kills in his burgeoning vigilante career is also a Black man who is in the process of robbing a store Travis is shopping in. Although he didn't directly seek this encounter out, the fact that Travis is consistently carrying at least one of his guns with him in public at this point underlines that he is hoping for what he sees as a justifiable reason to get into a fight, particularly with one of the types of people he feels are poisoning the city (one of which the viewer can tell are Black people). And his handling of the situation, shooting the robber point-blank in the head, is, of course, simply extreme and would be morally questionable no matter the robber's race. The connection between Ethan’s prejudice and Travis’ would have been even more pronounced if the pimps in Taxi Driver were Black, as they were in the original script. In an interview with The Guardian, screenwriter Paul Schrader praised the film’s producers for changing the pimps’ races to white, stating that, “In the original script, it was just a racist slaughter.”
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Furthermore, although he previously tried to persuade her to leave them, and offered to help her do so, Travis doesn’t commit to attacking the pimps and freeing Iris until after his attempt to assassinate Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris), the presidential candidate Betsy works for, fails. Likewise, a scene of Travis alone in his apartment shows him toying with his gun while watching TV, specifically a soap-opera-like program in which a couple are having an argument about their romance. Eventually, Travis pushes the TV set with his foot, allowing the monitor to topple over and shatter. These and other incidents suggest that his vigilante mission may have been motivated just as much by his need to act on his violent impulses and the feeling of emasculation caused by Betsy's rejection (and likely those of the concession stand worker and past women) as it was by an altruistic desire to help Iris.
Scorsese and Schrader highlight why this ambiguity in his motives should give viewers pause over praising Travis’ actions, despite their one undeniably positive outcome of freeing Iris. This point can be applied to Ethan as well. It’s entirely possible that Ethan only devoted himself to looking for Debbie for so long because of his racism, with him seeking to kill her due to his belief that her living with the Comanches contaminated her, and by extension, his family, in some way. The fact that Martin has to shield Debbie from Ethan so he doesn’t shoot her when they first find her supports this interpretation. Ethan’s last-minute change of heart shouldn’t absolve him of judgment for this prejudice, just as Travis saving Iris shouldn’t absolve him of his immoral actions or beliefs.
Schrader acknowledged The Searchers’ influence on Taxi Driver to Politico, and Scorsese’s retrospective review of the earlier film for The Hollywood Reporter highlights qualities of it that are echoed in his own masterpiece. Scorsese describes Ethan’s loneliness as a quality that separates him from other famous characters played by John Wayne and the influence of this on his film is obvious. Loneliness is arguably the most prominent theme in Taxi Driver, with Travis referring to himself as “God’s lonely man” in one of his journal entries. Ultimately, most of his decisions and actions can be traced back to his desire to connect with others and the difficulties he experiences doing so. For instance, he takes Betsy to a porn movie on a date, believing this is a normal choice of activity; the resulting collapse of their relationship hastens Travis’ transformation into a vigilante and directly inspires his assassination attempt, the failure of which in turn leads him to take the decisive, violent action to save Iris. Scorsese also notes how elements of Ethan’s characterization, including his immense knowledge of Native American culture and customs, emphasize “the craziness of race hatred,” in which “murderous fixation and disgust are side by side with fascination and attraction.” Taxi Driver also represents this contradictory "craziness" through Travis’ unsuccessful flirting with the Black woman.
'Taxi Driver' Shows the Similarities Between Racism and Sexism
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Even without the racial element, disgust existing simultaneously with fascination and attraction also describes much of Travis' behavior toward women more broadly. Initially, Travis' journal entries highlight how he has begun to lionize Betsy, believing she is untouched by the corruption he believes is omnipresent, affecting everyone else around him (male and female alike). But when Betsy stops returning his calls after the porn date, Travis becomes enraged, aggressively confronting her at her place of work. As her colleagues force him to leave, he rants that she's "in a hell. And you're going to die in a hell like the rest of them. You're like the rest of them," seemingly referring to women in general. While pretending to solicit Iris in order to talk to her, Travis also seems to be somewhat attracted to her when she makes the sexual advances she believes he wants, although his horror at her age and situation ultimately reasserts itself.
'Taxi Driver' Nods to Its Western Influences
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Although it doesn't reference The Searchers directly, Taxi Driver nods to the influence of the Western genre more generally. While Travis speaks with Sport, after initially thinking he's an undercover police officer, Sport remarks that Travis is, "a real cowboy!" Likewise, while Travis' decision to buy the large gun specifically is inspired directly by his encounter with Scorsese's character, it also resembles the kinds of weapons wielded by many characters in various Westerns, with the holster Travis sometimes carries it in also resembling the one Ethan often wears. This may be a subtle reference to the influence Westerns such as those Wayne and Ford made had on men of Travis' generation, including Taxi Driver's actors and filmmakers. This in turn allows Travis to reflect on the experience of many Vietnam War veterans, who were inspired to join the military by both stories of their elders' prior military service in conflicts like World War II and action-packed films like Westerns, in which "ideal" men were characterized by their combat skills and physical strength, only to be greeted and eventually haunted by the morally ambiguous nature of the later conflict.
The Relationship Between 'The Searchers' and 'Taxi Driver' Makes Them More Interesting
There are more than enough differences between the two films to keep them distinct, beyond their different settings. Taxi Driver doesn’t feature any character with a role remotely similar to that of Martin Pawley, for example, and many of The Searchers’ supporting characters provide kinds of slapstick comedy that are absent in Scorsese’s film. The Betsy and Palantine storylines are also fairly unique to Taxi Driver. Although Ethan’s rapport with Martha has been interpreted by many viewers as suggestive of a shared romantic attraction, her early death prevents this dynamic from being explored significantly. The other major romance in The Searchers, between Martin and his neighbor Laurie Jorgensen (Vera Miles), is mostly lighthearted and even comes to an optimistic conclusion, making it entirely different from the doomed affair between Travis and Betsy.
Most importantly, despite their many shared characteristics and the similar trajectories of their stories, Ethan and Travis also differ drastically in some key ways. Despite his many shortcomings, Ethan is admittedly quite skilled in many of the traditionally masculine pursuits that are important to survival in the old West, including horsemanship, tracking, and combat, among others. This makes him supremely confident and allows him to command a kind of awed respect from almost everyone he meets, even those who disagree with his beliefs or are frightened by his ruthlessness. This in turn likely contributes to his massive ego and his near-constant assumption that his ideals are the right ones, which only really wavers when he chooses not to kill Debbie. Travis, on the other hand, is almost completely devoid of this kind of confidence, at least until he completes his transformation into a vigilante. He is also often painfully aware that his personality and behavior make him seem abnormal to many of his peers, and much of the drama of Taxi Driver comes from him trying, and usually failing, to find some sense of belonging and community. In short, Ethan is the kind of man Travis aspires to be for much of the film, though in reality, they are more disparate than he would like to believe. Regardless, the stories of Debbie and Iris, and the shared focus on themes of racism and masculinity make the connection between the films plain, and having the other in mind while watching either film makes them both more rewarding experiences.
'The Searchers' and 'Taxi Driver' Have Equally Influential Legacies
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Although the passage of time makes the flawed, problematic aspects of Ethan's character and The Searchers as a whole, increasingly apparent, the film continues to be an immensely influential part of world cinema, with elements of its character portrayals and themes, plotting, and visuals, especially its particularly famous final shot, referenced in a wide assortment of later films and other media, including plenty of projects that are not Westerns. Taxi Driver has become equally as celebrated and seminal, if not more, with its influence being especially pronounced on other vigilante and crime films and those that focus on characters who serve as unreliable narrators.
Taxi Driver is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
Image by Jefferson Chacon
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