Rating: 
Summary: Oedipus, Lear, and more.
Review: Ethan Edwards is one of the screen's most memorable and complex characterizations. His racism, impassioned rage, cold brutality, rugged individualism, and indestructible tenacity coexist with qualities of tenderness and affection, penetrating insight and principled high-mindedness. Yet much of him remains inscrutable, testimony to the mysteries of human identity itself. In many respects, Marty (Jeff Hunter) is the nominal "hero," someone who strikes a balance between the individual and social world, frontier and domestic realm, and who sees beyond skin color and blood to the spiritual bond that unites all human beings. But there's no way John Wayne's tortured character--driven by lost opportunities in the past and vengeful priorities in the present--can be challenged. He shoots out the eyes of dead Indians to insure their spirits will never be admitted to the happy hunting grounds, but like Oedipus and Lear it is his own blindness that denies him peace. His epiphany is all the more powerful due to its unexpectedness.Even were the rest of the film prosaic, "The Searchers" would rank among the best of American cinema. But John Ford's storytelling magic is also on display at its best, creating an epic narrative that conveys the magnitude of space and the passing of time with equal verisimilitude. Curiously, "Shane" commands a considerably higher price than "The Searchers." I'd argue that "Shane," a much heralded film at the time of its release, has lost stature and cinematic interest, whereas exactly the opposite is true of "The Searchers." As for print quality, the restored DVD version is far from perfect but at least 50% better than earlier VHS editions. That's good enough in the case of this masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the Hook
Review: Since the inception of the Western movie, there has come a problem. Of late, new westerns are for the most part nonexistent. Why? Becuase if one isn't careful, the Western can b degraded to a strictly by the numbers exercise. More than any other film the Western is predictable. So, someone decided that every Western needed a hook. Be it a grand forest fire(like Last of the Cowboys) or a wild stampede(lik Snowy River) every Western needed a hook. So, where's the hook in The Searchers? The action sequences are well done, but they have been done before. There is humor enough from characters like Ward Bond and Wayne's sidekick and his love life. But the hook lies elsewhere. Charactere development. So simple, but sad to say, ignored for the most part by Western movie makers. (Excepting Unforgiven, Sagecoach and a few other notables.) Wayne gives the best performance of his life in this movie. Ethan Edwards is by far one of th greatest characters to come out of the WEstern genre, ranked up there with Shane in my opinion. An academy award was well deserved for Wayne. The line,"They ain't white," sends shivers down my spine every time I see it. The AFI says this is one of the best movies ever made, ranking it at number 95. While we all may have various contentions with this list, this is one movie that has earned it's place. Watch it today. Oh, but I'd save the documentary at the front for later, as it gives away the ending.
Rating: 
Summary: I've never been a big Wayne fan, but...
Review: The Searchers was a pretty good movie in many ways and this DVD edition is nicely made. They obviously went to great pains to digitally recapture the original color and sound of this film. I've never much cared for John Wayne movies, but this film transcends its era in some ways. The characters, particularly Wayne's, are devoid of the smarmy, sickeningly goody-goody, politically correct personalities that most westerns featured in the 40's and 50's. I see what the critics mean when they refer to The Searchers as a precursor to the Spaghetti Westerns of the late sixties and later Clint Eastwood's more hardy, morally ambiguous westerns. A family is attacked (and mostly killed) by a Native American tribe and their daughter (played by a young Natalie Wood) is adopted by the tribe. Things that I don't like: as usual in this era, Native Americans are cast as the villains with little in the way to show that atrocities between whites and Native Americans was a two-way street; also the casting of white actors as Native Americans always annoys me, but it was the convention of the times and if you can get past it, there's still a good movie to be enjoyed! The film also deals with some other interesting phenomenons: obsession, racism and the Stockholm Syndrome. The outdoor shots (in Monument Valley, IIRC) are pretty stunning, too! Worth seeing despite some of the dated conventions used to make the film.
Rating:
Summary: greatest western of all time!
Review: This movie is first of all the most exquisitely photographed western(and possibly any film) of all time.It also proved that John Wayne was more than just a one note actor.I absolutely love his performance in this movie,and that goes for the entire cast(including Jeffrey Hunter's much maligned one according to some of these reviews)It is a western to be seen again & again.I feel Wayne says everything you need to know about Ethan with an expressive look or glance and the recreation of western rituals makes you feel as if you were in Texas circa 1800's.The colors are amazing and the character of Ethan lingers in the memory.The bookend opening & closing of the film are unforgettable! the more I see this movie,the more I love it!!
Rating:
Summary: One must make allowances for the era, but...
Review: The key word here is "Overrated". This film appears to be the victim of heavy editing, as if Ford intended to tell a larger story, but was constrained by producers to limit the film to two hours. We never learn through word, expression or act why Ethan's attitude towards Indians changes. For that matter, we never learn anything about Ethan's inner feelings or motivations. Why does he leave at the end? It appears to be nothing more than a sentimental indulgence in the "Lonely Hero" myth. The fight scenes went beyond unrealistic, all the way to comic strip silliness. The photography is excellent. Even allowing for the differences in attitudes and expectations for verisimilitude, this movie is only a 3.
Rating:
Summary: John Ford at his best!
Review: I've seen this movie on TV and on VHS probably a total of 20 times. John Wayne just couldn't be better in his role as Ethan. Absolutely captivating. No doubt this movie is about racism, obsession and revenge. Ethan just hates Indians to the core of his bones especially when he sees two girls driven insane but their captivity and the murder and rape of his niece. An interesting note. There is a deleted scene where Ethan goes up a pass through some rocks to follow one of the indians. While the others continue around and meet him on the other side. The movie cuts to Ethan coming out of the pass wiping his knife in the dirt and out of breath. He's asked where's his jacket. Ethan's response is "Never ask me about it". I saw the original unedited version years ago before it was deleted. An Indian has just raped and murdered his niece. He kills the Indian with his knife and wraps the dead body of his niece in his jacket and buries her. This must have been too much for the censor's to handle. Anyone else remember this scene?
Rating:
Summary: Reputation better than movie!
Review: Considered by many to be the ultimate western, a masterpiece, etc. Three stars for scenery, colors, actors and story - but the last two stars disappear into Monument Valley forever! I'm surprised that not many have focused on the weak spots before: in the middle of the movie John Wayne shoots 3 men in the back! Ever seen that before? No way! The movie is almost unbearable hateful (only softened-up by a few comic scenes)and presents an extremely one-sided view on the indians. I would have liked it much better, if the indian chief had been portrayed as an equal opponent instead of a warfare imbecile. Watch the 2-3 battle-scenes carefully: If an indian chief shows that kind of poorly lack of warfare skills - he should have been fired as head of tribe long before the movie started!Finally, it's tiresome to watch the battles: 20-30 indians fall like flies, sometimes 2 or 3 for each shot, while on the other side of the fence hardly a man is hit - at the most wounded in the arm or shoulder. The battle-scenes make it more like a cartoon than a major movie. Sorry, Ford-fans, can't share your enthusiasm this time!
Rating: 
Summary: John Ford, the Mediocrity
Review: "The Searchers," for some unforeseen and godforsaken reason, is constantly extolled as the foremost example of John Ford's cinematic genius. I saw the film, and I searched and I searched, until I could find no genius at all. Only a conventional, hackneyed Western [pleonasm?], based on actual historical events, melodramatically told - even obscuring or distorting the actual events - just so John Ford could tell his rather silly story of how poor Ethan was left out of the Family Reunion (the completely symbolic closing door in the final shot). Many filmmakers have revered this film. But then, most filmmakers were never noted for their taste (even Kurosawa admired Ford). If this were a nickelodeon, I'd advise you to save your nickels.
Rating: 
Summary: The long hard march
Review: I saw the video,and it made me sad that John Wayne helped create the myth of the savage Indian. We see Ethan Edwards transformed into a hard bitter man by the experiences he has been forced to endure, but the movie only helps to deepen racial distrust between different peoples. The Inians are always the bad guys, and the cowboys are always the good guys. We do not see what led Scar, the Indian leader, to become a killer. We only see the results of his hatred. We see the burning houses and dead people. We see the terror in the women's eyes when they see Indians. If we were to substitute black people for the Indians and give John Wayne a white sheet to put over his head. I doubt the movie would be legal.
Rating:
Summary: One of the ten best films of all time.
Review: A masterpiece. This is by far John Wayne's best performance and it was sheer ignorance on the part of the Academy Awards that Wayne wasn't nominated for best actor. Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, is one of the most interesting characters in the history of film. Returning to his brother's homestead three years after the Civil War, Ethan is a mysterious, suspicious man whose motives for coming home are unclear. Where did he get that newly minted Yankee money? And why did he take off before the war anyhow? Ethan and his sister-in-law, Martha, evidently had something going on before the war and she obviously still adores Ethan in a very chaste way. I find the scene where Martha gives Ethan his cape one of the most touching on film. Ward Bond's character witnesses this exchange between Martha and Ethan and sensitively looks away. Did he know of their love in the past? After the two girls are kidnapped by the Commanches, Ethan sets out to rescue them. Over time, he realizes that the surviving girl is by now living with 'a buck'. Ethan's new quest is to kill his niece. Astute critics have pointed out that Ethan's miscegenation is the driving force behind his obsessive search. The Searchers is referenced in two of Martin Scorcese's films. It is one of Stephen Spielberg's favorite movies. The French director Jean Luc Goddard says that he weeps when Ethan lifts Debbie up near the end. A beautiful, profound film that simply goes over the heads of some people who refuse to believe that a Western can be great cinema. There's plenty of flaws and goofs (why are people homesteading in what is essentially a desert?) but it's still a great film.
|
