The Searchers

Rating:
Summary: The quintessential Western
Review: One of the signs that a film is truly great is that it lives on, thematically, and visually, in films that follow. Judged by that standard, few films are greater than "The Searchers," pieces of some of the greatest films ever made have their genesis in this John Ford masterpiece.

The scene in "Star Wars" where Luke Skywalker returns home to find his aunt and uncle dead? Yep, that's from "The searchers," right down to a windswept Luke looking briefly away when the enormity of what happened hits him.

The opening shot, framed by a doorway opening into the desert vastness and a woman walking out of it, has been incorporated into dozens of films, the latest being "Kill Bill, Volume 2."

The story of a sociopathic bigot trying to rescue a young girl trapped with a bunch of savages? Hey, wasn't that the basic plot of "Taxi Driver"?

In addition to being a cinematic touchpiece for generations of filmmakers, "The Searchers" stands on its own as a truly great film experience, probably most notable for its stunning visuals, John Wayne's greatest performance, and a slightly more nuanced approach to the "cowboys and Indians" conflict that marked the coming of the revisionist Western.

If nothing else, "The Searchers" is a gorgeous film to look at, with some of the most well-known visuals in film history. The most famous images, of course, are of the opening and closing "doorway" shots, but the desert scenes have enduring grace and power. If Wayne is the star of this film, the desert is his co-star.

Wayne's complex, powerful portrayal of Ethan not only defined his career, but also helped define a new kind of character that would soon become known as an "antihero." Before long, the antihero would redefine cinema in films like "Bonnie and Clyde," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," and even "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

Much has been written about the attitude towards native Americans in "The Searchers," but this much is pretty clear: it's a whole lot more nuanced than the Westerns of its day. The famous climactic scene in which Wayne's character picks up his niece (who he'd vowed to kill because she was living with Cherokees) and takes her home seems to be an admittance that his bigotry is wrong. When the door literally closes on Wayne's character in the movie's legendary closing shot, the message is pretty clear: he might have done the right thing by bringing his niece home, but his attitudes are no longer acceptable, and he is denied redemption.

That's a pretty powerful anti-bigotry message by 1956 standards, and like so much else in "The Searchers," it, too, lived on.

Rating:
Summary: Ford and Wayne at the peak of their powers
Review: An extraordinary Western, maybe the best ever; from the breathtaking opening shots one can see that this isn't a typical 'oater. Those who feel that John Ford/ John Wayne films are typical movies of the era (corny, naive, racist) should take a look at "The Searchers".


John Wayne delivers an outstanding performance, ranging from easygoing (when visiting his brother's family) to gruff (when he sees part-Indian Martin) to shellshocked (after finding out about his niece Lucy's fate) to psychotic (from shooting buffalo to prevent Comanches from eating to his determination to kill niece Debby, considering her already dead once the Comanches started raising her.

Unlike modern Westerns, this film doesn't beat you over the head with its messages; one can easily see some of the points that Wayne and Ford were trying to make about racism versus Native Americans (further explored by Ford in "Cheyenne Autumn"). That message is delivered subtly throughout the film, possibly due to Ford feeling his '50s audience was not yet ready to accept a more obvious depiction of racial hatred/injustice. To Ford's credit, though, he does take a bit of time showing us a likeable comic-relief type Comanche bride for Hunter, only to show her later shockingly slain, possibly by the U.S. Cavalry, something quite unexpected in a film from this period.

Jeffrey Hunter serves as the moral center of the film. He's a bit naive and anxious, but always seeks to do what is right. The adopted stepbrother of Debby is determined to find her every bit as much as Wayne is. Later, he is also determined to keep Wayne from killing her. Wayne at first despises him due to his part-Cherokee heritage and that opinion only gradually changes over the five years they both spend looking for Debby. By the end, Wayne is still somewhat rough on Hunter, but in a more brotherly sort of way.

The film sometimes gets slow, due to the subplot involving Hunter's on/off courtship with Vera Miles' character and some corny comic relief (though its still fairly amusing, not roll-your-eyes hokiness from typical cowboy fare), perhaps that stuff is needed though to break some of the dark tension. It also helps that the supporting cast is very strong, including the great Ward Bond as the Preacher/Ranger Captain and comedy sidekick Hank Worden. Monument Valley is also a major supporting character, helping give the film its awesome look

Unlike many Westerns that deal with actions and reactions (bad guy does bad, good guy chases him around for 2 hours), "The Searchers" deals more with universal issues; honor, perserverance, mercy, and perhaps most of all bigotry. John Wayne is not your typical protagonist here. His character is plainly, sometimes crazily racist, though that makes the climactic scene where he finally has Debby in his arms so powerful. He turns against his own bigoted views to do the right thing. Wayne's character doesn't go through the typical Hollywood night-and-day sort of change, but one has hope for the future, just as Wayne and Ford did (two men who in their real lives were notably kind and free of bigotry).



Rating:
Summary: Slow and Overrated
Review: After hearing so much about The Searchers I had to watch this movie to see what I was missing. As it turns out, not much. If you are a true fan of the pre-1960's western film style, especially with John Wayne and his typical band of old horse opera cronies, you may really like it. Unfortunately I found the opening scenes of Monument Valley to be the most exciting part of The Searchers. Soon after the start of the film it drifts off point several times and really winds down into an old, stereotypical western - FAST ! The apparent use of caucasian actors as native Americans, and Jeffrey Hunter's overacting, created some cheesy moments that were just too hard to take. I really wanted to like The Searchers, and I have tried watching it several times, but each time it peters out about 1/4 of the way into the story and I just can't finish viewing it in one continuous sitting. The cinematography is excellent, the opening scenes are great, but after that you can place The Cowboys or The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in the DVD player and watch better examples of John Wayne's work.

Rating:
Summary: What More Can Be Said?
Review: I have read many of the nearby reviews and nothing has been missed, the symbolism and all. What I may be able to add is before this was available I recorded it off cable TV and pulled it out often to watch. It is a great shame that this movie was not taken seriously when it first came out; the Duke rarely gave such an intense performance as he does here. But Westerns were a dime a dozen and dismissed as kiddie fare despite the advent of the first "adult" Western "High Noon" 4 years earlier. The photography is fantasatic, the performances are first rate and the dialogue, well, is mostly good. Vera Miles (also in Wayne's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance") plays the spinster patiently waiting for Ethan Edwards (Wayne) and her awkward-in-love beau (Jeffrey Hunter) to return from the search for the kidnapped girl while Ken Curtis ("Festus" of TV's "Gunsmoke" and former member of Sons of the Pioneers) romances her with his guitar. Panhandle Pete Perkins, a Western veteran, is a dotty oldtimer. Wayne perennial Ward Bond is on hand as a preacher and lawman/military man whose "authority" does not impress Wayne's character. Patrick (Dad--got-me-the-job) Wayne turns in a good performance as a green cavalry man. Harry Carey, Jr. is on hand in the search until a fit of rage drives him into the gunfire of the outlaw Indians. Wayne pays tribute to Carey's father, a cowboy star in Hollywood's early days, in the end by resting his elbow in his hand (a Carey, Sr. trademark gesture) before turning his back on the warm family scene that he has made possible but is somehow foreign to him and wanders rather aimlessly away. Oscar worthy. You can get this flick in a set with other great Wayne movies if you like, but don't miss having THIS one. Incidentally, early rocker Buddy Holly took the line that Ethan often spouts in the movie "that'll be the day" and made it into his successful rock song the following year. All good things.

Rating:
Summary: The Searchers.....John Wayne's best performance.
Review: It is difficult to write succinctly about a film as complex and multifaceted as John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, but there can be no doubt that it is simultaneously one of the most extraordinary and one of the most unique and unusual Westerns ever made. Contrary to what some of the reviewers have said, THE SEARCHERS it not a masterpiece of the conventional Western; it is, in fact, one of the most unconventional of Westerns. In many ways, it is bolder and more subversive of its genre than any of the films of Sergio Leone or Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN. The center of the film and its uniqueness is unquestionably John Wayne's titanic performance as the wrathful, haunted avenger Ethan Edwards. Wayne, who is often - wrongly - accused of embodying the Western cliche of the upstanding yet tough-minded hero, here portrays a character as obsessively, even psychopathically, conflicted and driven as any modern protagonist (indeed, Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader have admitted that Edwards was among the inspirations for Travis Bickle in TAXI DRIVER). It is, quite simply, one of the greatest film performances of the last century. And, moreover, a performance which could only have been given in cinematic terms. Most of Wayne's performance is in silence, in Ford's unrelenting closeups where, for a few brief moments, the rampaging emotions which are ripping Ethan Edwards to shreds become visible in his eyes and the lines on his weather-beaten face. It is a masterfully etched portrait of astounding subtlety; there is perhaps no greater testament to its power than that of the greatest of all cinematic cynics, Jean-Luc Godard, who has claimed that he weeps every time he watches the film's final scenes.

While Wayne is the center of this film, it incontrovertibly belongs to its director; and Ford does not shrink from attacking the borders of his favored genre any more than his leading man does. Again, contrary to what many critics have claimed, this film is neither dated nor in need of revision in its treatment of its Indian characters. The Comanche cheif Scar is portrayed as both equal and counterpart to Ethan Edwards, as a man also driven by revenge, in this case, the murder of his son by whites. While they are the object of Edwards's vengeance, Indians are also portrayed as being wantonly killed and mistreated by the cavalry. The whites and the Indians are portrayed as two peoples locked in a dance of violence, but neither is given the moral upper hand. As John Milius once remarked, the Comanches in this film are not savages, but kings. It is true that THE SEARCHERS is not a politically correct film in any sense, but it is far more nuanced and complex than many would like to give it credit for. Also understandable is the dislike some may feel for a character as flawed as Ethan Edwards, who is, after all, a bully, a racist, and, it is implied, a bit of an outlaw as well. In my view, the question is a silly one. To reject a film on the basis of its protagonists moral unsuitability would disqualify most of the films of Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, and most other directors of the modern era. It is hugely unfortunate that Ford's reputation has suffered because he worked in a certain time period and in a certain genre which have now fallen out of favor with the cultural arbiters of the moment. This dissonance only leads to the unfortunate demand that films like THE SEARCHERS conform to one's demands, rather than accepting the rewards that come from taking them fully on their own terms.

Most of all, in judging the film, it is important to remember that it is a tragedy, and not a simple morality play. Ford shows all his characters as trapped and driven by their fates, not as manifestations of a cosmic good or evil. In this sense, THE SEARCHERS is not a masterwork of conventionality, but the first modern Western. It pushes the genre to its peak of moral and cinematic complexity, and it is a height which, I think it is safe to say, has not been reached again.

Rating:
Summary: West's best
Review: By the time this movie came out, John Ford, its director, was already a legendary filmmaker. With a career reaching back to the mid-teens, he had already nabbed his four Oscars and solidified a legacy of being perhaps the greatest directors of all time, and this film certainly proves him to be at the pinnacle of his artistic mastery. It also represents the incredible resiliency of its star, America's number one war hero and cowboy, John Wayne, (and I should say also his public's loyalty), who previously in the same year made one of the worst movies of anybody's career, The Conqueror, in which he portrayed Genghis Khan. Taken from Alan LeMay's 1954 novel of the same name, The Searchers explores the emotionally complex story of a perilous, hate-ridden man called Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), and his Homeric-style odyssey of self-discovery following a Comanche massacre, while also diving into the themes of racial prejudice and sexism.

Ford lures us from the beginning into this simultaneously gorgeous and volatile desert world as Ethan emerges from the sand and the buttes, a drifting, lonely man on horseback returning to his family after a three year absence. During Ethan's stay with the family, a group of Comanches attacks the frontier home while he and the other men are away, killing everyone except his two nieces who are kidnapped: a teenager named Lucy (Pippa Scott) and a ten-year-old named Debbie (Lana Wood, later played as a teenager by Natalie Wood). From here, it becomes a meandering tale that probes the inner psychological turmoil of this fiercely independent man obsessed with revenge and hatred, who, along with his half-Cherokee nephew Marty (Jeffery Hunter), searches for his nieces for over five years.

Obviously the western has waned in popularity in the last two decades - Open Range ended a decade-long drought - but it is really the one true distinctive American genre, the oldest, and also the most abundant. The Searchers is regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time. Rightly so. It's epic, it's complex, with moments of humor, visually-gorgeous, reflecting Ford's training as a painter, and it's John Wayne's greatest performance, ever. His favorite, too - he even named his son Ethan. And the most stirring part of the film is probably this visual motif of a framed doorway: it begins with a door opening, and ends with a door closing, but in both scenes, on this threshold between two worlds, John Wayne stands alone. In the end, John peers briefly back through the doorway into the home, wherein lies the warmth of a settled family, a civilization he can never know, before turning back into the savage and threatening glare of the western frontier that has and always will be his home.

Rating:
Summary: best John Wayne movie ever
Review: I grew up watching John Wayne movies with my grandpa and am a huge fan and have seen most all of them but The Searchers is the best! Wayne shows that he really is a great actor and I think his performance was oscar worthy better than True Grit. His charactor is deep and he portrays a kind of Villain good guy role you never know which until the end. The scenery is awesome and the fight scenes excellent except the river scene in which the gun shots sound strange but overall an exclellent movie that keeps you guessing with deep plots and excellent charactors. Absolutely the Best!

Rating:
Summary: Western Perfection...
Review: This review refers to the Warner Bros DVD edition of THE SEARCHERS..

THE SEARCHERS from 1956... Do they come any better than this? The Duke is a war weary ex-confederate who becomes obsessed with hunting down the Comanche tribe who has massacred his family and kidnapped his young niece. We follow him for years as he will not let go of his mission or his beliefs. Wayne is amazing in this role as we see his hatred turn into humanity. This film has it all for the Western lover. It is from Director John Ford, and may just be his masterpiece. It is filmed in technicolor, and the stunning scenery may be viewed in the original widescreen(taking in all the action and rugged terrain), but also has the option of a standard version. It also stars Hollywood greats Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond and Natalie Wood.

Contrary to the editorial reviews here, I thought the transfer of this nearly 50 year old film looked wonderful. The picture was clean and clear with very good sound. There are a couple of documentary shorts included, made at the time of the shoot, one has a brief interview with Natalie Wood(glowing from her recent Oscar nomination for REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE). It may be viewed in or with subtitles in English, French and Spanish, and it also contains some production notes.

For big fans of The Duke or John Ford, or great American Westerns in general, you may want to consider purchasing this DVD in the John Wayne Collection 3 pack. Included with this one, you also get STAGECOACH and THE COWBOYS. Not only is it a great selection of Wayne's works, spanning 30 years, but checking the prices individually, this is practically like buying 2 and getting one free.They each come in their own snap case and have an outer sleeve for the set.

Saddle Up once again with The Duke for a great adventure and a powerful story.

Happy Trails....Laurie