The Searchers

Rating:
Summary: the best movie Ive ever seen!!!
Review: "THE DUKE'S"BEST MOVIE.I'M ONLY 10 AND I LOVE THIS MOVIE SO MUCH!!TO SIT THERE AND SAY I HATE JOHN WAYNE YOUR JUST PLAIN CRAZY!I LOVE THIS MOVIE AND YOU SHOULD ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Rare combination of a good story and profound ideas.
Review: I've never been a big fan of John Wayne, however this film has something special to offer. The Searchers is more than another fun film: it actually takes up deep ideas and handles them with sophistication. Wayne is the typical lonely American hero; he is the embodiment of the ideal of American freedom developing directly from John Locke (yes the British philosopher). A string of anti-social "stars" can be traced back through Fenimore Cooper's Natty Bumpbo and Twain's Huck Finn. The basics of social contract theoey developed by Locke claims that freedom and society are antithetical. In The Searchers we witness the enactment of that conflict: Wayne (the searcher forver outside) and the more social settlers (with a roof over their heards). The conflict between freedom and society, and the sacrifices required for settled existence are manifest throughout the film. The other deep issue taken up in this film is the question of community itself. What constitutes a true community? In The Searchers we see Wayne who has family (what he calls blood kin) and Martin (the half-breed child) who is constantly reminded by Wayne that he has no family. Yet as Wayne searches for his blood kin (his neice) we are constantly aware that he is fully prepared to kill her if she has been taken sexually by the Comanche. All the while Martin, who has no blood kin yet who was raised with genuine affection in the family of the missing girl, feels that he is part of the family--even more so than is her uncle who would kill her. At the very end of the film Wayne (Nathan) and Martin must deal with having re-taken the long sought for neice. Wayne had been certain to kill her for years, suddenly decides not to. Initially this seems strangley out of character. But realize that Martin searched with Nathan for five years, and though he is unable to claim any blood relationship to the now young lady he genuinely loves her as a sister. In a wonderful twist on the all too typical romnantic theme, it is Martin's love for his sister that redeams her in Wayne's eyes and makes him finally realize that community (of which family is only the most basic level) is more than blood. This film has some good humor, wonderful cinematography, and genuinely deep themes. A wonderful film for those wanting more than just another cowboy movie.

Rating:
Summary: I would rank this movie in the top 5 of all I have seen!
Review: I first saw this movie in 1956 in a small town theater in Wisconsin. I was nine years old and to this the day the movie has "haunted" me with its beauty and horror: the color and enchantment of the monument valley vistas juxtaposed with this sort of anti-hero of a man who would shoot out the eyes of an already dead native American. That scene sticks with me like the memory of some dream I am unable to lose in my subconscious...difficult to explain. At nine years old I didn't understand the word hate and prejudice etc. Now when I view this movie, I remember my "innocence" of 1956. I remember the magic of a movie which simply does not lose its strength over time...truly a great film!

Rating:
Summary: "Epic" that remains "un-Dated",passing the tests of time
Review: Masterful in all ways goes without saying. I agree with those who tought it to be "one of the best ever". (not just among westerns) This film is John Wayne's HIGH NOON.(a classic w/Gary Cooper) Seeing it is the only way,words don't do it. The "hard" edges still play to today's people and the things we confront. You will travel with "Wayne" as hate consumes him. He's NOT out to save the girl, but to destroy her. What will happen when he is face to face with her? Watch and enjoy what film making is all about. Great supporting cast. Humor is featured, also.

Rating:
Summary: Underlaying meanings
Review: The indications are obvious in the early parts of the film that Ethan Edwards and his brother's wife have had deep and tender feelings for one another in the past. It's only hinted at in gestures and facial expression, the most telling being the farewell kiss on the forehead as Ward Bond stands knowingly and respectfully in the foreground, his eyes affording them privacy as he stares away from them finishing his coffee. It is this respect Ethan shows for Martha's marriage to his brother that rules out any possibility of Debbie being Ethan's daughter. Whatever forces - distinct and indistinct - that has kept Ethan and Martha apart there is no way that she is anything but the upstanding woman that Ethan regards her as. A more plausible edge to the story - and one that I have yet to read or hear anyone ever mention - is that Martin may indeed be Ethan's son. I don't think there is any doubt of this as all the indications are more than obvious: Martin was "found" by ethan as a baby who survived a massacre and given to his brother and Martha to raise, Ethan's fluency with Indian customs and language, and the revelation near the end when he discloses one of the scalps shown to he and Martin indeed belonged to Martin's mother. It is this ambiguity of character and the demons that drive him that give the film so much more logic. Watch it with this in mind and it will make you think alot deeper than before it occured or was pointed out to you.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable movie
Review: This movie made a wonderful film to watch with friends....i have grown up with a tradition of watching John Wayne movies with my father.....this was a classic and i must say one of his best films.....i hope you all enjoy it as much as i did.

Rating:
Summary: Is there a Director's Cut?
Review: Being a huge Searchers-fan since I first watched the movie in 1969 I was overwhelmed by the quality of the DVD-version. It looks as if the movie was shot today and if the Duke is going to step out of the screen. You can almost count the sand-grains in the desert. The Searchers on DVD is not a movie, but an awesome experience. This is what I wanted after watching the movie twice in cinema and eleven times on tv/video. Now I want even more. A Computer-driven Searchers II? Surely, it makes you dream of a Director's Cut. Does it excist?

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Summary: "That'll Be The Day"
Review: John Wayne's classic response to whenever anyone says to him "I thought you were dead". An enjoyable epic that stands the test of time.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best westerns ever seen.
Review: The Searchers is still one of John Waynes finest movies. I have the Video, and have seen it many, many times over, and each time I enjoy it very much. The story takes you over a long period of time, but it is one of the most suspensefull action packed westerns that I have seen. I also felt that the other actors in the movie did an excellent job. I have seen many of the same actors in some of John Waynes movies, which were directed by John Ford, which leads me to believe, that they all worked for the same guy. I truely enjoy this movie, ever since it first came out in 1956, I believe.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Movie Ever?
Review: In an interview in the late '80's, Steven Spielberg was asked what was the best movie ever made. He responded with "The Searchers". See for yourself. John Wayne and an all-star cast take you from inside a family riven by the Civil War to disaster and then to reunion. This movie does not fulfil some notions of what a western is but, instead, gives us a picture of people in the West. In the end, Wayne saves the day, but not without paying dearly emotionally and physically.