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Customer Reviews of The Searchers

A classic - but with reservations
One of the most influential films ever made (see it and have some snobby fun drawing seemingly unlikely connections to Star Wars and Taxi Driver for example), John Ford’s The Searchers features John Wayne in his favorite and most complex role. When his brother’s family is wiped out in a Comanche raid, Indian-hating ex-Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards (Wayne) sets off on an epic, ultimately elegiac, search for his kidnapped niece Debbie (Natalie Wood), the sole survivor of the raid. Aided by Debbie’s half-Indian brother Marty (Jeffrey Hunter), Ethan’s years of searching will finally lead him to a choice between his racial hatred and his love for his niece. The Searchers is hands down one of the 3 best films in John Wayne’s legendary career as a cowboy star (the other two being Howard Hawks’ Red River and Rio Bravo). The Searchers is perhaps most notable for its provocative tinkering with Wayne’s film persona – rendering him as a cruel racist (rather like the real Wayne himself) who we – like Marty – soon begin to suspect is bent on killing his niece should he discover she has “gone Indian”. Yet, it is undoubtedly also a technically superb genre work of great directorial craftsmanship with surprisingly grand themes carefully explored in a manner that makes it positively Shakespearean. Featuring stunning signature shots of Ford’s beloved Monument Valley, The Searchers is ultimately the classic tale of a closing frontier and a man’s reluctant realization that time and progress have begun to render him and his value system obsolete. Yet, for all its intended genre irony it is nevertheless slightly awkward to wholly and uncritically embrace The Searchers, particularly because one is never quite sure whether the film itself – despite its self-effacement - revels in the mindlessly cruel treatment meted out by Ethan to Indians. The scene – unacceptably played for laughs – in which Ethan and Marty violently assault Marty’s squaw wife (forced on him by her chief father) is particularly distasteful. Critics will well counter with a number of scenes in which the distance between Ethan’s extremist character and the closing frontier society around him is emphasized. This would include the scene in which the Reverend questions his cruelty and blind hatred, as well as the famous pathos-tinged, door-frame ending.... And perhaps fans may also point to his grudging warming to his half-breed nephew and eventual decisive encounter with Natalie Wood as something approaching satisfactory redemption. This may well be applicable to the Ethan character, but hardly addresses the issue of the film’s overall and problematic point of view. It’s a rather pointless effort to willfully wish away the film’s racism – something that even otherwise astute critics have been guilty of. The best example of this unfortunate trend is perhaps Peter Bogdanovich’s sycophantic leading comment “The Indians are always given great dignity in your films” when interviewing Ford on The Searchers in his famous 1968 interviews with the ageing director. Great dignity? The Searchers? What film was Bogdanovich watching? Even Ford himself showed a better awareness of his dubious portrayal of Indians, specifically intending his genuinely dignifying portrayal in his under-appreciated Cheyenne Autumn (1964) to be an antidote to their portrayal in his earlier Westerns. The Searchers is a great movie done no favors by unnecessarily pretending that it is not also politically problematic. Like Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation this is an undoubted classic – but one to be to be viewed with some serious reservations.

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John Wayne at his Western Best now on WideScreen DVD!
"The Searchers" (1956) Anamorphic Widescreen DVD version is one of the best classic westerns ever made! Ranked in the American Film Institute's (AFI) top 100 movies of the last 100 years (1998). Having the best Western Director, John Ford partnering up with his favorite cowboy star, John Wayne can only be the beginning of a grand movie. Adding Widescreen Technicolor, the colorful Panoramic Monument Valley - Utah (Ford's favorite western area to film), a fantastic musical score and top supporting cast leads us on one of the best filmed westerns ever!

Summary - Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) is returning home to his only Brother & his family. After he and a posse of Texas Rangers (Lead by Ward Bond) were decoyed away by distant marauding Indians. The actual Indian raid was on remaining defenseless families left behind. Ethan's returned to find his Brothers family massacured all but his youngest niece, Debbie (played by Lana (younger)& Natalie Wood (older). His vengence takes him on a 5 year journey to recover her. Wayne is brilliant and proves he is a great actor.

"The Searchers" is a powerful 2 hour emotional rollercoaster ride. This movie will leave you with more respect of John Wayne's ability to act, Director John Ford's genius to tell a very complex story. Leaving us forever with a Great Western Classic! Enjoy.

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Searchers!!
Ethan Edwards, (John Wayne), finds his way home after the civil war to his brothers homestead. Some cattle are rustled and he and a few men track them only to discover it's a Comanche trick to lure them away while they kill out the folks left behind which is Ethan's brother, wife, and kids. They arrive back too late, all are dead except Ethan's niece who was taken captive. Ethan sets out to find his niece accompanied by Martin Pauley, (Jeffrey Hunter), who Ethan found as a baby years earlier after another Indian raid. Ethan loved his brother's wife which is clear in the book by Lemay but very lightly alluded to in the film. This helps to explain his rage because everything he cared for in the world is gone. He will pursue the Comanche that have his niece until hell freezes over. Along the way he finds that he is still a human being. This film is widely considered the greatest western of all time and a favorite film of Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg if that means anything to you, I thought I would toss it in anyway.