The Searchers
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Movie Reviews of The Searchers
Movie Review: Greatest Western Ever! Not sure about WB Blu Ray
Summary: 5 Stars
First, the film:
This is my personal favorite Western of them all... period. (Followed closely by Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.)
Ford shot in Monument Valley, one of his favorite locations, and -- wow -- do he know how to shoot. This film also displays some of his favorite visual touches -- keep an eye on the very opening moment and the closing moment. (Won't tell you more than that.) Once you've seen the film, consider David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, and a slew of other directors who pick up on Ford film styles in their own work.
This may also be John Wayne's darkest role, certainly one of them. Wayne plays a real anti-hero here. Ford deliberately gives him a racist side, and that is only part of the darkness. Wayne's character of Ethan Edwards is vastly deeper and more complex than the huge majority of comparable characters in any film genre, and Wayne carries it off.
The story touches on an issue that recurs through the first 200 years of American history (say 1650 to 1850, very roughly) -- the captured white person. Check out "The Redeemed Captive" by John Williams (written 300 years ago) and "The Unredeemed Captive" written by John Demos in the 1990s.
Now, the Blu Ray disc:
Several people have commented on the Warner Brothers presentation of the film in two aspect ratios, that commonly seen on standard definition television and a widescreen version that has the top and bottom cropped. There are some very helpful comments on this. I do not know the intentions of Warner Brothers or John Ford on presentation.
The one thing I do know is that Warner Brothers has a well-established history of really mangling their films to squeeze as much money as possible out of them. They viciously overcompress signals so that compression artifacts are glaring. The have cropped films and called them "restored versions". Their marketers, producers and executives are among the most craven money-grubbers to be found in the entertainment industry... and that's saying something. Take the critical comments of others in consideration.
Movie Review: For what we're about to receive, we thank Thee O Lord.
Summary: 5 Stars
These are the famous words prayed by Hank Worden, as he, John Wayne, Ward Bond, and Jeffery Hunter prepare for an Indian attack. My favorite of all of the John Wayne movies. This is a story of a man who has a fericous hatred of Indians that put General Sherman to shame. General Sherman believes that the only good Indian is a dead Indian. Wayne's character Ethan beleives that a dead niece is better than a live niece turned squaw. His neice, Debbie, is kidnapped by by a Commanche Chief named Scar.Scar isn't the typical sterotype Indian. Like Ethan, he is full of hatred and vengence from his dealings in war. Ethan is a man who dearly loves his neice and gives her a civil war medal. However, he is also a man who dislike Marty (Hunter) because he is quarter Cherokee whom he regrets rescuing as a baby. Ethan also has a mysterious past. He's been missing since the end of the Civil War, shows up with a lot of money freshly minted, and matches quite a few descriptions.
To ease the tension, John Ford wisely includes some comedy. Mose Harper (Worden) provides the best as an idoit who's the Texas Ranger's mascot. Cpt Rev Johnson (Bond)is fire and brimstone whom gets the best of by Wayne and Lt. Greenfield (Pat Wayne!). Marty accidently marries a squaw and later fight a Seven brides for Seven brother fight with Charlie (Curtis).
If there's any flaws is that the beautiful Vera Miles doesn't use her natural voice. And that fight could have been improved upon. Netherless, these are minor infractiions. The picture quality could be improved, but the beauty of the Monument Valley is timeless.
The main theme is the theme of whether love can conquer vengence: to a certain extent yes. The ending says it all. Wayne picks up Debbie and sees her not as a squaw, but as a lost child. Then when everyone goes in the house except Wayne who walks off and the doors shut.
Nice features, nothing extra as in a documentary. The reason for buying this DVD is for John Wayne's performance and John Ford's directing.
Movie Review: John Wayne's real talent in all it's primitive glory
Summary: 5 Stars
Everyone has already mentioned Ford's directing and his brilliance in capturing stunning scenery along with intruiging charactors. But with that said, This is John Wayne's film. This is Wayne's first western that takes him to another level outside of the hero good guy he was always playing. Red River touched a little bit to his dark side but this film was simply the framework for him to truly shine as a diverse and incredibly underrated talent. At first he starts out as a bigoted hero going out with his "nephew" to find the kidnapped niece. But slowly you begin to realize that he has other motives. In the scene where they are at a fort we see several white girls who had been kidnapped by the Comanches and finally had been rescued only to see that they are now emotionally disturbed. Ethan (Wayne) sais they are no longer white, they are now infact (Comanche). This line opens the door to what Ethan's new motives are for finding his neice. After he sais this line and begins to walk out the door, one of the girls screams and Ethan turns around to look. The stare captured on film and the look in Wayne's eyes is chilling beyond words. You can almost feel the hatred for the Comanches spilling out of his icey glare.
This is the film Wayne should have gotten his oscar for. True Grit was also great but this is the real Poer House performance of the two.
The film is not all gloom either. There are some funny scenes when Ethan is tucking Marty (a grown man)in bed and just saying "Just making sure you're comfortable". And also when Marty ends up with a Comanche squaw following him around much to his dislike, and Ethan calling her "Mrs. Pawlie". That scene always cracks me up. I rate this #1 as far as westerns are concerned but this film goes way beyond that. It's in the top 10 of the all-time great films right along side with The Grapes Of Wrath and The Godfather II.
A stunning achievement never to be duplicated.
Movie Review: What More Can Be Said?
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Movie Review: Contrary to popular belief, John Wayne was a great actor
Summary: 5 Stars
Many people have underated John Wayne's acting abilities. Some people say he just played himself in all his movies. I disagree with that position.Most movie fans agree like I do that Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino are two of the greatest movie actors ever. I just want to point out that a large portion of both of these men's performances have been in crime movies. John Wayne mostly appeared in Westerns. That should not be a knock on his acting. Many people have made westerns. No one ever was as successful or as effective.
My way of judging someone's performance is to compare one performance to others in a career. All you need to do is watch these movies to see the wide range of John Wayne's acting performances. I will rank them in my own opinion of his best acting. The Searchers (his most complex character ever), True Grit (yes, I do believe he deserved the Oscar outright over a great performance by Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy), Red River (a character as hard driven and uncompromising as The Searchers but a completely different performance), The Shootist (his most touching performance), She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (very believeable as a retiring cavalry officer even though he was in his early 40s when he made the movie), The Quiet Man (his best performance in a non western), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (the tough man on the outside who can't hide his heartbreak over losing his girl to James Stewart).
John Wayne made close to 200 movies. Most were mediocre movies and performances. But when John Wayne was good, he was very good.
Plus, The Searchers is a great movie. The movie just gets better after repeated viewings. John Wayne is so good as a man fighting his own demons and maintaining his own personal code, John Ford's directing was never better, the story is mesmerizing, and the cinematography is some of the best ever, which is typical with many John Ford movies.