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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 58.7%
Worth A Look: 36.96%
Average: 0%
Pretty Bad: 2.17%
Total Crap: 2.17%
2 reviews, 34 user ratings
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| Searchers, The |
by Justin Helmer
"A sweeping revenger's tragedy."
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I can remember being in a theatre class in college, discussing the films of John Wayne. The professor had taken the popular position that Wayne was a talent-less hack. A no talent performer who simply rested on his laurels while he played the same character over and over again. I had taken the opposite position, and as is usually the case when arguing with professors, I won the battle but it cost me the war. I was forever labeled as the Duke fan in the class and every time one of his more laughable productions (Which I admit there are more than a few.) came up, he would look pointedly in my direction. I stand behind my initial argument to this day, and “The Searchers” is always among my first exhibits.Based on a short story of the same name, that first appeared in the “Saturday Evening Post” The Searchers tells the story of Ethan Edwards. (Wayne) The civil war has been over for a little while when Edwards finally returns home to his brother’s family farm. He has been off doing god-knows what in the time since Appomattox. It’s clear from his demeanor, as much from the freshly minted gold pieces that he’s carrying, that he has no interest in answering any questions.
His extended family has a hardscrabble life, one of the few families who are still trying eek out a living on the Texas plain. Living, as they do, on the edge of territory that belongs to the Comanche tribe; they spend their lives watching the horizon for unfriendly characters. There is a raid in which all of the Edwards family is wiped out except for Ethan, his half-Indian nephew Martin (Jeffery Hunter) and his niece Debbie (Natalie Wood) who has been kidnapped by the Comanche raiding party.
I should mention at this point that one thing that John Wayne was not noted for, was his forward thinking attitude. The native-American culture is presented here in a particularly unflattering light. The story runs on stereotypes, not just about the Indians, but about the people who are chasing them as well. I don’t attempt to make any excuses for the racism that is inherent in parts of the story, it was a fact of life at the time; one can only hope that we have learned since then. Every time I have been tempted to write the film off as ‘racist’ I have to remind myself, that my favorite film Casablanca also contains many stereotypes that would have been perfectly acceptable at the time.
Ethan and Martin set out on a quest to find Debbie, their travels take them many years, and over many different parts of the country. Here is a place where John Ford’s camera can be at it’s best. The film is shot with such love for the landscape that the visuals can be breathtaking at times. Making the utmost use of the ‘Vista Vision’ process, the cinematography is almost worth the time alone. When Ethan says “We’ll find them as surely as the turning of the earth.” We get the sense that he’s talking about something he feels as much as his obsession.
The other driving force at work is Wayne’s performance; Ethan Edwards was one of the more dark characterizations of his career. The grim determination for revenge etches itself into every line on his face. Throughout the movie he becomes more and more wasted as the hatred eats at him. So much so, that when he and Martin catch up with the Comanche and find the now grown Debbie, it’s not immediately clear what he plans to do. Recalling the moral codes of ancient Rome, Edwards seems to believe that in some ways Debbie would have been better off had she been killed in the initial raid.Many consider this film to be the masterwork of both Wayne and John Ford, seeing it now that it has been restored and letterboxed I would be inclined to agree.
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link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=2419&reviewer=315
originally posted: 01/24/03 06:04:53
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USA
13-Mar-1956
UK
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Australia
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