Searchers

Pros: A Truly Great Film.

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: A Great Western Film.

Review: The Searchers

Texas 1868

Ethan Edwards returns to his brothers farm three years after the end of the civil war.

While Ethan and his adoptive nephew Martin Pawley join a company of Texas Rangers to track a Commanche raiding...

Pros: Everything

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: The Best of the West

Review: (A shorter review of this video appears in my "10 Best Westerns" review)

This is the movie for which the Duke should've gotten the Oscar for. Not that Rooster Cogburn isn't a great character, but it's Ethan Edwards that shows that
he...

Pros: Cinematography, Direction, Script, Wayne, Hunter, supporting cast

Cons: None

Review: The Searchers (1956)

The Searchers is a movie framed in doorways, from the first scene when Martha Edwards opens the front door of her cabin only to see the tiny figure of Ethan Edwards approaching in the distance, until the end of...

Pros: Epic story, John Wayne in his best dramatic performance, great photography and scenery

Cons: Episodic structure requires viewers' concentration. View the restored edition!

The Bottom Line: THE SEARCHERS is, if not John Ford's masterpiece in the Western Genre, certainly one of his most mature explorations the phrase -- The Winning of the West.

Review: John Ford once said, given a choice between facts and myth, he would print the myth.

From Ford's earliest silent films, such as THE IRON HORSE (1924) through his l939 groundbreaking Western STAGECOACH (which made John Wayne a star), the...

Pros: I can't think of anything smart today

Cons: Not for this either

The Bottom Line: Least of all for this waste of a box

Review: John Ford won four Oscars for Best Director. That s a hell of an achievement in any film era, especially in these days when directors work when they want not when the studio makes them and many are lucky to direct four movies at all. Ford, however,...

Pros: Great direction, performance by Wayne

Cons: Sappy comedy, music, and ending

Review: I first saw ?The Searchers?, which is widely considered to be the greatest Western ever made and one of the greatest films ever made, about 10 years ago, and wasn?t impressed. I didn?t have very much experience with Westerns, and even less...

Pros: The Searchers is a masterpiece not because it's technically brilliant (though the cinematography is certainly wonderful), but because it puts a heart to all the best westerns, and conjures a feeling of sublime longing, one that, once stirred, can'

Cons: Just about none -- its surface looks dated by today's standards, but anyone with the least bit of appreciation for film should be deeply stirred by this dark, uncompromising fable.

Review: By Max Scheinin.

Look at the picture planted next to these words. It's a portrait of a grinning John Wayne, his chin covered in bristles, his eyes a-gleamin', ready to take to the open range. What is it you'd imagine from the film that this...

Pros: Epic John Ford tale of the West

Cons: Some of the acting is a little stilted

The Bottom Line: for those who desire to see the seminal Western from a master director at the top of his game, devour this film

Review: It is difficult to distil down to one single idea how the story elements in the 1956 film The Searchers work to create such a palpable and at times visceral visual treat. The film is the seminal western. It shows the white man Ethan Edwards as a...

Pros: Fun, deep, gorgeous to look at

Cons: not much, Pat Wayne in a small role

Review: What is The Searchers, and why is it so enamored by the critics of the post-modern era of film? Why do I love this film so? How many times has this shown up in modern cinema? First, I must say this film is probably not going to be liked by viewers...

Pros: complex central figure, Ford's direction

Cons: one scene seemed out of place

The Bottom Line: One of the two or three best westerns ever, Ethan is one of the most haunting and complex characters in film history.

Review: In most westerns, men kill each other with guns. The Searchers has a few scenes of gun-play, but the guts of the movie lie in the motivations of the main character, Ethan (John Wayne). What is he searching for and, more importantly why is he...