THE SEARCHERS (1956) - ♦♦♦♦

Directed by - John Ford

 

Written by - Frank S. Nugent (based on a novel by Alan Le May)

 

Starring - John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood

 

 

 

"Time has been good to The Searchers. A masterpiece of the American western genre and one of the most influential of its kind, The Searchers is also not only one of the most important films by master of cinema John Ford and iconic leading man John Wayne. Here, Wayne leads a group of men in a desperate search for a young girl kidnapped by Indians – the daughter of a married woman he loved and was killed in the same attack. The search is lengthy and despite its initial appearance as a conventionally structured chase film, or action film or even the cowboys and indian matinee branch of the most American of genres, Ford is smart in capturing the heavy dark undertones of the narrative, exploring the themes of anger and revenge in an intelligent way and also, perhaps one of the film’s most outstanding elements, leaving some room of ambiguity in its supposedly heroic central figure, particularly in his obsession with the two women who end up shaping the meaning of his existence. In much the same way, we wonder about the psychological conflict of the recued girl, who having been kidnapped at a young age may not even want to be saved. All this is aided by a wonderful cinematography that makes it, to this day, a beautiful spectacle and among the most spectacular uses of landscape in a ‘mainstream’ film. The photography, in fact, makes use of the landscape which in turn affects the madness and conveys the tones and atmospheres of the film so characteristically and so well that it ends up becoming a character in its own right."

 

 

Western, USA