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If John Ford is the greatest Western director, The Searchers is arguably his greatest film, at once a grand outdoor spectacle like such Ford classics as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950) and a film about one man's troubling moral codes, a big-screen adventure of the 1950s that anticipated the complex themes and characters that would dominate the 1970s. John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a former Confederate soldier who returns to his brother Aaron's frontier cabin three years after the end of the Civil War. Ethan still has his rebel uniform and weapons, a large stash of Yankee gold, and no explanations as to where he's been since Lee's surrender. A loner not comfortable in the bosom of his family, Ethan also harbors a bitter hatred of Indians (though he knows their lore and language well) and trusts no one but himself. Ethan and Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), Aaron's adopted son, join a makeshift band of Texas Rangers fending off an assault by renegade Comanches. Before they can run off the Indians, several homes are attacked, and Ethan returns to discover his brother and sister-in-law dead and their two daughters kidnapped. While they soon learn that one of the girls is dead, the other, Debbie, is still alive, and with obsessive determination, Ethan and Martin spend the next five years in a relentless search for Debbie -- and for Scar (Henry Brandon), the fearsome Comanche chief who abducted her. But while Martin wants to save his sister and bring her home, Ethan seems primarily motivated by his hatred of the Comanches; it's hard to say if he wants to rescue Debbie or murder the girl who has lived with Indians too long to be considered "white." John Wayne gives perhaps his finest performance in a role that predated screen antiheroes of the 1970s; by the film's conclusion, his single-minded obsession seems less like heroism and more like madness. Wayne bravely refuses to soft-pedal Ethan's ugly side, and the result is a remarkable portrait of a man incapable of answering to anyone but himself, who ultimately has more in common with his despised Indians than with his more "civilized" brethren. Natalie Wood is striking in her brief role as the 16-year-old Debbie, lost between two worlds, and Winton C. Hoch's Technicolor photography captures Monument Valley's savage beauty with subtle grace. The Searchers paved the way for such revisionist Westerns as The Wild Bunch (1969) and "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (1971), and its influence on movies from Taxi Driver (1976) to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and "Star Wars" (1977) testifies to its lasting importance. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Menu
Disc #1 -- The Searchers: The Movie
Introduction By Patrick Wayne
Play Movie
Scene Selections
Special Features
Introduction By Patrick Wayne
Commentary By Peter Bogdanovich
Theatrical Trailer
Languages
Spoken Languages: English
Spoken Languages: Français
Subtitles: English
Subtitles: Français
Subtitles: Español
Subtitles: Off
Disc #2 -- The Searchers: Bonus Features
The Searchers: An Appreciation
A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and the Searchers
Behind the Cameras
Web Info
Play All
Meet Jeffrey Hunter
Monument Valley
Meet Natalie Wood
Setting Up Production
The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford Theatrical Trailer
Chapters
Disc #1 -- The Searchers: The Movie
1. Credits [1:27]
2. Ethan Returns Home [1:38]
3. Aaron, Martha, Debbie and Lucy [1:16]
4. Martin Pauley [4:37]
5. Capt. Rev. Sam Johnson [2:51]
6. One Oath at a Time [1:14]
7. Martha's Reverie and Farewell [1:13]
8. Search for Cattle [:57]
9. Riders on the Rim [:33]
10. A Murder Raid [:40]
11. Mose's Indian Dance [:51]
12. Terror at Dusk [3:00]
13. Shadow of Chief Scar [:39]
14. Terrible Discovery [2:18]
15. "Put an Amen to It!" [1:47]
16. The Search Begins [3:19]
17. "That'll Be the Day." [1:18]
18. Surrounded By Hostiles [4:05]
19. Battle at the River [6:23]
20. "Don't Ever Ask Me More!" [2:07]
21. A Blizzard and a Lost Trail [1:30]
22. Return to the Jorgensens [4:01]
23. A Letter for Ethan [1:16]
24. Laurie and Martin [1:30]
25. Futterman's Trading Post [3:13]
26. Ambush in the Night [1:31]
27. Charlie Brings a Letter [3:47]
28. An Indian Bride [4:12]
29. Scar's Trail [3:48]
30. Buffalo County [1:34]
31. A Little Girl and a Doll [4:07]
32. Reunited With Mose [4:27]
33. Information About Debbie [:35]
34. Meeting With Scar [2:49]
35. Debbie Found [2:45]
36. Surprise Attack [3:55]
37. Last Will and Testament [1:58]
38. A Wedding [2:29]
39. A Fair Fight [5:50]
40. News of Scar [5:08]
41. Martin's Rescue Attempt [4:54]
42. Attacking Scar's Camp [3:15]
43. "Let's Go Home, Debbie." [4:05]
44. A Man Alone [1:35]
Features
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Disc 1: New Digital transfer from restored VistaVision picture and audio elements
Introduction by John Wayne's Son and the Searchers co-star Patrick Wayne
Commentary by director/Jon Ford biographer Peter Bogdanovich
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Français
Subtitles: English, Français & Español (Feature Film Only)
Disc 2: New featurette the Searchers: An Appreciation
A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and the Searchers, 1998 documentary narrated by John Milius
Vintage behind the cameras segments from the Warner Bros. presents TV series
Art Director - James Basevi
Art Director - Frank Hotaling
Associate Producer - Patrick Ford
Book Author - Alan LeMay
Cinematographer - Winton Hoch
Composer (Music Score) - Max Steiner
Costume Designer - C. Frank Beetson, Jr.
Costume Designer - Ann Peck
Costume Designer - Frank Beetson, Jr.
Executive Producer - Merian C. Cooper
First Assistant Director - Wingate Smith
Makeup - Webb Overlander
Script Supervisor - Robert Gary
Sound/Sound Designer - Howard Wilson
Sound/Sound Designer - Hugh McDowell, Jr.
Special Effects - George Brown
Described by the director as a "psychological epic," The Searchers (1956) is John Ford's most revered Western, for its visual richness and profoundly ambiguous critique of the genre's (and America's) racism. Ford pushed John Wayne's archetypal Westerner into the realm of antiheroism, as Ethan's five-year quest to rescue his niece from Comanche chief Scar mutates into killing her when he discovers her living placidly as Scar's bride. While Ethan's lethal racism signals his insanity, Wayne's charismatic presence and Ethan's desire to salvage the family unit of "civilized" settlers carries its own sheen of Western heroism. Still, the famous final image of Ethan's departure into the desert reveals that "civilization" has no place for such an uncompromising figure. Shot on location in Colorado and Monument Valley, Ford's vividly arid Technicolor vistas render Ethan a man of the magnificent and punishing landscape, unable to reconcile his inner savagery with domestic constraints. Greeted in America as just another quality Ford oater, the film was first reclaimed by French critics for the unresolved tensions and evocative style of Ford's narrative, elevating it to the status of cinematic art. With U.S. cinephiles following suit, The Searchers deeply influenced the 1970s "film school" generation (Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader transformed it into Taxi Driver in 1976) and has since taken its place among the greatest Westerns ever made. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
John Ford : Best Director - Directors Guild of America, 1956
