The Searchers (1956)
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Review #1,073 |
THE SCOOP
Director: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles
Plot: As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.
Genre: Adventure / Drama / Western
Awards: -
Runtime: 119min
Rating: PG for some violence.
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: NO)
“That’ll be the day!”
John
Ford’s evergreen Western is one of the most visually stunning pictures in his
oeuvre. A landmark of its genre, with
some critics declaring that it is Ford’s finest work, The Searchers continues to raise the bar with some of the most
unforgettable scenes of the vast, desolate land of the American West, in
particular the iconic Monument Valley.
Bookended
by shots of a doorway (which inspired the last shot of The Godfather (1972) and many other films), Ford’s work suggests a
gateway into the past, a portal opened if only a couple of hours, only to be
closed for no reason other than to preserve its sanctity and
inviolability.
The
American West, so imbued with a sense of mystique and machismo, is best
encapsulated by Ford’s bravura direction and star John Wayne’s muscular
presence. Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a
Civil War veteran who finds himself on a personal vendetta to rescue his niece
from an Indian tribe.
Ethan is
accompanied by an assortment of strange characters, all rendered dispensable in
his eyes. He is a man of conviction, a
survivor of the harsh wilderness, but inherently racist, a flaw that threatens
to obliterate those before him. He is,
if nothing else, the archetypal reluctant American hero of the Old West.
The Searchers’ seemingly discriminatory stance remains
controversial, perhaps more so in this day and age when such outright
condemnation and hatred toward the Indians would provoke disgust. Wayne’s performance is superb, carrying much
of the film with his sharp wit and snarky attitude. His character is racist but likable, a
tension that fortunately proves reconcilable under Ford’s sleight of hand.
He is
not all masterful though, and in what I feel is the film’s glaring weakness – a
lengthy sequence involving the reading of a letter by a woman who would provide
romantic intrigue, accompanied by scenes of what transpired in the letter – The Searchers starts to lose pace and
struggles to sustain.
This
narrative structural flaw, if you will, is something that has bugged me no
matter how many times I have seen the film.
In this vein, I find myself admiring Ford’s work for what it is, but
short of proclaiming it a masterpiece.
For what it is, The Searchers remains
to be a testament of Ford’s skill in directing action and suspense. Cue the first major action sequence when
Ethan’s small army on horses is flanked on both sides by Indians who smell
blood.
If you
are new to John Ford and the Western genre, this is an excellent introductory
work. And then you will come to find
that the legendary four-time Oscar winning director has made some of the most
outstanding pictures of our time.
Verdict: A John Ford-John Wayne classic with sharp
humour, spectacular action and memorable characters, but not Ford’s best work.
GRADE: A-
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