{"id":553,"date":"2014-08-05T13:49:43","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T17:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2026-07-17T14:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T18:36:24","slug":"the-searchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=553","title":{"rendered":"The Searchers-1956"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Searchers-1956<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director John Ford<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring John Wayne<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #148<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed August 5, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Searchers (1956) is a classic film considered one of the greatest ever made. It took me a few viewings to appreciate, but I now admire it more and more with each subsequent viewing.<\/p>\n

I understand why it is on many Best Films of All Time lists.<\/p>\n

I do not think it’s great, but I understand its outstanding qualities. And while admittedly, I am neither a fan of the Western genre nor of John Wayne, both are top-notch in The Searchers.<\/p>\n

It tells the story of a Civil War veteran (Wayne) named Ethan Edwards, whose brother and his sister-in-law, whom Ethan is in love with, are brutally murdered by a Comanche Indian tribe.<\/p>\n

Ethan’s two nieces are kidnapped, and for the remainder of the film, Ethan, along with his best friend, searches for the missing girls.<\/p>\n

Two aspects that initially bothered me about the film were the overt racism involved in this film towards any Indians- the treatment of one Indian woman is cruel, and my disdain for the character of Ethan.<\/p>\n

The fact that I am not a fan of John Wayne- way overrated in the acting department, in my opinion, may have something to do with this. But the character of Ethan is racist, and it is tough to root for a character like that.<\/p>\n

One could make the argument that he is also self-loathing due to lusting after his sister-in-law.<\/p>\n

Over time, though, I have come to appreciate this Western drama more and more, mainly due to John Ford’s direction, the sweeping Old West cinematography, and the now-understood complexity of Ethan’s character.<\/p>\n

He is confident, masculine, and even mean, but wounded and, in some way, sympathetic to viewers.<\/p>\n

The Searchers (1956) also captures what the real West was probably once like.<\/p>\n

An epic western that I have grown to admire.<\/p>\n

Golden Globe Nominations: 1 win-<\/strong>New Star of the Year-Actor-Patrick Wayne (won)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Searchers-1956 Director John Ford Starring John Wayne Scott’s Review #148 Reviewed August 5, 2014 Grade: B+ The Searchers (1956) is a classic film considered one of the greatest ever made. It took me a few viewings to appreciate, but I now admire it more and more with each subsequent viewing. I understand why it … Continue reading The Searchers-1956<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,194,144],"tags":[4737,492,634,9060,3752,614,12181,626,12180],"class_list":["post-553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1956-films","category-epics","category-westerns","tag-jeffrey-hunter","tag-john-ford","tag-john-wayne","tag-lana-wood","tag-merian-c-cooper","tag-natalie-wood","tag-patrick-wayne","tag-vera-miles","tag-ward-bond"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23878,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/23878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}