A review of the 1956 classic western “The Searchers”
This is a stromg candidate for the best western ever made and it pairs two of the giants of the genre, director John Ford and actor John Wayne, who worked together on eight of Ford’s sound westerns. The story opens in Texas in 1868, but the lengthy narrative proceeds over five years and the location shooting – with stunning vistas in vivid technicolour – was mainly at Monument Valley in Utah/Arizona.
Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a veteran of the Confederate Army in the civil war and of the Second Franco-Mexican War, who goes in search of his young niece Debbie (Natalie Wood when the girl is supposedly 11) who has been kidnapped by raiding Comanches. Ethan is not your classic hero: courageous and resourceful certainly, but also deeply racist and often cruel.
The script is based on a book which in turn was loosely inspired by some actual events. The most memorable line – repeated four times, according to my count – goes to Wayne’s character: “That’ll be the day.” The magnificent cinematography includes regular shots looking out through open doorways, most notably at the very beginning and at the very end.
When I first saw “The Searchers”, I pondered on the motivation of Ethan: why was he so obsessive about finding Debbie and why was he so conflicted over whether he wanted her to live or die? On further viewing of this psychologically complex work, it is clear that he was in love with Debbie’s murdered mother and it seems plausible that he is even Debbie’s father.
June 8th, 2026 at 9:42 pm
I agree, it’s incredible how Ford and Wayne managed to sustain such a long, complex plot with that kind of pacing.