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119 Min – PG – view video trailer
Director: John Ford
Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood
Genres: Adventure, Western
IMDB 8.1 / Amazon 4.5 / MRQE 89 / Decent Films A
Oscars: none
Ranked #15 Greatest Movies Through 1960, included in 26 of 41 lists of best movies, a Zagat Top Movie
As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable. IMDB 8.1 rating from over 38,327 users
A favorite film of some of the world’s greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford’s The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it’s the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western–the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. Amazon 4.5 stars from over 355 users
The reputation of John Ford’s The Searchers as a classic but troubling Western in which John Wayne plays an Indian-hating racist is so widely accepted that it’s a bit of a surprise to discover that the film, and the character, are in fact more complex than the reputation suggests. A tense, unsettling tale of obsession and vengeance, The Searchers tells the story of Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards’s relentless pursuit of a Comanche band led by the war chief Scar (Henry Brandon), who has led a murderous raid on a settler household and kidnapped his young niece Debbie. Accompanying Ethan is the girl’s adopted brother Martin (Jeffrey Hunter), who hopes to rescue his sister, and, as years go by, begins to fear that Ethan would rather see the girl dead than living as a Comanche. Read full Decent Films review (rated A, Superior artistic-entertainment for Teens & Up)
MRQE 89% from over 63 reviews
Greatest Movies Through 1960 