| The Searchers | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster byBill Gold | |
| Directed by | John Ford |
| Screenplay by | Frank S. Nugent |
| Based on | The Searchers 1954 novel byAlan Le May |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Winton C. Hoch |
| Edited by | Jack Murray |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3.75 million[2] |
The Searchers is a 1956 AmericanepicWestern film directed byJohn Ford and written byFrank S. Nugent, based on the 1954 novel byAlan Le May. It is set during theTexas–Indian wars, and starsJohn Wayne as a middle-agedCivil War veteran who, accompanied by his adopted nephew (Jeffrey Hunter), spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood). It was shot inVistaVision onEastmancolor negative with processing and prints byTechnicolor.[3][4]
The film was a critical and commercial success. Since its release, it has come to be considered a masterpiece andone of the greatest and most influential films ever made. It was named thegreatest American Western by theAmerican Film Institute in 2008, and it placed 12th on the same organization's 2007 list of the100 greatest American movies of all time.[5]Entertainment Weekly also named it the best Western.[6] TheBritish Film Institute'sSight and Sound magazine ranked it as the seventh-best film of all time based on a2012 international survey of film critics[7][8] and in 2008, the French magazineCahiers du Cinéma rankedThe Searchers number 10 in their list of the 100 best films ever made.[9]
In 1989,The Searchers was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United StatesLibrary of Congress, and selected for preservation in itsNational Film Registry; it was one of the first 25 films selected for the registry.[10]
The Searchers was the first major film to have a purpose-filmedmaking-of, requested by John Ford. It deals with most aspects of making the film, including preparation of the site, construction of props, and filming techniques.[11]
In 1868, Ethan Edwards returns after an eight-year absence to the home of his brother Aaron inWest Texas. Ethan fought in theCivil War on the side of theConfederacy, and in the three years since that war ended, he also apparently fought in theSecond Franco–Mexican War. He has in his possession a lot of gold coins of uncertain origin, and a medal from the Mexican campaign that he gives to his eight-year-old niece, Debbie. As a former Confederate soldier, when he is asked to take an oath of allegiance to theTexas Rangers, he refuses.
Shortly after Ethan's arrival, cattle belonging to his neighbor Lars Jorgensen are stolen, and Rev. Captain Samuel Clayton leads Ethan and a group of Rangers to recover them. After discovering that the theft was aComanche ploy to draw the men away from their families, they return and find the Edwardshomestead in flames. Aaron, his wife Martha, and their son Ben are dead, while Debbie and her older sister Lucy have been abducted.
After a brief funeral, the men set out in pursuit. When they find the Comanche camp, Ethan recommends a frontal attack, but Clayton insists on a stealth approach to avoid killing the hostages. The camp turns out to be deserted, and further along the trail, the men ride into an ambush. Despite fending off the attack, the Rangers are left with too few men to fight the Comanche effectively. They return home, leaving Ethan to continue his search for the girls with only Lucy's fiancé, Brad Jorgensen, and Debbie's adopted brother, Martin Pawley. Ethan finds Lucy murdered (and, it is implied, raped) in a canyon near the Comanche camp. In a blind rage, Brad rides directly into the camp and is killed.
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When winter arrives, Ethan and Martin lose the trail and return to the Jorgensen ranch. Martin is enthusiastically welcomed by the Jorgensens' daughter Laurie, and Ethan finds a letter waiting for him from a trader named Futterman, who claims to have information about Debbie. Ethan, who would rather travel alone, leaves without Martin the next morning, but Laurie reluctantly provides Martin with a horse to catch up. At Futterman's trading post, Ethan and Martin learn that Debbie has been taken by Scar, the chief of theNawyecka band of Comanches. A year or more later, Laurie receives a letter from Martin describing the ongoing search. Reading the letter aloud, Laurie narrates the next few scenes, in which Ethan kills Futterman for trying to steal his money, and Martin accidentally buys a Comanche wife who runs away when she hears Scar's name; later, she is among the dead when the two men find a portion of Scar's band killed by soldiers.
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InNew Mexico Territory, they find Debbie after five years, now an adolescent, living as one of Scar's wives. She says that she has become a Comanche and wishes to remain with them. Ethan would rather see her dead than living as a Native American, and tries to shoot her, but Martin shields her with his body and a Comanche wounds Ethan with an arrow as they escape. Although Martin tends to Ethan's wound, he is furious with him for attempting to kill Debbie. Later, they return home.
Meanwhile, Charlie McCorry has been courting Laurie in Martin's absence. Ethan and Martin arrive home just as Charlie and Laurie's wedding is about to begin. After a fistfight between Martin and Charlie, a nervous Yankee soldier, Lieutenant Greenhill, brings news that Ethan's friend Mose Harper has located Scar. Clayton leads his men to the Comanche camp, this time for a direct attack, but Martin is allowed to sneak in ahead of the assault to find Debbie, who welcomes him. Martin kills Scar to save Debbie. Ethan, finding Scar's body, scalps him for revenge. Ethan then finds Debbie, and pursues her on horseback. Martin chases them desperately, fearing that Ethan will shoot her. Instead, Ethan sweeps her up into his arms and takes her to the Jorgensen ranch, where Martin reunites with Laurie. While everyone else enters the house, Ethan watches, then walks away.
The Searchers was the first production from "distinguishedturfman"[12]C.V. Whitney; it was directed byJohn Ford and distributed byWarner Bros. Behind the camera film crew included cinematographerWinton C. Hoch and editorJack Murray.
The Searchers is the first of only three films produced byCornelius Vanderbilt Whitney's C.V. Whitney Pictures; the second wasThe Missouri Traveler in 1958 withBrandon deWilde andLee Marvin, and the last wasThe Young Land in 1959 with Wayne's sonPatrick Wayne andDennis Hopper.
While the film was primarily set in the staked plains (Llano Estacado) of northwestern Texas, it was actually filmed inMonument Valley,Arizona/Utah. Additional scenes were filmed inMexican Hat, Utah, inBronson Canyon inGriffith Park,Los Angeles, and inElk Island National Park.[13] The film was shot in theVistaVision widescreen process. Ford originally wanted to castFess Parker, whoseperformance asDavy Crockett on television had helped spark anational craze, for the Martin Pawley role, butWalt Disney, to whom Parker was under contract, refused to allow it and did not tell Parker about the offer, according to Parker's videotaped interview for theArchive of American Television. Parker has said retrospectively that this was easily his worst career reversal.[14]
As part of its promotion ofThe Searchers in 1956, Warner Bros. produced and broadcast one of the first behind-the-scenes, "making-of" programs in movie history, which aired in 1956 as an episode of itsWarner Bros. Presents TV series.[15][16]
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AuthorAlan Le May's surviving research notes indicate that the two characters who go in search of a missing girl were inspired by Britton Johnson, anAfrican Americanteamster who ransomed his captured wife and children from the Comanches in 1865.[17] Afterward, Johnson made at least three trips toIndian Territory and Kansas, relentlessly searching for another kidnapped girl, Millie Durgan (or Durkin), untilKiowa raiders killed him in 1871.[18]
Several film critics have suggested thatThe Searchers was inspired by the1836 kidnapping of nine-year-oldCynthia Ann Parker byComanche warriors, who raided her family's home at Fort Parker, Texas.[19][20] She spent 24 years with the Comanches, married a war chief, and had three children (one of whom was the famous Comanche ChiefQuanah Parker), only to be rescued against her will byTexas Rangers.[21] James W. Parker, Cynthia Ann's uncle, spent much of his life and fortune in what became an obsessive search for his niece, much like Ethan Edwards in the film.
In addition, the rescue of Cynthia Ann, during a Texas Ranger attack known as theBattle of Pease River, resembles the rescue of Debbie Edwards when the Texas Rangers attack Scar's village. Parker's story was only one of 64 real-life cases of 19th-centurychild abductions in Texas that authorAlan Le May studied while researching the novel on which the film was based.
The ending of Le May's novel contrasts to the film's, with Debbie running from the white men and the Native Americans. Marty, in one final leg of his search, finds her days later, only after she has fainted from exhaustion.
In the film, Scar's Comanche group is referred to as the Nawyecka, correctly theNoyʉhka orNokoni,[22] the same band that kidnapped Cynthia Ann Parker. Some film critics[specify] have speculated that the historical model for the cavalry attack on a Comanche village, resulting in Look's death and the taking of Comanche prisoners to a military post, was the well-knownBattle of the Washita River, November 27, 1868, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne camp on the Washita River (near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma).[23] The sequence also resembles the 1872Battle of the North Fork of the Red River, in which the4th Cavalry captured 124 Comanche women and children and imprisoned them atFort Concho.
Upon the film's release,Bosley Crowther ofThe New York Times called it a "ripsnorting Western" (in spite of the "excessive language in its ads"); he credits Ford's "familiar corps of actors, writers, etc., [who help] to give the gusto to this film. From Frank S. Nugent, whose screenplay from the novel of Alan LeMay is a pungent thing, right on through the cast and technicians, it is the honest achievement of a well-knit team."[12] Crowther noted "two faults of minor moment":[12]
Variety called it "handsomely mounted and in the tradition ofShane", yet "somewhat disappointing" due to its length and repetitiveness; "The John Ford directorial stamp is unmistakable. It concentrates on the characters and establishes a definite mood. It's not sufficient, however, to overcome many of the weaknesses of the story."[24]
TheNew York Herald Tribune termed the movie "distinguished";Newsweek deemed it "remarkable".Look describedThe Searchers as a "Homeric odyssey".The New York Times praised Wayne's performance as "uncommonly commanding".[25]TheMonthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Though it does not consistently achieve the highest Ford standards,The Searchers is surely the best Western sinceShane."[26]
The film earned rentals of $4.8 million in the US and Canada during its first year of release.[27]
The film helped revive the career of Jeffrey Hunter.[28]
CriticRoger Ebert found Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, "one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created". Ebert writes: "The Searchers indeed seems to be two films. The Ethan Edwards story is stark and lonely, a portrait of obsession, and in it we can seeSchrader's inspiration for Travis Bickle ofTaxi Driver. [...] The film within this film involves the silly romantic subplot and characters hauled in for comic relief, including the Swedish neighbor Lars Jorgensen (John Qualen), who uses a vaudeville accent, and Mose Harper (Hank Worden), a half-wit treated like a mascot. [...] This second strand is without interest, and those who valueThe Searchers filter it out, patiently waiting for a return to the main story line."[29]
The Searchers has been cited as one ofthe greatest films of all time, such as in the BFI's decennialSight & Sound polls. In 1972,The Searchers was ranked 18th; in 1992, 5th; in 2002, 11th; in 2012, 7th. In a 1959Cahiers du Cinéma essay,Jean-Luc Godard compared the movie's ending to the reuniting ofOdysseus withTelemachus inHomer'sOdyssey[25] and wrote:
How can I hate […] John Wayne, who supportsGoldwater, and love him tenderly when he suddenly takes Natalie Wood in his arms in the penultimate reel of The Searchers?[30]
In 1963, he rankedThe Searchers as the fourth-greatest American movie of the sound era, afterScarface (1932),The Great Dictator (1940), andVertigo (1958).[31] The 1998American Film Institute100 greatest American films list rankedThe Searchers in 96th place, and the 2007 iteration of the list ranked it in 12th place. In 1998,TV Guide ranked it 18th.[32] In 2008, the American Film Institute namedThe Searchers as the greatest Western of all time.[33] In 2010,Richard Corliss noted the film was "now widely regarded as the greatest Western of the 1950s, the genre's greatest decade" and characterized it as a "darkly profound study of obsession, racism, and heroic solitude".[34]
The film currently maintains an 87% rating on thereview aggregate websiteRotten Tomatoes based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "The Searchers is an epic John Wayne Western that introduces dark ambivalence to the genre that remains fashionable today."[35] OnMetacritic, the film has a score of 94 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[36]
The film has been recognized multiple times by theAmerican Film Institute:
On "They Shoot Pictures Don't They", a site which numerically calculates critical reception for any given film,The Searchers has been recognized as the ninth-most acclaimed movie ever made.[37] Members of theWestern Writers of America chose its title song as one of the top 100 Western songs of all time.[38]
Scott McGee stated, "... more than just making a social statement like other Westerns of the period were apt to do, Ford instills inThe Searchers a visual poetry and a sense of melancholy that is rare in American films and rarer still to Westerns."[39]
Glenn Frankel's 2013 study of the film calls it "the greatest Hollywood film that few people have seen".[25]
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A major theme of the film is the historical attitude of white settlers toward Native Americans. Ford was not the first to attempt this examination cinematically, but his depiction of harshness toward Native Americans was startling, particularly to later generations of viewers; Roger Ebert wrote, "I think Ford was trying, imperfectly, even nervously, to depict racism that justified genocide."[29] At the heart ofThe Searchers is Wayne's performance as the angry, vengeful Ethan Edwards. From the beginning of his quest, he is quite clearly less interested in rescuing Debbie than in wreaking vengeance on the Comanches for the slaughter of his brother's family.[40]
In a 1964 interview withCosmopolitan, Ford said,
There's some merit to the charge that the Indian hasn't been portrayed accurately or fairly in the Western, but again, this charge has been a broad generalization and often unfair. The Indian didn't welcome the white man... and he wasn't diplomatic... If he has been treated unfairly by whites in films, that, unfortunately, was often the case in real life. There was much racial prejudice in the West.[41]
Film scholar Ed Lowry writes, "[W]hile the Comanches are depicted as utterly ruthless, Ford ascribes motivations for their actions, and lends them a dignity befitting a proud civilization. Never do we see the Indian commit atrocities more appalling than those perpetrated by the white man.[39] "Wayne is plainlyAhab", wrote cultural criticGreil Marcus. "He is the good American hero driving himself past all known limits and into madness, his commitment to honor and decency burned down to a core of vengeance."[40] For Brenton Priestley, Ford indicates that Scar's cruelty is also motivated by revenge ("Two sons killed by white men. For each son, I take many... scalps.")[41]
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The theme ofmiscegenation also runs through the film. Many critical analyses ofThe Searchers highlight Ethan's view of Debbie as having been "contaminated" through her abduction and implied rape.[42][43][44]
The rape of captive white women by the Comanche is an unspoken theme. No actual rape scene is depicted, butAlexandra Heller-Nicholas in her study ofRape-Revenge Films says, "the abduction, captivity, and implied rape of Debbie (Natalie Wood)... drives the narrative";[45] and Edward Buscombe points out a scene in which"[Ethan] turns off the trail to penetrate a narrow crevice in the rocks, and when he emerges, his savage stabbing with his knife seems to mimic a violent sexual act, drawing us 'a picture' of the act of rape which obsesses him."[46] Glenn Frankel writes that in real life, "Rape was a fact of life for many captives, although it was seldom discussed by those women who escaped or were ransomed back to the white world."[47]
Early on, Martin earns a sour look from Ethan when he admits to beingone-eighth Cherokee. Ethan says repeatedly that he will kill his niece rather than have her live "with a buck", that "living with the Comanche ain't living". Even one of the film's gentler characters, Vera Miles's Laurie, tells Martin when he explains he must protect his adoptive sister, "Ethan will put a bullet in her brain. I tell you Martha would want him to." This outburst makes it clear that even the supposedly gentler characters hold the same fear of miscegenation.[41]
Randy Roberts and James Olson write that Ethan Edwards:
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An important plot undercurrent is the obvious mutual attraction between Ethan Edwards and his brother's wife, Martha. Although no dialogue alludes to it, many visual references to their relationship are seen throughout the film.[49][50][51] Some critics have suggested that this unspoken passion implies that Debbie—who is specifically described as eight years old, as Ethan returns from an eight-year absence—may be Ethan's daughter. Such a situation would add further layers of nuance to Ethan's obsessive search for Debbie, his revulsion at the thought that she might be living as a Native American, and his ultimate decision to bring her home—and then walk away. Beyond the ostensible motivations, it might depict a guilt-ridden father's need to save the daughter he made by cuckolding his brother, then abandoned.[52]
The Searchers has influenced many films.David Lean watched the film repeatedly while preparing forLawrence of Arabia to help him get a sense of how to shoot a landscape.[53] The entrance of Ethan Edwards inThe Searchers, across a vast prairie, is echoed in the across-the-desert entrance of Sherif Ali inLawrence of Arabia.Sam Peckinpah referenced the aftermath of the massacre and the funeral scene inMajor Dundee (1965), and according to a 1974 review byJay Cocks, Peckinpah'sBring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia contains dialogue with "direct tributes to such classics asJohn Huston'sThe Treasure of the Sierra Madre and John Ford'sThe Searchers."[54][55]
Martin Scorsese's 1967 filmWho's That Knocking at My Door features a sequence in which the two primary characters discussThe Searchers,[56] and in his 1973 filmMean Streets, three characters attend a screening ofThe Searchers.[57] In 2012, in aSight & Sound poll, Scorsese listedThe Searchers as one of his all-time favorite films.[58][59]
Scott McGee, writing forTurner Classic Movies, notes "Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese,John Milius, Paul Schrader,Wim Wenders, Jean-Luc Godard, andGeorge Lucas have all been influenced and paid some form of homage toThe Searchers in their work."[39] Wenders'Palme d'Or-winning 1984 filmParis, Texas in particular has been cited for similarities.[60][61]
The film influenced several aspects of George Lucas' film sagaStar Wars.[53] The scene in which Ethan Edwards discovers the flaming wreckage of his family homestead is reflected in 1977'sStar Wars, wherein the characterLuke Skywalker finds that his homestead has been burned and destroyed byImperial Stormtroopers.[62][63][64]The Searchers was also an influence on the 2002 prequel film in the series,Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. In the film,Anakin Skywalker learns that one of his family members has been abducted by a group ofTusken Raiders (though the character's mother is kidnapped, rather than a niece). Anakin massacres the kidnappers in vengeance, much likeThe Searchers' climactic battle in the Comanche camp.[62][63] The opening scenes ofRogue One mirror those ofThe Searchers: the pig-tailed character ofJyn is hidden by her parents when their homestead is attacked in the same way little Debbie is saved by her parents when they are attacked by the Comanches.
Douglas Gordon's 1995 artwork,5 Year Drive-By, stretches outThe Searchers from the original 113-minute runtime to five years (reflecting the events of the movie taking place over a timespan of five years), playing at a speed of one frame every 24 minutes.[65][66][67]
The 2007 filmSearchers 2.0 byAlex Cox includes many discussions ofThe Searchers as well as other revenge films. In the film, the characters attend a screening of a remake ofThe Searchers directed byTed Post and starringJames Mitchum as Ethan Edwards andTelly Savalas as Chief Cicatriz (Scar), though no such remake was ever made in reality (Ted Post had actually directed a remake of John Ford'sStagecoach).
Breaking Bad creatorVince Gilligan stated that the ending to the show's final episode, "Felina", was influenced by the film.[68]
The 2016 Canadian filmSearchers is a partial remake of the film, in which anInuk man in 1913 finds his wife and daughter have been kidnapped. However, co-directorZacharias Kunuk discarded the original's plot about conflicts betweenwhite people and indigenous peoples, instead using only Inuit characters. Kunuk explained racism was not an intended theme of his film.[69] Kunuk said he watched Western films in theIgloolik community hall as a boy, and declaredThe Searchers star John Wayne "was our hero".[70]
John Wayne's repeatedly used line "that'll be the day" inspiredBuddy Holly to write the song "That'll Be the Day" after seeing the film in a theater in Lubbock, Texas.[71]
The title of the novelThe Searcher byTana French is an allusion to the film.[3][4]
The Searchers was first released on home video onVHS andBetamax in 1980, followed by releases onLaserDisc in 1984 andDVD in 1997. It was released by theWarner Archive Collection onBlu-ray,HD DVD and a remastered DVD in 2006 for the film's 50th anniversary.[72] The film was released onUltra HD Blu-ray and a remastered Blu-ray on December 17, 2024, by the Warner Archive Collection as the label's first 4K release, featuring a remaster from its original VistaVision camera negative.[73]
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