John Wayne’s Western The Searchers Blu-ray movie review

John Ford is a great classic Western filmmaker, employing the classic Western film star, John Wayne, in perhaps one of the most underappreciated and unwatched films of our time. Ford builds a thoroughly entertaining and engrossing movie which explores classic Western themes without necessarily relying on these themes to drive the plot.

Like any good Western, we are inorexably drawn to a some kind of Cowboys vs. Indians saga, but Ford manages to draw us into the conflict in such a way that the mere conventions are'nt followed. While relying on the archetypical roles of the two groups to set up a conflict, Ford is ahead of his time in managing to characterize the Indians as more than a mere "noble savages". Wayne's character's (Ethan Edwards) hatred of "the Commanch" is called into question a number of times, especially in his stormy relationship with adopted nephew and fellow searcher Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), who we are told is a quarter-Indian himself, and cannot bring himself to find the same sort of hatred for the Indians that Ethan holds.

Ethan Edwards takes his time in returning home to Texas from the Civil War to the home of his brother and his family. But soon after he does the family is massacred in an Indian raid. The two young daughters are taken prisoner and Wayne with Jeffrey Hunter and Harry Carey, Jr. go off in search of them. Carey is killed early on, but Wayne and Hunter go on for years, both driven men for different reasons.

Ethan Edwards is probably the most racist man Wayne ever portrayed on the big screen, yet we some how feel sympathy for him at the same time. He has experienced hard and bitter life on the frontier for him. Just as it's been for the Indians as well. Chief Scar, played by Henry Brandon, is Wayne's opposite number and he makes clear what he thinks of whites. Two of his sons were killed and he's going to take many white scalps in reprisal.

Featuring 18-year old Natalie Wood as a first 'adult' roles, the sparkling Vera Miles as Pawley's love interest, Wayne's son Patrick in a funny comic relief, and the harmonies of the Sons of the Pioneers accenting Max Steiner's rich score, THE SEARCHERS is a timeless movie experience that becomes richer with each viewing.

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