The Searchers (1956)

Waste of time

How sad is this?

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I enjoyed this movie, being a John Wayne fan for years, and felt it was one of his best. In short, a big distraction for me was seeing Natalie Wood playing an indian squaw wearing lipstick and mascara. Not a good call. Plus, her acting was below par.

Despite being perhaps director John Ford's best Western, this film did not receive any Oscar nominations; it features a compelling story (Frank Nugent's screenplay from Alan Le May's novel) and beautiful Technicolor vistas of Monument Valley.John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a man who returns to the unsettled territory west of Texas two years after fighting for the south during the Civil War. His former Captain Samuel Clayton (Ward Bond) is in charge of the Rangers, the law in this part of the country, where Edwards' family is trying to scratch out an existence among hostile Indians. Ethan doesn't try to hide his racism for his brother Aaron's adoptive son Martin (Jeffrey Hunter), who's one- eighth Cherokee, even though Ethan had saved the boy's life in the distant past. The Edwards and Jorgensens are about the only two families left who haven't given up trying to settle in the valley given its challenging conditions.When Lars Jorgensen (John Qualen) needs help retrieving some cattle after a Comanche Indian raid, Clayton and men from both families head out to find them. After a forty mile horseback ride from home, they discover that the raid was a ruse to separate the men from their homes and women. Because the Jorgensen ranch is closer, Clayton and most of the men head there while, to Martin's frustration, Ethan and Mose Harper bed down to rest their horses for the trip back to the Edwards' place.Later, Ethan and Mose catch up with Martin, who'd killed his horse by trying to ride back without resting it, just before discovering the worst: the Edwards' homestead is burning, its occupants killed, horrifying evidence that Aaron's wife Martha was raped before death, and the Edwards' daughters Lucy and Debbie missing, presumably taken by the Comanche.Clayton and the men search unsuccessfully for the girls, then hold off a Comanche onslaught – led by Chief Cicatriz aka Scar (Henry Brandon) – meant to eliminate them, but Ethan's surly nature and a subsequent disagreement cause most of the party to return home. Ethan, Martin, and Lars's son Brad (Harry Carey Jr.) soldier on. After coming upon the Indian's camp one night, and learning that Ethan had discovered that Lucy – Brad's fiancée – had met with a similar fate as her mother, Brad makes a suicidal raid of his own.Ethan and Martin continue on for almost a year without success before returning to the Jorgensen ranch. Mrs. Jorgensen greets Ethan, while her daughter Laurie (Vera Miles) rushes Martin. Though Martin is clueless and curiously uninterested in Laurie, she informs him they've been going steady since they were 3 years old! But just as he's come around to that fact, and his feelings for her, Ethan says that he's off to find Debbie again. Martin insists he has to go too since he believes Ethan's bigotry is his driving force, which will lead Ethan to kill Debbie when he finds her.The search takes several more years, some of which is related in a letter that Martin writes to Laurie, which she reluctantly reads aloud to her family and letter carrier Charlie (Ken Curtis), who's her unwanted suitor that later becomes her fiancé. Meanwhile Martin, while trading with a friendlier tribe of Indians, inadvertently became betrothed to a squaw. But, he writes, she was later killed, perhaps by the same Comanches that may still have Debbie.Eventually, through a prominent Mexican named Emilio, Ethan and Martin find – and have a peaceful if contentious meeting with – Scar, who speaks the English language fairly well and recognizes Ethan, who he's dubbed "Big Shoulders". They discover that Debbie (Natalie Wood), now 15 years old, is alive and is one of Scar's squaws. After the meeting, Emilio returns Ethan's money (paid to set up the meeting) and departs quickly, sensing bad blood.While Ethan and Martin set up camp down the river from the Comanche and discuss their pending fate, Debbie runs to warn them to leave as soon as possible. After hearing Debbie refuse Martin's plea that she escape with them, Ethan tells Martin to step aside as he draws his sidearm. Martin protects Debbie as an arrow from afar strikes Ethan in the shoulder. The two men scramble to escape a Comanche raid. After successfully defending their position, Martin helps Ethan to mend. But the two return 'home' at odds after Martin refuses to accept Ethan's last will and testament, which would have left the remaining Edwards' assets to him; unlike Ethan, Martin doesn't consider Debbie to be dead.At the Jorgensens', the men discover they've arrived just in time to interrupt Laurie's betrothal to Charlie. In a relatively civilized manner, Martin and Charlie fight it out, much to Laurie's and her mother's delight. Though neither man wins or loses the fight, Charlie realizes that he'd never had Laurie's heart, so he calls off the wedding and leaves. Martin and Laurie reconcile. Just then, a Union Cavalry Lieutenant (Wayne's son Patrick) arrives to announce to the Reverend – former Confederate Captain Clayton – that Scar and his Comanche are camped nearby. Clayton states that he and his rangers can handle the situation, but he allows the lieutenant to tag along. Martin sneaks into the camp to rescue Debbie, and ends up killing Scar, before Clayton, Ethan, and the rangers charge in cavalry-style, and finish things off. After visiting the Chief's tent to remove Scar's scalp, Ethan chases after and catches Debbie, successfully eluding Martin. He lifts her into the air and, instead of killing her, cradles her to his chest saying "let's go home Debbie".The iconic last scene of the film features Ethan returning home on horseback, dismounting and carrying Debbie to the porch where she is greeted and embraced by Mr. & Mrs. Jorgensen. Everyone else enters the homestead, leaving Ethan standing alone. He turns, takes the step down and walks away as the door closes.

The sun is quickly setting in the wilderness as the members of a pioneer family, who appear to be living literally in the middle of nowhere, desperately try to go about their business, pretending that they don't suspect an attack from the local, hostile Comanches. The mother, looking terror stricken, futilely attempts to hide an extreme sense of fear from her children. Then, their worst dread suddenly becomes reality. This is an intensely riveting opening.One of the problems for me is that the film does not successfully sustain this high level of tension. Not only that, but it often unravels into a series of boring conversations with no action and into attempts at very inconsistent, awkward comedy which borders on silliness. I realize that settling in a remote area that is constantly plagued by violent attacks from a hostile tribe of Indians can't be easy, but does that justify John Qualen as Lars Jorgensen to over-react in the face of every little situation as if he is about to suffer a nervous breakdown at any moment? And what about Vera Miles, playing his frustrated daughter, Laurie, as she barks monotonously at everyone around her from beginning to end. After such an intense opening scene, these two are only part of the disappointment that ensues. In roles such as the deeply disturbed wife in "The Wrong Man", Miles has done much, much better than portraying the windup doll that was unfortunately written for her here.Some will dismiss my next criticism, but I have visited Monument Valley which is located on the Navajo Reservation in the northeast corner of Arizona. When I observe it in all of its majesty at the opening of a film and then see "Texas, 1868" at the next moment, am I supposed to believe the action that follows, or does that matter in this instance? I think that establishing credibility is relevant in this case because the conflict between white Europeans and Native Americans in our nation's history is a very serious one to me, and a basis of authenticity from the very beginning of this movie is very important.My final issue is with little Debbie, played by Natalie Wood when she wasn't quite so little anymore. I realize that the search took a great effort over a long period of time on the part of the dedicated participants, but why wasn't Debbie given more of an opportunity to decide whether she should remain with the Comanches, especially when she faced the dubious prospect of living the rest of her days with white folks as wacky as the Jorgensens? After both Lars and Laurie had nearly driven me crazy for two hours, was I supposed to believe that Debbie would be better off with the likes of this nutty family? To me, she looked well nourished and well adjusted to her adopted home. Since I wrote this review, I learned that Cynthia Anne Parker, the real person upon whose true kidnapping by Comanches this story is based, regretted being "rescued" for the rest of her life. Anyway, the beautiful cinematography, the very effective musical score by Max Steiner, the enigmatic but not always sympathetic character of Ethan as played so well by John Wayne, and the exceptional, engrossing opening scene surely deserve praise, but I have seen much better westerns in my day.

Released in 1956 and directed by John Ford, "The Searchers" chronicles the story of Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) who returns from the Civil War to his brother's ranch in the Southwest; and to his brother's wife, whom he secretly loves. After the ranch is raided by Comanches, Ethan and his 1/8 Indian nephew (Jeffrey Hunter) search for the band of Indians to get his captive niece back (Natalie Wood). As time passes and the niece assimilates with the Natives it's not certain if Ethan intends on rescuing the girl or killing her.Touted as a masterpiece and one of the greatest Westerns, I've seen "The Searchers" twice now and was disappointed each time. Sure, the Monument Valley locations are breathtaking and the cast is great, but the story leaves a lot to be desired. The plot's excellent, but the way the story is told isn't interesting and so there's very little momentum. On top of this we get sequences, characters and dialogue that seem to be stabs at amusement, which (1.) aren't funny, (2.) are awkward because the main story is a serious drama/adventure in a Western context, and (3.) make some of the characters out to be dimwits (note to the writers: just because someone lives in the wilderness it doesn't automatically make them doofuses).Give me "Stagecoach" (1939), "The Horse Soldiers" (1959), "The Alamo" (1960), "North to Alaska" (1960), "True Grit" (1969), "Chisum" (1970), "The Cowboys" (1972) and "Rooster Cogburn" (1975) any day over this mediocre Western. Heck, I'll even take "The Comancheros" (1961), "El Dorado" (1966), "The War Wagon" (1967), "Rio Lobo" (1970), "The Train Robbers" (1973) and "The Shootist" (1976).The movie runs 119 minutes and was shot in Arizona, Utah and Colorado.GRADE: C-