The Searchers (1956)
91%RT Audience Score: 88%
Awards & Nominations: 3 wins & 3 nominations
The Searchers is an epic John Wayne Western that introduces dark ambivalence to the genre that remains fashionable today.
The Searchers is like a classic rock song that never gets old. John Wayne’s performance as Ethan Edwards is so good, you’ll want to tip your cowboy hat to him. The film’s stunning cinematography and realistic portrayal of life in the Wild West will make you feel like you’re right there with the settlers, dodging arrows and bullets. Sure, it’s not perfect and some of the themes may be tough to swallow, but it’s still a must-see for any Western fan. So grab your popcorn, saddle up, and get ready for a wild ride.
Production Company(ies)
Art Matters Inc., BBC Television, Edelman Family Fund,
Distributor
Warner Bros., Warner Home Vídeo
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Monument Valley, Arizona, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Passed
Year of Release
1956
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:NA
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Runtime:1h 59m
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Language(s):English, Navajo, Spanish
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Mar 13, 1956 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 6, 2006
Genre(s)
Western
Keyword(s)
Western, John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Natalie Wood, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, John Qualen, directed by John Ford, produced by C.V Whitney, written by Alan Le May, Frank S Nugent, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Michael Wilmington, Jack Moffitt, Ronald Holloway, Dave Kehr, Derek Adams, Steven D Greydanus, Victor Pineyro, Francois Truffaut, Brian Eggert, Don Shanahan, MPAA rating, Ethan Edwards, Martin Pawley, Debbie Edwards, Laurie Jorgensen, Rev Capt Samuel Johnston Clayton, Lars Jorgensen
Worldwide gross: NA
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): NA
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Jeffrey Hunter – Martin Pawley
Natalie Wood – Debbie Edwards (older)
Vera Miles – Laurie Jorgensen
Ward Bond – Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton
John Qualen – Lars Jorgensen
Director(s)
John Ford
Writer(s)
Alan Le May, Frank S. Nugent
Producer(s)
C.V. Whitney
Film Festivals
Cannes
Awards & Nominations
3 wins & 3 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (53) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (50) | Rotten (3)
[The Searchers is] Ford’s greatest western, with John Wayne as the relentless adventurer Ethan Edwards.
February 5, 2019 | Rating: 4/4
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
This C.V. Whitney production is undoubtedly one of the greatest Westerns ever made.
March 19, 2018
Jack Moffitt
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
Some fine vignettes of frontier life in the early southwest and a realistic presentation of the difficulties faced by the settlers in carving out a homestead in dangerous Indian country.
June 27, 2007
Ronald Holloway
Variety
TOP CRITIC
Through the central image of the frontier, the meeting point of wilderness and civilization, Ford explores the divisions of our national character, with its search for order and its need for violence, its spirit of community and its quest for independence
June 27, 2007
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
There is perhaps some discrepancy in the play between Wayne’s heroic image and the pathological outsider he plays here (forever excluded from home, as the doorway shots at beginning and end suggest), but it hardly matters, given the film’s visual splendou
February 9, 2006
Derek Adams
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
The Searchers’s reputation is so widely accepted that it’s a surprise to discover that the film, and Wayne’s character, are more complex than the reputation suggests.
November 22, 2004 | Rating: A-
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films
TOP CRITIC
A road movie disguised as a western. Ford deals with revenge, redemption, love, violence and obsession in a beautifully shot film by veteran cinematographer William C. Hoch. Full review in Spanish
April 7, 2022 | Rating: 8/10
Victor Pineyro
Seventh Art Studio
John Ford symbolizes an age of Hollywood, the one when good health prevailed over intelligence, craftiness over sincerity. This age has gone; Elia Kazan’s and Nicholas Ray’s movies make more money than John Ford’s, poetry triumphs over entertainment.
April 4, 2022
Francois Truffaut
Arts (France)
The motion picture Ford considered his own masterpiece confronts prior standards, meets issues of revenge and discrimination within a ponderous text, and revises the director’s Western model forevermore.
March 21, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
Gorgeous cinematography versus pushback politics.
October 31, 2021
Don Shanahan
Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast
Entertaining, well-acted and directed, and beautiful to watch.
May 11, 2021 | Rating: 9/10
Bradley Gibson
Film Threat
Overall, I didn’t enjoy The Searchers very much. I respect Ford as a filmmaker and I think he did his best to show a realistic view of how settlers felt about the Native Americans but it is still a tough film to watch with modern eyes.
March 24, 2021
Sarah Brinks
Battleship Pretension…
Plot
After a long three-year absence, the battle-scarred Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, Ethan Edwards turns up on the remote and dusty Texan homestead of his brother, Aaron. In high hopes of finding peace, instead, the taciturn former soldier will embark on a treacherous five-year odyssey of retribution, when the ruthless Chief Scar’s murderous Comanche raiding party massacres his family, burns the ranch to the ground, and abducts his nine-year-old niece, Debbie. Driven by hatred of Indians, Ethan and his young companion, Martin Pawley, ride through the unforgiving desert to track down their lost Debbie; however, is the woman they lost and the prisoner in Scar’s teepee still the same woman the searchers seek?
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
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