"The Searchers" is really not a very good movie

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

So get a rope! Put a cowboy fatwa out on me!

 

I hadn't seen it for years. My oldest daughter and I watched last night when she was in town, and I told her about its reputation as one of the greatest Westerns of all time if not the very greatest, etc. Spectacular John Ford cinematography, open door at the beginning, closing door at the end, etc. etc.

 

It is way too long. It's "comedic" elements are overdone. I has too many "fools" in it: Mose, the "Shakespearian" fool, is in the "half-wit sidekick" role that was part of the genre at the time, so that's probably OK. But on top of him, we have the idiot suitor, Charley McCorry, the buffoonish Lars Jorgensen with his "ya shure you betcha" routine, and even Ward Bond is playing the clown half of the time.

 

Martin never grows up. He writes a long detailed letter that Laurie reads as part of the narrative about the Search over months or years, but when Ethan has him read his "will" it turns out that he is barely literate. The whole "wedding" scene and the ensuing fight is preposterously unbelievable and plain silly.

 

Maybe in 1868 folks got their jeans fresh from Sears and rolled the cuffs; I dunno.

 

I think that it would be lot harder to hold off big Comanche bands with a couple rifles and a revolver or two, especially several times.

 

There are a lot of other shortcomings. I can think of ten Wayne movies better than this one, and 50 other Westerns. So shoot me!

[Warden Callaway]

I thought you didn't like it? You just listed the best parts.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Well, I have to admit there is some really great acting where various characters express emotion by throwing their hats on the ground, real hard like.

[Utah Bob #35998]

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

However incorrect it may be. : D

[Caliope Cupcake #13981]

dunt fall fer the bait y'all

 

UB is just lookin fer a gunfight

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

However incorrect it may be. : D

+1

 

GG

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

It's an "emperor's new clothes" thing.....

 

Now a Coen bros. remake could be a fine undertaking, indeed! It would be like the book, which was great.

[Warden Callaway]

I understand that this movie was used in film directing school. Said that some of Starwars was inspired by this movie. I can't say John Wayne is the best actor but I enjoy John Ford movies. His scene composition was his strong point. Most of his best westerns could be still framed as western art.

 

Red River is a much better John Wayne movie. But it was directed by Howard Hawks.

[Cat Brules]

Today, the movie would be made differently, of course. Thank God it wasn't made in the late 1960's or the 1970's! The movie is one of the great Westerns of all time, due to the characters, the actors, the cinematography, direction and musical score, but you are entitled to your opinion. Now, about that rope and that fatwa ...........

 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

 

Red River is a much better John Wayne movie. But it was directed by Howard Hawks.

 

I agree with that, and I am a John Wayne fan, in fact.

[Warden Callaway]

People say they like the new True Grit better than the old one. Mostly people that read the book and maybe not seen the old one tend to like the new one. In my opinion the new version is good on its own but was not better than the John Wayne version. I'd rather had they apply their time and talent to a new story.

[J-BAR #18287]

John Wayne's best movie was "The Quiet Man". But the rest are OK.

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

John Wayne's best movie was "The Quiet Man". But the rest are OK.

Yep. My favorite of them all.

[Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme]

Agree w/J-Bar on Quiet Man. Wayne's best work by far. Though in The Searchers, when Ethan stays outside the cabin, after everyone walks in.........still gets me every time. Talk about the lone wolf , rugged individual, manliness,..........

 

 

CBO

[Warden Callaway]

In the extra stuff that came with the enhanced DVD it says John Wayne adlibbed the holding of his elbow in the last scene in tribute to Harry Carry, Sr. who often posed with one hand cupping his elbow.

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

Not the Dukes fault but grew up in Comanche country and never did see such geological formations and land that would not grow a gopher much less a buffalo. I live in True Grit country now and still looking for those snow covered peaks west of McAlester but maybe i just havent driven far enough west

[Bad Hand]

Not the Dukes fault but grew up in Comanche country and never did see such geological formations and land that would not grow a gopher much less a buffalo. I live in True Grit country now and still looking for those snow covered peaks west of McAlester but maybe i just havent driven far enough west

Got lots of them just West of Denver,

[Utah Bob #35998]

Not the Dukes fault but grew up in Comanche country and never did see such geological formations and land that would not grow a gopher much less a buffalo. I live in True Grit country now and still looking for those snow covered peaks west of McAlester but maybe i just havent driven far enough west

Duke's True Grit was filmed in Ridgway Colorado.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Agree w/J-Bar on Quiet Man. Wayne's best work by far. Though in The Searchers, when Ethan stays outside the cabin, after everyone walks in.........still gets me every time. Talk about the lone wolf , rugged individual, manliness,..........

 

 

CBO

 

I wondered why they didn't invite him in for dinner. They were his friends, after all. Or maybe he didn't like lutefisk and lefse.

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

So get a rope! Put a cowboy fatwa out on me!

 

I hadn't seen it for years. My oldest daughter and I watched last night when she was in town, and I told her about its reputation as one of the greatest Westerns of all time if not the very greatest, etc. Spectacular John Ford cinematography, open door at the beginning, closing door at the end, etc. etc.

 

It is way too long. It's "comedic" elements are overdone. I has too many "fools" in it: Mose, the "Shakespearian" fool, is in the "half-wit sidekick" role that was part of the genre at the time, so that's probably OK. But on top of him, we have the idiot suitor, Charley McCorry, the buffoonish Lars Jorgensen with his "ya shure you betcha" routine, and even Ward Bond is playing the clown half of the time.

 

Martin never grows up. He writes a long detailed letter that Laurie reads as part of the narrative about the Search over months or years, but when Ethan has him read his "will" it turns out that he is barely literate. The whole "wedding" scene and the ensuing fight is preposterously unbelievable and plain silly.

 

Maybe in 1868 folks got their jeans fresh from Sears and rolled the cuffs; I dunno.

 

I think that it would be lot harder to hold off big Comanche bands with a couple rifles and a revolver or two, especially several times.

 

There are a lot of other shortcomings. I can think of ten Wayne movies better than this one, and 50 other Westerns. So shoot me!

Then, why do you watch it and then post all that hot-aire point'n out what you think are faults?

Start'n in on the 'koolaid', maybe...

LG

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

The Big Trail starring the Duke is a better movie IMO.

[Charlie Plasters, SASS#60943]

I agree that the Searchers has too many goofy actors and moments. I didn't care for the Quiet Man. I think Red River would be his best if it wasn't for the ridiculous '50's outfit on Montgomery Clift and the hokey final scene.

[Warden Callaway]

The Big Trail starring the Duke is a better movie IMO.

If you get the remastered version in the 70mm "Grandeur" format, you have a real treat. Not so much for John Wayne's acting but for all the big production.

[Utah Bob #35998]

I have passed your review on the the American Film Institute and they have agreed to pull it from circulation immediately.

[Waimea]

That'll be tha day.

 

What do you want me to do? Draw you a picture? Spell it out? Don't ever ask me! Long as you live, don't ever ask me more.

 

Well, Reverend, that tears it!

 

Put an amen to it!

 

 

You're right it was a crappy movie.

 

 

Waimea

 

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

Got lots of them just West of Denver,

 

Like i said, just didnt go far enough west of Mac Town

[Cat Brules]

As a possible point of interest:

I read somewhere that Buddy Holly got the hook for his hit song, That'll Be The Day from watching John Wayne say the line a couple times in The Searchers. Don't know how true that is.

[Tom Bullweed]

My biggest 'beef' about this movie is that these settlers are trying to raise cows in Monument Valley where the prickley pear and tumbleweeds seem to be the main fodder for the bovines. I know that I am just an easterner pretending to be a cowboy but I do notice things (like the fact the Chic-Fil-E uses Holstein dairy cows in place of beef cows).

 

I like this movie for a post-war setting (when most movies gloss over the four-year fracas that resulted in hard feelings for decades) and the wide range of characters. It is one of my favorite Duke Wayne movies, and maybe that says something about my tastes.

[Mean Matt McCord, SASS #24683]

John Wayne's best movie was "The Quiet Man". But the rest are OK.

I was always partial to "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" myself.

[Alpo]

Just my opinion.

 

The Shootist was a John Wayne movie, with Jimmy Stewart in it.

 

On t'other hand, Liberty Valance was a Jimmy Stewart movie with John Wayne in it.

 

That's different.

[Utah Bob #35998]

My biggest 'beef' about this movie is that these settlers are trying to raise cows in Monument Valley where the prickley pear and tumbleweeds seem to be the main fodder for the bovines. I know that I am just an easterner pretending to be a cowboy but I do notice things (like the fact the Chic-Fil-E uses Holstein dairy cows in place of beef cows).I like this movie for a post-war setting (when most movies gloss over the four-year fracas that resulted in hard feelings for decades) and the wide range of characters. It is one of my favorite Duke Wayne movies, and maybe that says something about my tastes.

They're supposed to be in Texas.

Ford was a little loose with his geography.

[Warden Callaway]

Didn't the first Texas cover most all of Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado and part of Oklahoma? But the story is set after the War of Northern Aggression so the modern borders would apply.

[Harvey Mushman]

I was always partial to "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" myself.

Me too, insptie of the fact that JS was the lead.

 

Over the years "The Shhotist" has risen to near top my list of JW favorites.

[Trailrider #896]

Are you heretics through? No, The Searchers isn't my all-time favorite John Wayne movie (it's a toss-up between Red River and The Quiet Man...watch that around St. Patrick's Day), but it is a classic, and the plot is 1000 percent better than High Noon! (Never could figure why Marshal Caine didn't take a shotgun or a rifle, or stash several in strategic places.) True, I can find anachronisms and dislocations in just about all the old-time Westerns (Colt's SAA's in 1850-odd Texas...the Commancheros), but most of those can be overlooked for the great story lines and The Duke's acting...or reacting, as he said he did.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

_{The backstory to my post is that I have sort of by happenstance been introducing this eldest daughter (she's 45) to Westerns. She'd never actually watched any until we started a few months back.}

 

_{I had bought the recently-released Sony set of the Budd Boettecher/Randolph Scott westerns, and we watched Seven Men From Now, The Tall T, and Comanche Station. These are very good movies. Seven Men has Lee Marvin in his first role, Tall T has Richard Boone, and Comanche Station Pernell Roberts, and James Coburn in his first role. She really liked these, so later I had her watch Ride the High Country, the great Scott/Joel McRae western; one of the true classics.}

 

_{She really liked these (as did I, having only seen Ride the High Country before. She has become a Randolph Scott fan!}

 

_{So The Searchers was her first John Wayne movie. She thought it compared poorly to the above movies and I agree. The issue is not so much the movie itself as the fact that virtually every list or commentator over the years puts it at one of the greatest Westerns of all time, and it is often touted as the greatest, period. I just can't see this, at all.}

 

_{The Searchers does have great cinematography. It also starts very strong, with the tension between Ethan and his brother, the longing between him and his brother's wife, the realization of the Comanche deception, and the fear and near-hysteria of the scene back at the homestead as they realize what is about to happen. The the early pursuit.}

 

_{After that, I think it goes way astray and bogs down in many ways. And it's at least a half-hour too long.}

 

_{The Shootist is my favorite Wayne movie.}