The Searchers (1956)

As I've said before, Westerns aren't really my thing. I find their tropes repetitious and their treatment of women and races other than white Americans, especially in the John Wayne era, is usually horrid.

In some ways The Searchers was as expected: evil Native Americans, disempowered women, with the worst off being the Native American women (I really hated that the bits with the accidental wife Look were intended as comedy). But then the brutality of the Americans is also shown, and Ethan is clearly shown to be an anti-hero, scalping his enemies and shooting retreating enemies in the back. He even wants to kill his niece for the crime of being married to a "Buck" against her will. The result is a message more along the lines of violence begets violence, or more simply: humans are bastards.

Andy said afterwards that he found the John Wayne character's transformation of heart too sudden but I actually thought it was one of the most delicate and masterfully directed moments of the film: the way he lifts the girl perfectly mirrors the scene at the beginning but the point is not hammered home. I would imagine that a modern film would have a brief flashback scene at that point, so that the slower viewers could grasp it but instead you just have this lovely visual echo.

Overall, I loved the direction. The scenery was shot in beautiful style, looking as bleak and inhospitable as could be. The geographical fudges are accomplished seamlessly (for example, in the climactic scene Ethan and Lucy run up a hill in one state and in the next shot they run down a hill hundreds of miles away), giving you a perfect example of the Kuloshov effect. The film is littered with careful visual repetition, like the example I mentioned above, and the iconic silhouette in the doorway.

One criticism I would make would be that the film charts a search lasting for years and despite the considerable running time I really didn't feel that. It could be because none of the actors seemed to age at all, a limitation of make up and effects at the time perhaps? Seasons seemed to flurry past and suddenly we discovered that years had been and gone.

Certainly if western is a genre you love, this must be a Rolls-Royce, embodying all the best of it for your pleasure and delight. For a non-fan like myself it is a refreshingly good example which, while it shalln't convert me, I can enjoy and admire.