The Searchers 2024 Remastered

I am NOT a huge John Wayne lover, but he is perfect for the part he plays in the sagebrush John Ford adventure. Interesting story and well acted and for 1956 taking on a very dicey subject. You can't not love John Fords vista of monument valley and the authentic inter family squabbles.. I have to say almost any John Ford movie is a step above what was been filmed at that time and this one is wonderful.. Great transfer and 4K color correction.

The Searchers cast John Wayne in a role that was a bit different from many of his other roles on film, but it resulted in a superb film that has become the all time great Western movie. This film was made in the era when political correctness was not recasting history into something that never existed.A lone rider approaches a remote homestead in the American Southwest in 1868 where the only true love of Ethan still lived with his brother and his family scratching a living from the cruel desert raising cattle. Ethan quickly reveals himself to be a bitter, hard man from his Civil War service as a Confederate soldier. He also reveals himself to be highly prejudiced against Indians, but his prejudice is borne from sad experience as he reveals his knowledge of Indian culture and especially murder raids.When his brother and his family are massacered by raiding Indians, it was discovered his two neices were kidnapped by the Indians. An enraged Ethan sets out to trail the Indians and make sure his nieces were not allowed to become part of the tribe life. Ethan grudgingly lets a young man played by Jeffrey Hunter who raised by his brother's family and was with Ethan investigating an Indian raid to accompany him on his quest for vengeance.Thus began a tale of trailing the Indians who had his niece over a period of several years with Ethan being obsessed with finding and killing his niece rather than letting her be raised as an indian. The Searchers was most appropriate as a title for the move.There are many tense moments as well as humorous times as the tale unfolds and the wanderings of the two men is narrated by Jeffrey Hunter. Ultimately, the two men catch up with the tribe and the planned retribution is at hand. Can Ethan really kill his niece?The end scene to this movie has been called one of the very best in all of movie making.I have watched this film so many times I can't count them. Anyone who has not seen this movie yet will have missed an incredibly exciting and well made story. This is film making like it should be.The best part is that there is no foul language of any kind during the entire film.

John Wayne, the duke. That really should say it all, but since that probably wont fly, I'll pontificate further. From the opening shot, a door being open and through it seeing the wide, open red desert, you know you're in for an old school western treat. I first saw this film not that long ago, probably around Christmas, 2010. It was AMC, and I decided to sit down with a pizza in the freezing cold and watch it. I was, to say the least, AMAZED. At sixteen, I'd never really seen a John Wayne film, as sad as that is, its true. My dad's always been a huge fan, but I was never able to get into the old westerns, that is, until I saw this one. Wayne's performance as the bigoted Ethan reminded me so much of the people I'd see and meet, hard shelled, soft centered. A real anti-hero, and a fabulous performance. I live in California by the way, Central Valley, Nor Cal, and what I mean by him reminding me of people I know if, is well, some of my fellow Caucasians are well-meaning morons, I've been around many that just constantly insult the Hispanic population around here, which just makes them dislike us in general even more, a vicious cycle if there ever was one. Anyway, I could relate to the young character of Martin, perhaps the moral character of the story, trying to hold back the old ways, trying to keep justice from becoming in-justice, just faced in the opposite direction. The characters all seem so real, even after fifty years, and many changes in the styles of film acting, John Wayne still holds his ground for me. And I have, yes, grown to love many a John Wayne film, from Rio Bravo to The Sons of Katie Elder, is, most definitely, in my top twenty favorite actors. The story itself revolves around Ethan and Martin trying for over ten years to find a girl who was kidnapped by a group of Comanche, who also slaughtered and raped the girls parents and siblings. The real greatness of this film is the interactions between Wayne and Jeffery Hunter(Martin), and how, at the end of the film, Wayne's character, Ethan, does change into a better, less bigoted and prejudiced man. The only thing that I could see from the film that could have been better, or perhaps just enhanced the film, would be the final act, I felt like it ended too quickly and happily, though I think it DOES work, I almost do wish that it ended more grimly, and that the film had more of the somber elements that are found through out, but, as it lies, it is a grand and wonderful film.

Great movie