Review of The Searchers (1956) by Robert D — 02 Dec 2011

Well, greetings everyone! How are you? That's fantastic!

In fact, in my American Film class, we've been focusing on the Western. Those tales of lawlessness out on the western frontiers really speaks to me, a white, upper-middle suburbanite! In fact, it is this connection to the Western genre which forces me to give such high scores, as is evidenced by what you see above!!!

Who was the best director of those Westerns, children? John Ford, of course! And he had that lawlessness-defined hero of a manly man John Wayne in many of his films. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I enjoyed the two films we watched - [b]Stagecoach[/b] and [b]The Searchers[/b], particularly the former which was more of a character study and didn't require Wayne to open his mouth and deliver lines too much. He just had to sort of be a bad-ass, which is natural for him.

Stagecoach has some really nice shots, especially for a black-and-white film. I was glad to watch The Searchers, though, because those shots which would have looked so brilliant in the former film were realized and, man, they were beautiful. But John Wayne spoke a lot in The Searchers and he's not a terribly talented actor. The last shot of the movie is great of course, very symbolic, but that can't save the movie from being just good, nothing terribly engaging or nuanced.

In conclusion. The Western is a genre of film which used the wide open desert to represent the endless possibilities of a lawless frontier. Sometimes, one is inclined to think that John Wayne really believes that it's 1870. But, alas, the western is a genre disconnected from my generation. They're fun, yes. They're entertaining, yes. But it rarely, as-of-yet, bridges the gap between entertainment and art. I will watch a few Clint Eastwood westerns to disprove that.

Stagecoach: 7.5/10.

The Searchers: 6/10.