Review of The Searchers (1956) by Jeongjun P — 18 Jul 2010

¡°The Searchers¡± is considered by many people to be the best western of all time. Proving that it is popular film, people still interested in ¡°The Searchers¡± even though it produced more than fifty years ago in 1956.

As you can simply guess, the genre is westerns and it was my first western movie. Interestingly, "The Searchers" is the first western movie, to my knowledge. It is about a cowboy named Ethan played by John Wayne who returns home from the Civil War, only to have his brother and most of his family killed by Indians. So Ethan and a family friend go on a five year trek to locate his two nieces, held captive after the Indians killed everyone else.

I think it was great to create the characters. Ethan looks like a prosaic person, but as we can notice, he really loves his family as much as he risked his life. These two sides make us more immersed in the film. Also, in the way that story is related with family, ¡°The Searchers¡± puts meaning about family love not just fighting between white people and the American Indians. Most of all, the actor¡¯s performance was good enough to give impress to moviegoers. There is no gainsaying the top quality of story and actor¡¯s performance but one might have hoped for a little more realism. Suspension of disbelief is the key to a good story, but to be honestly, some parts are felt like fake. Especially, the scene that Ethan fought with American Indians was unrealistic.

In conclusion, it is true that ¡°The Searchers¡± has meaningful significance as a beginning western movie in spite of its faults. So, if you like westerns, this is required viewing.