The Searchers: Finding Meaning in the Wild Frontier
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- When it comes to storytelling, The Searchers has it all: drama, adventure, romance, comedy, well-developed characters, beautiful music composition, incredible cinematography and, of course, some of the most iconic and breathtakingly epic backdrops in cinematic history. In "The Searchers: Finding Meaning in the Wild Frontier," we look at the vast and monumental landscape and how it contributed to the creation of what is known as the best western film of all time.
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Watched this film for the first time yesterday and haven't been able to stop thinking about it, Wayne's character is incredibly interesting. I had to go into the film with the knowledge that Wayne was an out-and-out white supremacist, and I was expecting depictions of racism all throughout the film(which there certainly is in there) but what I was not expecting was to find the most visually beautiful film I have ever seen in my life, unbelievably gorgeous shots of the American landscape, and the films heroes travelling through it. To me, Wayne's character is emblematic of the ugliest parts of American history and culture, Ethan is racist, a former confederate, and a criminal of some sort or other, and yet we know of his flaws, his story is still an exciting one, when Ethan walks off at the end, I think he understands that his hatred has no place in the lives of Debbie or Martin, and that he should not expect domestic people to abide by his beliefs, and so he leaves, understanding it would be better for him to wander, and search for something else. Excellent video here, probably the best I have found on this film.
You hit the nail right on the head. The old west is definitely a place where our dates ways of thinking go to die. That's probably also why it's so often depicted as a desert or some equally inhospitable land.
So glad you enjoyed the film as much as we did! And our video!!! That is truly such an amazing compliment!!!
I've loved this movie since the first time I watched it nearly 50 years ago.
I got a chance to see it on the big screen 30years ago.The film society at UT Austin showed it one Satutday night at Hogg Auditorium.
Since I lived just 60miles south of Austin at the time(Flatonia to be exact)I drove to Austin to go see it.
Ethan's mirror image is Scar... He too has lost family to an alien culture. He too lives mostly for revenge. It is notable that Ethan is not the one to kill Scar... Martin is... Not out of hatred or revenge... but rather defending himself and Debbie. Actually, from the time that Ethan returns to the Jorgenson's ranch... he is not essential to the rest of the plot... Civilization...if you want to call it that has matured to where a near savage such as Ethan is no longer essential to the survival of the community... His soul may have been saved by his final awakening to the value of Debbie...but having lifted his bitterness...it doesn't give him any purpose once she has been returned to a loving family environment. He will indeed wander between the winds... YP
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You couldn't be more diametrically confused about the character of Ethan Edwards.
@@raymondpronovost2479 I don’t know if that’s right
I always felt that John Wayne should got the Oscar for The Searchers.
He gave an incredible performance!
@@CineStructure I've always liked the loner in the movies.First and foremost John Wayne as Ethan Edward's in "The Searchers" is one of the greatest loners ever.
Next on the list would be Alan Ladd in "Shane" followed by Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver".
And while not exactly true loners,Paul Newman as "Fast Eddie Felsen"in "The Hustler";Clint Eastwood in "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and last but by no means least Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine in "Casablanca"are honorable mention loners.
Great movies! I’m with you…I love a good loner! 👍🏻
You bet! That Oscar did not recognise this performance is one of Oscar's more cardinal sins.
The Searchers has always been my favorite western movie ever since my childhood. It troubles me that before we are permitted to admire Fords wonderful work of cinema are, we must first pay homage to the woke gods by apologizing for the racist overtones of the characters. In modern times it is easy to cast judgment on those who settled in the west. But the reality is that this hatred of the Native American was rooted in a back and forth struggle for existence. The Comanches were especially brutal to the settlers. And the settlers responded in kind. All of this is is perfectly understandable under those circumstances. We have risen above all that today but we should unapologetically admire our ancestors both red and white for the tenacity and skill without condemning them through the lense of the 21st century.
Something that I admire very much about this film, and others like it, is that there’s an honesty about the reality of the film’s time period.
I’m very much of the mindset that, despite our views today (whatever our personal opinions about and feelings toward events that transpired may be) we should never forget the occurrences of the past in the sense that we shouldn’t sugar coat them or hide them. The reality of existence for all sides was raw and harsh…no matter the lens…and this film captures that with a very honest and blunt portrayal while also paying homage to the incredible physical beauty of our countryside.
Greatest western ever . Wayne should have won an Oscar ! Cheers !1
It’s a phenomenal film and his best work, in my opinion. 👍🏻
The closing scene were John Wayne is standing in the doorway holding his right elbow, was supposedly a silent gesture to the memory of Harry Carey, who mentored him in his early career & starred together in 4 movies. It was a pose Carey used in several of his movies. His son, Carey Jr, starred in 9 movies with Wayne.
I love this! Thank you for the fun fact…it’s little pieces of movie history like this that make us love film so much. Appreciate the knowledge ☺️👍🏻
Arguably the Greatest Western of all Time! Definitely one of my favorites.
Greatest movie ever
Watched it last night for the first time. Great film and while ill always favour sergio leone westerns this is probably the best american western and wayne is just fantastic in this.
I’m so glad you got a chance to enjoy it…it really is an amazing film!
Good observations. One of my favorite movies...
So glad you enjoyed it! It's an amazing film! Thank you for the watch and the comment!
Yep the best EVER was 10 yrs old when I first watched it I chocked up at times and still do 66 yrs later the film has powerful emotion ingrained in its fabric
Absolutely! An incredibly relevant and impactful film! 🙌🏻
I was 10 also, even had the comic book. This movie is almost a spiritual experience for me. Never tire of it.
Nicely done.
Thank you!!! 🙌🏻
Best western ever….
I am a huge John Wayne fan - he is like a father figure for me.
Love so much the very amusing 'The Comancheros', because it was the first JW movie I ever saw - when 6 yo., with my Granna (another JW fan!) The great Nehemiah Persoff and Stuart are marvelous in it.
I cry like a baby every time I watch his character deaths in 'The Cowboys' and 'The Shootist'. Or the end of 'TMWS Liberty Valance'.
My favorite movie of the Duke is the hugely entertaining and enjoyable 'Rio Bravo', which I have watched 300+ times in 52 years. I think that God smiles to me when it is shown - especially jointly to 'El Dorado' (~200 views also.)
But I consider 'The Searchers' one of the three greatest movies ever made (with Wells' 'Citizen Kane' and Reed's 'The Third Man'. Moving, shocking, funny, even sometimes disgusting, but also tender and lovable. Wayne and Hunter are amazing - plus all the other members of the John Ford's ensemble of actors.
And I cannot avoid the tears when Ethan returns from burying in his coat to his older niece - shockingly heartbreaking -, and at the end, when framed by the door, Ethan is left alone, turns around and leaves - sympathetically heartbreaking. It is very understandable why this movie is so admired and beloved.
It is the highest peak of American and World filmmaking!!!
great movie!
Thanks for an excellent video. Marvelous insights. I've seen this magnificent film many times, but never knew the fascinating detail of Nugent's description in the script of the medal Ethan gave to Debbie!
Thank you! We are so glad that you enjoyed it! One of our joys in life is learning the bts goodies for these films!
I grew up watching this movie on VHS in the 80s. It is John Wayne and John Ford’s best film, and it’s about as Shakespearean as you can get for a western. There aren’t many films like this throughout all cinematic history. Spielberg and Scorsese both post is as a favorite for a reason.
Absolutely! It’s unique and amazing! We visited Monument Valley last year and seeing just one of the film’s settings in person really made it all the more special.
That you describe this film as "Shakespearean" makes you not in the least guilty of exaggeration.
Simply the very best!
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Seatching is good. Finding even better.
After having gone over some of the negative comments , I suddenly have a sort of Ethan feeling that I am uncomfortable in a world who doesn’t see the magnificence of this work of art and I want to wander… Overrated ? Disappointing ? Annoying music ? I surely agree with the ironic remark of Gordon… « Everyone has the right to be wrong »…
What about me?, you ask. Well, Cine Structure, you have put together one of the most perceptive reflections of Ethan Edwards in one of cinema's greatest works of art that I have encountered. I am a fan of westerns but not to worry if you are not, your recognition of a masterpiece will jolly well do me.
Thank you so much…that’s quite a compliment! Truth be told….we need to watch more westerns! They’ve really started to grow on me, especially after watching this one.
@@CineStructure One receives such good news very infrequently but may I suggest _Red River_ where Wayne joins forces with Howard Hawks. The poetic flow of the two films are similar.
# 1 The searchers #2 lonesome dove, 3 young guns
I’m a big Young Guns fan myself! 👍🏻
Winterhawk
great video :3
Thank you! So glad you liked it!
Another point I think is relevant to why Ethan is the man he is, could actully be related to the fact that he fought in the civil war. Im not here to argue on what the war was really about but as man who fought and survived, most likey witnessing horrific things and maybe even having some survivors guilt makes me wonder how the war affected him.
Absolutely. We still don’t adequately address PTSD for survivors and there was not much acknowledgement or awareness way back when. I can’t imagine any human living through something like that and not being affected in some way.
@@CineStructure Thank you for your response and might I say that version of amazing grace on the violin in your video is simply beautiful.
The John Wayne character was racist but people were pretty racist in the 1870s and had reason to be
We touched on this in another comment. Basically our saying it was not without realizing that it was historically accurate for various sociopolitical reasons relevant to the time period. We are certainly products of our environments and Ethan was no exception.
Great video! Couldn't shut it off.
Thank you so much! That really means the world to us!
Ethan and Martha had Debbie…
My only problem with The Searchers is that if you’ve spent any time exploring Monument Valley, you can’t get past the almost comical notion that they’ve spent 5 rears searchers the same corner of northwest Arizona over and over and over.
Monument Valley is so iconic, riveting and unique that it doesn’t adequately convey distance and time across the 120 minutes of the film.
BTW…I think Red River is a better “western” although it doesn’t have a strong supporting female character.
Not central to the film but the overall story of the 200 year Comanche empire is truly fascinating and rarely highlighted in history books…possibly because it is at odds with the conventional “First-People as victims lacking agency” narrative.
I’ll have to check that one out! Thank you for the recommendation!
We took a trip through Monument Valley a few years back…it was absolutely magical! And yes soooo unique! It was such a special place that I’d love to revisit.
I just finished watching the film, and my hands are kind of shaking. I'm so deeply impressed. I love westerns, but for some reason I ended up deeply admiring the nihilistic spaghetti Leone Eastwood Bronson ones because I paid attention to them first (I've seen westerns since I was a child but enjoyed them as a child would: cowboys vs indians). Now having seen Wyler's Big Country, and now this... I feel that there's such a muscular Americana here worth so much love and admiration. It's a stunning, dark film. I'm so happy I've seen it.
So glad you were able to watch it! It’s really such a landmark film.
A few movies are feasts for the perceptions but too many are famines. Whenever I'm left close to starvation, it's time to gorge on The Searchers.
Best western ever made
Admittedly not having seen very many westerns , it’s my favorite thus far.
Truly the best John Wayne movie!
I’ll admit I’ve not seen many of his films (this was actually the first), but I’m eager to watch more!
Somehow The Searchers did not get a single Oscar nomination in any category. There are so many superlative elements in this film, cited in this video, that it makes one wonder what the Academy members were thinking at the time. Hollywood made it up to John Wayne years later and gave him the Oscar for Best Actor in True Grit. True Grit is a fine movie and Wayne was very good in it, but his performance in The Searchers is one for the ages. Wayne was also excellent in his final film, The Shootist, 1976.
John Ford won the Oscar for Best Director four times and none of the films were westerns: The Informer(1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952). The cinematographer, Winton Hock, won the Oscar for his camera work in a John Ford film with Wayne, The Quiet Man, in 1952 but was overlooked for great work in The Searchers. At the time, Hollywood seems to have regarded westerns as not serious art the same way they ignored Hitchcock and never gave him an Oscar for Best Director. Hitch made suspense movies and they were not serious either, according to the thinking. Thinking, as we know, is hard.
This is a brilliant assessment of the film, whoever you are. So perceptive. Good to see the Duke as a Confederate for once. "A misplaced man in a world that's moving on without him".........tell me about it. "We are all searchers"........absolutely.
The best western
Truly an epic film! I’m grateful we finally had an excuse to watch it!
Always suspected that Debbie is Ethan and Martha's daughter.
Ooohhhh I could see it!
I love this movie so much. It is my second favorite movie of all-time.
I can certainly see why…I’m not a lover of westerns and this had me from the beginning. That said, “Horizon: An American Saga” looks like it’s going to be phenomenal!
Great video! I really enjoy this movie, not only impressed by the landscape of monument valley but also touched by the nuanced characters. I'm an Asian, in which the topic of racism is not so sensitive as in America. But the theme of the war between the white and the Indians really let me think hard. I've watched the film over and over for a month since i first saw it and for each time i could find new details and i always want to tear when seeing Ethan lift Debbie in the end. Really masterpiece and one of my favorite movies
Great film
It really is!
Duke-land in his highest moment with John Wayne at his peak. God bless him for all the joy he gave us. He should have won the Oscar here.
*the climax of the movie makes it a classic*
100%!!!
@@CineStructure hi,why no reviews for the past one year, are you busy? Btw contents are 🎉🔥
Thank you so much! Yeah it’s tricky…we both have intense careers (in the industry and in architecture).
We were geared up to start again in the last few months and then we had a close personal family loss, our dog was diagnosed with and is fighting cancer, etc. Not to go all “womp womp” but it’s been a lot. When it rains, it pours…and, unfortunately, it rained all over the fire we had lit.
BUT we aren’t done. We’ve just taken a more extended hiatus than we would have liked. Your support is truly inspiring to make us work harder to reinvigorate the channel. We’ve got some amazing films planned to analyze!
Now days racism has to be dragged into everything it's a dam shame 😕😕😕
Unfortunately it’s just inherent with a movie of its time and subject that it would have these aspects. It’s not that we feel the movie is “racist,” but it’s certainly apparent and on full display that the attitudes and ideals of the time were. I’d rather be respectful to indigenous people by calling a spade a spade than pretend it wasn’t reality.
"we know he believes in inequality because as a Texan he fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War". Hmmm. Not sure how I feel about that.
That's fair. It is a very definitive blanket statement, which could benefit from a more unbiased view. Good note for future videos 😊
I saw the film about a month ago, was disappointed by the overall story. The film is not a masterpiece for me, it’s an ok western that’s been over rated over the years. But it’s just my opinion, if the majority of people love it I can respect that.
As someone who’s not seen many westerns, I really loved it. But, as I said, I’ve not seen many westerns (practically none 😂), so my view on the genre and this particular film is certainly not a broad one. It certainly seems to be a favorite of many. ☺️
I watched it when I was about 15 and stopped halfway through because I did not like it at all. Many years later I bought it on DVD and was surprised how good it is. I watched it several times now and always discover new things and absolutely love it now. Certainly the greatest performance John Wayne ever did but the whole movie is awesome. Wayne should have got an Academy Award for it. However my favorite John Wayne-John Ford movie is Donovan´s Reef, a movie that deals with racism but in a very different way. Maybe you should watch the movie again in couple of years and maybe you will discover things you did not realize the first time. I am glad I rewatched it.
@@michaelhuck Like i mentioned it’s not bad it’s only (for me) not as good as all those theories or analysis on this film say it is. To me there was so many little flaws like not having the right indians (the one we see under the rock is seeing breathing), the fact that the search last many years yet you feel Wayne and his partner just went on the road for a few seasons and came back, the weird moment of comic relief, etc. And the annoying music. I felt I was seeing an old western from the 40, except this time it was in colour. The good point of the film; superb photography! I haven’t seen a lot of John Ford’s westerns maybe because they are associated with b&w. I was more into spaghetti westerns at the beginning, then I discovered more westerns on the american side. Eventually I will see more of Ford’s work. Since viewing «the searchers» I saw a few interviews with the director. I was surprised how direct he was in the interviews (no bull••it for him). I think he was a very fine director that wanted to do a good job and was not incline too much on theorizing his work.
@@marcl2213 you´re so right about the music, especially the singing at the end almost destroyed more than helped the movie. But this aside, it´s an amazing movie.
Everyone has the right to be wrong.
The most overrated film in history
What would you consider to be the most underrated film in history?
@@CineStructure I think Citizen Kane is the most overrated, never been able to watch the whole thing
Overrated you are out of your mind
Not for people who understand it.
In your opinion.
The closing moment of The Searchers mirrors the closing moments of Once Upon A Time In The West, the savage Ethan Edwards leaves civilisation to wander the wilderness as there is no place for men like him anymore and the train comes to bring civilisation forwards as the The Frontier dies out.
Oooohhh good to know! That’s one I haven’t seen! Such a strong image!
@@CineStructure It's really a really good watch!