The Searchers (1956)
The Searchers
”A man seeks his kidnapped niece, facing his own humanity in a five-year quest.”
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Why watch this film?
The Western is probably the most iconic genre of American cinema, and both director John Ford and actor John Wayne are its most popular names. 'The Searchers' is the most iconic of all, along with Ford's 'Stagecoach'. Interestingly, the reason it is so acclaimed is precisely because it breaks with the idealized canons of the western up to then: here the cowboy is not the hero who rides off into the sunset, but an ambivalent anti-hero, to say the least questionable or morally reprehensible. Wayne's character opens the door, albeit imperfectly, to question the implications of the "old west" myth and the heinous atrocities on which it was historically built. 'The Searchers' is consecrated for being one of the first films to deconstruct the genre, thus allowing it to be explored in a deeper and more honest way.
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Plot summary
An ex-Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, is seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his obsessive, five-year quest, Ethan encounters something he didn't expect to find: his own humanity.
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Western
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