The Searchers 1956 Review

This kind of depth in a western?  And not an Anthony Mann directed Western (which are for the most part brilliant by the way) but by John Ford?     Ford  topped himself in just about every way with this his best film..    There are several images in this film that you will never forget.   Ford's cinematographer  Winton C. Hoch  masterfully frames Monument Valley in glorious saturated Vista Vision Technicolor.  Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles and Ward Bond are quite good as well.  And then there is Wayne. . . his walk, his posture, framed here as part vengeful monster, part hero, a man to be feared; hated perhaps.  Long before the revisionist Westerns of the late 60s and early 70s,  Ford and Wayne created this remarkable achievement, this masterpiece of film. 

#15  on my Greatest Films list

The Searchers    1956   Directed by John Ford