A Criticism of ‘The Searchers’
“The Searchers” John Ford’s acclaimed Western, was for me at least, not as good as advertised. Not to say the film was awful but there are some points of the film that were not very key on. Still the movie had some very good aspects to it, mostly cinematography. Some of the characters were: John Wayne, Jeffery Hunter, Vera Miles, and Natale Woods. John Wayne, who played Ethan (a former solider in the confederate army) in the film, was no stranger to John Ford movies. In fact Wayne had received a big break from another Ford film years prior. This film was neither the first nor the last film the actor and director would do together but it was one of the most significant. John Wayne started out life in southern California eventually moving to Glendale after his family. Wayne was an excellent student and athlete going to USC on a football scholarship. After a friend had gotten him a job on a movie set, Wayne had the fortune of becoming good friends with Ford. After about 70 different small films John Wayne was featured in a landmark film called “Stagecoach” which was also directed by John Ford. John Wayne went on to star in many other feature films becoming one of the most widely known actors of his time period (web site us.imb.com/bio?Wayne,+John). John Ford was no stranger to film when “The Searchers” came out. Ford eventually made a quite impressive career for himself. John Ford was born Sean O’fearna in Elizabeth, Maine the youngest of 13 children. Eventually fallowing in the footsteps of his older brother Francis, who made 600 films John aspired to make a career in film as well. John, who was influenced heavily by D.W. Griffith, had a style all his own even in his first films which were silent ones. John’s emphasis on family, duty and stubborn individualism quickly made him popular (pg.164 Flashback). Yet it was John who became famous for his Westerns. John had a style all his own for his films some examples of these are: “Stagecoach”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, “My Darling Clementine”, and “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”.