Product Description

Warner Brothers The Searchers (Blu-ray)
Working together for the 12th time, John Wayne and director John Ford forged The Searchers into an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays ex-Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, abeliever more in bullets than in words. He's seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacredhis 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4338 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-10-31
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.com
A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

The Searchers
The Duke in one of his best! If you are a John Wayne fan and do'nt have the Searchers in your movie collection, you need to buy this. The Searchers is a very good western for the whole family.

The greatest western ever made...or at least equal to the best,
It has always had the sobriquet "the greatest western ever made"... well, for once it probably it is true.
Famous director's favorite film... including Spielberg and Bergman to name two just to show you how different are they!
It shows the dark side of John Wayne as a mysterious character (what later Jimmy Stewart will do to perfection with the western films he starred on for director Anthony Mann) obsessed with doing his way in everything and it seems very much embittered by his confederate (no surrendered) background...
ALL the cast is perfect and the script is a marvel... add the masterfully direction... and there you have it. THE PERFECT WESTERN.

I guess it probably is because so many pieces fall in place in an effortlessly way...(or so it seems but beware... I do not think so... and never believed in luck... it has been said that LUCK must found you WORKING!... and that is what is feels to me a solid piece of craftsmanship built over years of shooting westerns...)

A must see.

ADB

A Classic Western
"The Searchers" is a film that has rightfully been condiered a classic with an ability to transition between playful humor and the darkness of the human heart. John Wayne's character is an ex-confederate veteran with a shadowy past few years. His main accompanying partner is a mixed white-native american portrayed by (Jeffrey Hunter) who was adopted by members of Wayne's family after Comanches murdered the former's family. Their goal is to find a girl abdupted by the Comanches after they killed several of Wayne's realtives. The film covers several years and a number of events ranging from almost comical incidents to violent encounters with both natives and whites.
While the main Comanche chief is a nasty and ruthless villian, other natives the characters meet along the way are peaceful. In fact, the U.S. cavalry doesn't get the very ideallook Ford had given them in his trilogy. In one winter scene, Wayne and Hunter find a village of possibly peaceful natives the cavalry massacred. The main lesson is that there were generally bad and generally fairly good people on both sides in the West.
Wayne's characterization seemes ones of his best that I've seen and yes he is darker than usual. He has racist tendencies (especially towards the Comanches that attacked some of his relatives) and is truthfully rather ruthless at times. Ultimately, the film ends pretty well and Wayne's character shows some signs of changing though not after taking the aduience on a fascinating journey in the American West.