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The Searchers

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The Searchers

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Summary

Classic western starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter and Natalie Wood. John Ford's masterpiece tells the story of Ethan Edwards and his five-year search for the last surviving member of his murdered family - a young girl captured by Comanches.

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Review

A star rating of 5 out of 5.

Tom Hutchinson

Like Monument Valley, where it was filmed, this masterpiece western of revenge and reconciliation from director John Ford is massive and unmissable. It touches the heart of racist darkness and cleanses itself in the process. As John Wayne's Ethan Edwards sets out to kill both the Comanche butcher of his brother's family and the abducted niece who, in his eyes, has turned native, his five-year quest becomes a search for his own soul. Jeffrey Hunter is the conscience along for the ride, but it's the complexity of Wayne's antihero that reveals him as a rootless pioneer, forever framed in the doorways of family homesteads of which he can never become part. Ford's great allegory is of a people lost and found. Arguably, it's John Ford's finest western and he made some great ones.

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7.8/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameEthan EdwardsJohn WayneMartin PawleyJeffrey HunterLaurie JorgensenVera MilesSam ClaytonWard BondDebbie EdwardsNatalie WoodLars JorgensenJohn QualenMrs JorgensenOlive CareyChief ScarHenry BrandonCharlie McCorryKen CurtisBrad JorgensenHarry Carey JrMose HarperHank WordenLookBeulah ArchulettaLt GreenhillPatrick WayneDebbie Edwards as a girlLana Wood

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Crew

rolenameDirectorJohn Ford

Details

Theatrical distributor

Warner Bros Pictures Ltd

Released on

1956-09-23

Languages

English | Navajo | Spanish

Available on

video, DVD and Blu-ray

Formats

Colour

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