The searchers / Warner Bros. Pictures presents the C.V. Whitney picture ; screenplay by Frank S. Nugent ; executive producer, Merian C. Cooper ; directed by John Ford.
Material type:
FilmPublisher number: 115865 | Warner Home Video28918 | Warner Home VideoLanguage: English, French Original language: English Subtitle language: English, French, Spanish Series: John Wayne collectionPublisher: [Burbank, CA] : Warner Bros. Entertainment, [2007]Distributor: Burbank, CA : Warner Home Video. Copyright date: ©2007Description: 1 videodisc (119 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 inContent type: - two-dimensional moving image
- video
- videodisc
- 1419853783
- 9781419853784
- 6311484366
- 9786311484364
- Searchers (Motion picture)
- Container of (expression): Searchers (Motion picture). French.
- Photographed by Winton C. Hoch ; music by Max Steiner ; the song "The Searchers" by Stan Jones ; art directors, Frank Hotaling and James Basevi ; film editor, Jack Murray ; men's wardrobe, Frank Beetson ; women's wardrobe, Ann Peck ; set decorator, Victor Gangelin.
- Golden Globe Awards, 1958: Most Promising Newcomer - Male (Patrick Wayne)
- National Film Registry, 1989
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Shelving location | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult DVD
|
Main Library | DVD | New | WESTERN SEARCHER | Checked out | 06/19/2024 | 33111010004709 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
If John Ford is the greatest Western director, The Searchers is arguably his greatest film, at once a grand outdoor spectacle like such Ford classics as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Rio Grande (1950) and a film about one man's troubling moral codes, a big-screen adventure of the 1950s that anticipated the complex themes and characters that would dominate the 1970s. John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a former Confederate soldier who returns to his brother Aaron's frontier cabin three years after the end of the Civil War. Ethan still has his rebel uniform and weapons, a large stash of Yankee gold, and no explanations as to where he's been since Lee's surrender. A loner not comfortable in the bosom of his family, Ethan also harbors a bitter hatred of Indians (though he knows their lore and language well) and trusts no one but himself. Ethan and Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), Aaron's adopted son, join a makeshift band of Texas Rangers fending off an assault by renegade Comanches. Before they can run off the Indians, several homes are attacked, and Ethan returns to discover his brother and sister-in-law dead and their two daughters kidnapped. While they soon learn that one of the girls is dead, the other, Debbie, is still alive, and with obsessive determination, Ethan and Martin spend the next five years in a relentless search for Debbie -- and for Scar (Henry Brandon), the fearsome Comanche chief who abducted her. But while Martin wants to save his sister and bring her home, Ethan seems primarily motivated by his hatred of the Comanches; it's hard to say if he wants to rescue Debbie or murder the girl who has lived with Indians too long to be considered "white." John Wayne gives perhaps his finest performance in a role that predated screen antiheroes of the 1970s; by the film's conclusion, his single-minded obsession seems less like heroism and more like madness. Wayne bravely refuses to soft-pedal Ethan's ugly side, and the result is a remarkable portrait of a man incapable of answering to anyone but himself, who ultimately has more in common with his despised Indians than with his more "civilized" brethren. Natalie Wood is striking in her brief role as the 16-year-old Debbie, lost between two worlds, and Winton C. Hoch's Technicolor photography captures Monument Valley's savage beauty with subtle grace. The Searchers paved the way for such revisionist Westerns as The Wild Bunch (1969) and McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), and its influence on movies from Taxi Driver (1976) to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Star Wars (1977) testifies to its lasting importance. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
DVD, region 1, dual layer, widescreen presentation; enhanced for widescreen TVs ; Dolby Digital mono.
English or dubbed French dialogue, with optional English, French, or Spanish subtitles; closed-captioned.
John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, John Qualen, Olive Carey, Henry Brandon, Ken Curtis, Harry Carey, Jr., Antonio Moreno, Hank Worden, Beulah Archuletta, Walter Coy, Dorothy Jordan, Pippa Scott, Pat Wayne, Lana Wood.
Photographed by Winton C. Hoch ; music by Max Steiner ; the song "The Searchers" by Stan Jones ; art directors, Frank Hotaling and James Basevi ; film editor, Jack Murray ; men's wardrobe, Frank Beetson ; women's wardrobe, Ann Peck ; set decorator, Victor Gangelin.
From the novel by Alan LeMay.
DVD release of the motion picture originally produced in 1956.
Widescreen.
Not rated.
A Civil War veteran spends five years on the trail of a Comanche raiding party that kidnapped his dead brother's daughters. Breathtaking scenery gives a picture of frontier families separated by miles of emptiness.
Special features: New digital transfer from Restored VistaVision Picture and Audio Elements; Introduction by Patrick Wayne (John Wayne's son and The Searchers co-star); Commentary by Peter Bogdanovich; Theatrical trailer.
Golden Globe Awards, 1958: Most Promising Newcomer - Male (Patrick Wayne)
National Film Registry, 1989
For private home use only.