The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

Message

Martha · #1 Post by **Martha** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:31 am

John Ford's influential classic casts John Wayne as an obsessed ex-Confederate seeking his niece kidnapped by Comanches. Jeffery Hunter, Natalie Wood and Ward Bond co-star in this all-time great.

Special Features:
Four Warner Bros Presents Documentary Segments
Four Warner Bros. Featurettes

swingo · #2 Post by **swingo** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:40 am

One of my favorite westerns, I still believe that WB was short on the extras (My Mexican region 4 has no extras besides the scene selections), this movie was and still is so influential on so many filmmakers...

I'm not particularly happy with the standard format...

Axel.

GringoTex · #3 Post by **GringoTex** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 12:56 pm

swingo wrote:I'm not particularly happy with the standard format...

There's a double disc special edition due out sometime in 2006, I believe.

hearthesilence · #4 Post by **hearthesilence** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 2:39 am

Wasn't there something special about the way this was shot? Something to do with the film used, the color, I forgot, it's in Joseph McBride(?)'s John Ford biography.

This could be a really awesome looking DVD.

mogwai · #5 Post by **mogwai** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:58 am

Looks like a 2006 rerelease is inevitable.

Ign.com reports that this is the next film in line to get a complete restoration overhaul similar to Gone With the Wind and the upcoming Wizard of Oz.

ellipsis7 · #6 Post by **ellipsis7** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 6:03 am

Wait for the new double discer SE - the single disc was one of the earliest DVDs and although fine for the time, could do with less colour saturation and more grain and resolution...

The credits confirm it was shot in high fidelity Vista Vision!

Derek Estes · #7 Post by **Derek Estes** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:31 pm

A bit of an update:

The newest edition of home media retailing reports that The Searchers will be released on June 13th in a new special edition as well as on HD DVD. Warner Bros. reports that the cost of restoring the classic western was $600,000 but was worth the effort to present a new SE version of one of the studio's first ever DVD releases in 1997, which according to George Feltenstein, SVP of theatrical catalog marketing, was "Pretty much an Abomination".

June can't come soon enough!

Kristoffer4 · #8 Post by **Kristoffer4** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 2:24 pm

The question now is whether to wait and get the HD / BD disc or get the dvd?
If I had a PS3 this would be a much easier decision

Edit: OHH no...

Robert A. Harris writes in a thread on DVD Forums:

WB is already at work on a corrected Searchers. The very fact that it was released as it was, is a mystery to all.

Apparently WB didn't use the reference master,

So I guess this goes for both R1 / R2? Hope I can get one of the new discs...

Beaver comparison.

Gary Tooze wrote:Colors - here is where we require a certain amount of speculation. I've been informed by sources 'in-the-know' that the color scheme of this new release is off - meaning it is quite different than when it was shown theatrically. Skin tones can tend to look very red at times.

Kristoffer4 · #9 Post by **Kristoffer4** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:15 pm

Word is that a new disc is coming with corrected color..I hope!

Titus · #10 Post by **Titus** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:56 pm

If they're acknowledging that they screwed up and are correcting it, one would think (or hope) that they would replace the existing discs upon request free of charge (or with a S/H fee, at most) -- or am I just naive?

Kristoffer4 · #11 Post by **Kristoffer4** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 6:21 pm

I think you are right, this is what WB has always done.
Robert Harris says the same thing....

Kay Hoog · #12 Post by **Kay Hoog** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 7:14 pm

Hmm, but whether they'll replace the region 2 special ed. And after all the probs with the aspect ratio on the previous release...

well here's hoping 3rd time lucky

Derek Estes · #13 Post by **Derek Estes** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 11:28 pm

If they are going to replace The Searchers, I wonder if they could also correct Stagecoach, which I found to be a disappointment. I wonder how these could have happened to such high profile releases.

daniel p · #14 Post by **daniel p** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:28 pm

And the people that usually get screwed the most in these situations are people outside region 1, who imported, like me...

Kristoffer4 · #15 Post by **Kristoffer4** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 8:32 pm

Ok, just saw my R2 version tonight. The new transfer is absolutely gorgeous!
Even though, there was scenes where it looked like at yellow filter had been applied...especially for skin tones.

It is not something that ruins the film for me, but if there is a reissue I will of course get it!

alandau · #16 Post by **alandau** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:17 pm

This is not the first time Warners has fucked up. I have been a keen fan of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and I can tell you the color is way off in the Warner's release. Every frame seems to have a yellow/sepia tint through it, that was never present in 35mm prints I saw in cinemas and TV runs.
I have also seen THE SEARCHERS many times thru the years and I did notice the color was off in the special edition. Again, a yellow/sepia tint distorting the image, especially skin tones.

hearthesilence · #17 Post by **hearthesilence** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:13 am

Dammit, are they ever gonna release a corrected version? I've seen similar apologies/plans-for-a-corrected-release with other things - including CD reissues - and it's always hit-or-miss. Sometimes, they're very quick about, sometimes, they promise one but never bother to press it.

Gordon · #18 Post by **Gordon** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:32 pm

hearthesilence wrote:Dammit, are they ever gonna release a corrected version? I've seen similar apologies/plans-for-a-corrected-release with other things - including CD reissues - and it's always hit-or-miss. Sometimes, they're very quick about, sometimes, they promise one but never bother to press it.

It was only discovered that the color was wrong a few weeks ago. It's going to take a while to correct the color, reauthor and press a bulk of discs. Packaging may have to be changed too. Warner have a great record in fixes problems and replacing DVDs and insiders like Robert Harris say that its underway, so I'm sure it will happen. The uncut Tom and Jerry shorts remain a thorn in the side for some, though. They could still redeem themselves with that one, ona future collection or seperate disc.

manicsounds · #19 Post by **manicsounds** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:20 pm

worst best film?

hearthesilence · #20 Post by **hearthesilence** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:09 am

Most of her beef seems to be the depiction of women. But still, she throws this out...

Wait, why did he want to kill her in the first place? Was he in love with Debbie's mother, his milquetoast of a dead brother's dead wife? Why is Debbie the only hint of good sex in the movie? Are Ethan and Scar doppelgängers? Does Ethan spare Debbie because the scalping of Scar has purged him of his own most perturbing desires? Who knows?

Yeah, it was pretty clear Ethan had some history with that woman, not something many people debate over (and what the hell did she want out of that character? Given the requirements of the story, it's not like she had much screen time). Debbie's "the only hint of good sex"? WTF does that mean? (And why the hell would she linger on that, or even come to that conclusion?) The way Ethan and Scar mirror each other isn't something most people question, it's fairly concrete.

People I know who don't "get" this movie usually aren't big on Westerns, and they're just not blown away by The Searchers because despite some of its groundbreaking themes, it has enough classical elements to make it too 'familiar' to them (i.e. "it's just another Western," albeit well done). Plus, when you look at Unforgiven, Dances With Wolves, and other recent Westerns, I think it colors the expectations of younger audiences who grew up on those films. i.e. the ultra-politically correct Dances With Wolves taints their view of Scar (another "evil" Indian, and played by a Caucasian German actor to boot), the portrayal of other Caucasians like Vera Miles's character and their relationships with one another seem hokey and 'light' compared to Unforgiven, where morality is very ambiguous with every character and the traditional displays of family and civilization are pretty much absent...this isn't how I view The Searchers, this is just speculation based on my experience watching older films around 'regular' people who stick to the New Releases section in Netflix...after all, The Searchers as a whole is certainly morally ambiguous, unless the vile objections to interracial relationships is somehow moral (I know my PARENTS believe it is, when it comes to certain races), and even then Ethan Edwards is certainly more interesting and ambiguous than William Munny.

Which reminds me, I know the whole love triangle between the characters played by Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, and that other guy (minor character) seems kind of hokey, particularly that ridiculous fist fight they get into, but it's not enough to ruin the whole film for me.

HerrSchreck · #21 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:33 am

I love it... love it. Metcalf is a perfect example of the smarmy little nebbish sitting behind his computer on a self-superiority kick; rather than approach his topics from a viewpoint of substance, i e discuss the narrative of THE SEARCHERS and perhaps get into how this film--like VERTIGO, like, say, even DELIVERANCE-- resonates so powerfully because what the film is about is rarely discussed onscreen, and therefore pick apart some of the psychological markers burbling under the veneer of SEARCHERS, he proceeds to cheat his way through the whole article.

What he proceeds to do instead is strike a pose of Laughing At Everyone He Writes About by illustrating his complete & total understanding of all via a reductive pigeonholing them: firing off withering apparent sumups of the substance of each-- therefore Scorcese Coppola Milius et al are cute worshipful kids with an innuendo that they're just lucky l'il 1st-Wave Second Generation Hollywood Cuties whose SEARCHERS love can be dismissed because they went to filmschool whereas real men don't need film-school... they burn so brightly that they get offerred magnificent epics swinging picks under the hot sun. Ford & Wayne are neutralized as completely-understood-by-Metcalf old school George-W-Bushtypes who rah-rah'ed VietNam and drank and were therefore assholes in real life so we can now laugh at them because via these reductive withering descriptives we have made them sound like mindless buffoons. The whole monograph works itself from a-to-z without ever jumping out of the writers smug little lamplit writing den to breach the real world and talk turkey about SEARCHERS. The neutered political correctness lurking behind every corner is, as well, just sad.

hearthesilence · #22 Post by **hearthesilence** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:46 am

BTW, in referring to Metcalf, I meant "he," not "she."

Andre Jurieu · #23 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:44 pm

hearthesilence wrote: ... and even then Ethan Edwards is certainly more interesting and ambiguous than William Munny.

While I would certainly agree that Ford sculpted The Searchers to be an ambiguous film in many ways, I'm much less certain that Ethan Edwards is designed to be an ambiguous character. In fact, I would consider him to be fairly straight-forward, which allows the final scenes to resonate. Of course, I haven't watched the film in a couple years (I should really get to that DVD).

Ishmael · #24 Post by **Ishmael** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:09 pm

Andre Jurieu wrote:I'm much less certain that Ethan Edwards is designed to be an ambiguous character. In fact, I would consider him to be fairly straight-forward, which allows the final scenes to resonate.

Ethan not ambiguous? He's nothing but. On a narrative level, there are questions like what did he do for three years after the war ended and what exactly happened to make him hate Native Americans so much. On a thematic level, there's ambiguity about such things as the nature of his racism: he knows a hell of a lot about Indian language and customs for one who's so thoroughly racist. What does this imply? And even though his action at the end of the film really isn't ambiguous, his thoughts certainly are. Here's a man who seems to think in very black and white terms, yet he's able to realize how his style of life is outdated. The look on Wayne's face is what: angry? Sad? Understanding? All of those things, I would argue. There's a depth in this understanding that's profound, but it's also mysterious, given the type of person he is. In fact, that may be the most ambiguous thing about him.

#25 Post by **zedz** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:13 pm

The Searchers is one of Hollywood's boldest considerations of racism, and it's all wrapped up in Wayne's character. Great as so many of Ford's films are, for me The Searchers is deeper and darker than any of them, one of the most troubling and thought-provoking Hollywood films of the 50s.

Take the conventional Liberal platitude (see just about any Kramer of the time) that racism is simply the consequence of ignorance: if these guys could only meet and understand the Other, they'd see the light. The character of Ethan Edwards demolishes this immediately: he's the person who has the deepest understanding of (and, in a perverted way, respect for) the culture of the Indians (demonstrated by his shooting out the eyes of the dead guy), yet he's the most virulent in his hatred of them.

Ford doesn't let the more 'domesticated' whites off the hook, either. When we see Vera Miles precisely echo Ethan's thoughts about Debbie (does anybody else get the chills in this scene?), Ford draws a direct line from casual racism to murder. Ethan's clearly no aberration, he's just the vehicle for illustrating just how ugly and deranged the background assumptions of white civilisation can get, and Jeffrey Hunter's character (the hero) is just as clearly representing a marginalised, minority view. Significantly, it's Hunter who is knitted back into society at the end of the film, not Wayne (a faint glimmer of optimism in a gloomy ending - it's clearly a racist society, and a racist wife, he's returning to).

What makes Ethan a hero is his very late-breaking realization of the error of his ways (at least in respect of Debbie) and his acceptance at the end of the film that there's no room in 'civilisation' for the dubious 'values' he represents. Wayne is charged with one of the most complex and layered roles of his career (maybe in all American cinema) and he pulls it off magnificently. The film really shows what a superb physical actor he could be, and it's also a role where you can see the thought he's put into how he presents himself in scene after scene.