The Searchers (AFI 100 Series)

On DVD (1956). 121 minutes. Trailer.

The third film in my AFI 100 refresher course is The Searchers, a movie I had heard lots about but never actually seen (#12 on the AFI list). John Wayne stars as the enigmatic Ethan in this seminal Western directed by the legendary John Ford. Set in post Civil War West Texas, the film follows Ethan as he searches for the Comanche tribe that murdered his brother and his family and has his 9 year old niece held captive.

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Wayne is in classic form as the swaggering, dangerous, and unconvential leading man. The catchphrase du jour is "That'll be the day", which he says about 8 times throughout the movie. The plot is simple, and it is the characters and cinematography that steal the show. Ford filmed the picture in Monument Valley, Utah, and the vistas, sunsets and scrub brush provide a dramatic backdrop for Ethan's search. As with any touchstone film like this, every shot, character and angle has been copied countless times in the decades since its release. A great film full of classic scenes, laughs and beautiful shots.