The Searchers (1956)

Directed by John Ford. With John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond. An American Civil War veteran embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches.

The Searchers is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, set during the Texas–Indian wars, and starring John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natal

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 ...

John Ford's “The Searchers” contains scenes of magnificence, and

The Searchers (1956) is considered by many to be a true American masterpiece of filmmaking, and the best, most influential, and perhaps most-admired film of director John Ford. It was his 115th feature film, and he was already a four-time Best Director Oscar winner (The Informer

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

Overview of The Searchers, 1956, directed by John Ford, with John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, at Turner Classic Movies

The box office appeal of John Wayne combined with the imprint of John Ford makes "The Searchers" a contender for the big money stakes. It's a western in the grand scale - handsomely mounted and in the tradition of "Shane." The VistaVision-Technicolor photographic excursion through the southwest - presenting in bold and colorful outline the arid country and areas of buttes and giant rock formations - is eyefilling and impressive.

As a Civil War veteran spends years searching for a young niece captured by Indians, his motivation becomes increasingly questionable.

The Searchers summary of box office results, charts and release information and related links.