3.5/4  The Searchers Quick Review
The Duke in an undoubtedly complex and yes, emotionally versatile role. His most in fact. Give it a watch even if you aren't one for westerns or Mr. Wayne.

4/4  The Searchers Quick Review
One of the best westerns of all time, John Wayne is perfect. The plot and direction are great and the character interactions are real. If you are a western fan, you will not be let down if you see this one!

5/5 Best John Wayne/John Ford Movie
  by Tutu Lulu (MIDWEST)
This is the best John Wayne John Ford! If I had a son I would have named him Ethan Edwards. Each time I watch this classic I see more definition in the characters...their prejudices, their motivations are fascinating. The movie was casted perfect without exception. The Blu-ray version is an absolute must, it makes you feel like you could just walk into the screen. I envy people who have never experienced this movie.

5/5 ONE OF THE BEST BLU-RAYS OUT THERE
  by D. E. FOREMAN (NJ)
First, this was the finest performance in Wayne's career. He's darker and more bitter than any of the other role he's played before. This is also the first time John Ford and Wayne teamed up in a color film shot in Vista-vision 70mm which is brilliantly remastered to Blu-Ray. The details are so crisp and clear. Patterns in the cloth and every grove in every mountain can be seen. The story is very dark and at points disturbing to watch, but the story is just great. Jeffery Hunter does a great job in this film next to his performance of Jesus Christ in MGM's " King of Kings ". Other Ford Favorites such as Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jr.. Hank Worden as Ol'Mose Harper, also make notable apperence in this picture along side a very young Natalie Wood. This a must for any Wayne/Ford fan who wants to own a fantastic Blu-ray for their collection.

4/5 Movie is a classic, blu ray treatment of it doesn't add much
  by Zozo (PA, USA)
I have always loved John Wayne movies,and considered "The Searchers" to be one of the best. My opinion of that remains unchanged, however, I didn't see much different between the standard DVD version and the blu ray version of this movie. My TV, TV cables, and blu ray player are all top of the line and I have watched other blu ray discs on it and have been wowed by the detail and clarity. This movie didn't really offer much more then the standard DVD version. It's only priced a few more dollars above the standard DVD so its not that much of a risk and if you want the newest version of this movie, you will have it, but if you want to save a few bucks and get the same quality picture just go with the Standard DVD version. I don't think this is anyone's fault, I just think that the movie technology of the 1950's doesn't convert well to Blu ray, but thats just one guys opinion. Either way the movie is excellent.

5/5 Ford's one and only classic Western--the model for other films
  by Dennis W. Wong
There has been much controversy over the racism depicted in this movie but I think that's part of what makes a compelling Western for its time period. John Wayne, I believe, portrayed one of his first anti-heroes ever (the other being "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence", another Ford classic) and he even named one of his sons after his character. I've seen this classic on HD Net Movies and the transfer was fantastic--it's as if the movie was made yesterday and not in 1956!! Of course, too accolades from renowned directors such as Akira Kurosawa, David Lean (he resaw this film several times while making "Lawrence of Arabia"), Martin Scorsese, George Lucas (Star Wars owes quite a bit to this), Orson Welles and Curtis Hanson have helped to push this film into the American Film Institute of all time great Westerns. I guess one flaw I had wished Ford would've removed from this classic is the cornball humor involving Vera Miles, Jeffrey Hunter and an actor who's appeared in later "Gunsmoke" as episodes by the name of Curtis!! Anyway outside of this quibble, the virtues of this film outweigh its flaws, Wayne himself turns in perhaps his greatest performance here. Now the question is whether to purchase in HD DVD or Blu-ray (they are both basically similiar as far as I know from previous comparisons)? To update I did purchase the HD DVD version and it's excellent and in answer to the previous reviewer there is a difference between Standard Def and High Def (HD DVD or Blu-ray) and if he has a 720p or 1080p but if not, he would not notice it.

5/5 Azure Skies and Terra Cotta Frontiers
  by Baron Sardonicus (Pennsylvania)
(Firstly, this is a review of the film, as opposed to the DVD or the blu-ray disc. For technical feedback, you may want to find something more specific. Just clearing that up. There are many reviews on this site and they're all different.)

This is one of the greatest movies made. Obviously I'm not stating anything new or insightful by saying that. It's a known fact. Even if westerns are not your cup of tea, you must admit this is a powerful and well rendered piece of cinema.

Hard to swallow that this movie garnered not one Academy Award nomination in 1956. Not for photography, score, acting? Was there a reason for this, I wonder. Possible. "Around the World in Eighty Days" wooed the Oscar people that year with an all-star cast and a grand and glamorous spectacle.

Anyway, the places where "The Searchers" was shot are just breathtaking. That opening shot from the dark house to the wide open frontier has to be one of the best opening scenes in film ever. Ethan has come back to his brother Aaron's family after fighting in a war that ended three years earlier. He brings with him a quiet but seething hatred for indians (based on his demeanor towards his mixed breed nephew Martin).

There's tension already but it soon gets even stronger. When Lucy lights the lamp for dinner and her mother quickly puts it out, Lucy instantly knows what is about to happen. And we get the general idea, too. Dramatic moments like this really make a movie crackle for me.

"That'll be the day" seems like Ethan Edwards' slogan. Ethan is hard to figure. He is a hero and a villain in certain ways. He is smart and sensible but at times rash and tempermental. He is capable of anything, really. He seems to be a decent fellow at heart. He is a bunch of contradictions, and so are many people, so I think we can somehow relate to this man. Most of all he is determined. But is he going to rescue his niece Debbie... or murder her? It is a long journey, and it seems nothing will stop Ethan. I think his quest is not so much about finding a family member as it is about having a purpose that he thinks is right and true.

Martin knows that Ethan is capable of anything; he is concerned that Ethan may do something bad (to Debbie), for she is now basically being raised as an indian. None of this is said but you can infer it easily.

Jeffrey Hunter and Vera Miles are good in their supporting roles. It's sad that they cannot be together because of the dire circumstances. How ironic that they should be reuinted accidentally on her wedding day to another man!

The film keeps the viewer thoroughly engrossed because we want to know if Ethan will find the girl, or if Ethan will die at the hands of the Comanche. I have to say that John Wayne is very effective here: larger than life, likable, robust, sometimes funny, raw, and relentless.

Funny how you recognize certain actors for their roles in other vehicles; a regular in many of John Wayne's movies, Hank Worden who played Mose Harper in "The Searchers" would go on to play the tall elderly room service clerk in the 1991 ABC-TV serial "Twin Peaks". His face is instantly recognizable. And the character of guitar-playing Charlie McCorry is played by Ken Curtis, who would play the cranky and scruffy deputy Festus on "Gunsmoke".

When I think of this film I instantly think of blue and orange; the sky and the earth. I always recall the gorgeous red sandstone rock formations of Monument Valley.

The story has been compared to Homer's Odyssey; and Ethan changes over time and becomes nearly as ruthless and brutal as the "savages" he is bent on avenging. But does he track down Debbie? You'll have to watch to find out.

Watching this movie, I just get completely involved with it and caught up in Ethan's journey. It's not just a physical journey, of course, but a journey of character and self discovery. In westerns, fight scenes and battle scenes tend to bore me, but character-driven stories really appeal to me. This one is all about the character. Ethan Edwards is as strong and memorable a character in cinema as any other: he belongs in the pantheon of greatest film characters... with Scarlett O'Hara (Gone With the Wind), Quint (Jaws), Marge Gunderson (Fargo), Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird) and Stanley Kowalski (A Streetcar Named Desire).