There were still some that would be held for last, until I was older ( Midnight Cowboy & A Clockwork Orange were two of the final films I’d see, at age 16). In 1998, the American Film Institute released their initial list of “100 Years…100 Movies,” and my father decided, after several days of pleading on my part, that I should see all the films on the list. Gabe: My love for The Searchers has been a slow burn throughout my life. Tell me why you love this film so much, and be honest: are you a bit let down that I didn’t hate the film as much the second time around as I did back in 2002?
Their pretense allows them to look down on him, which is unfortunate.īut I’ve gone on long enough, Gabe. Those around him try to be civilized, and often fail miserably. Perhaps the only sympathy worthy of extending to Ethan is this: he doesn’t act terribly civilized in mixed company, not hiding his more primitive notions. “Why should I feel bad for this ass?” I wondered, probably out loud. The memorable final shot always rubbed me the wrong way, as some half-hearted plea for sympathy. But then, I’m not meant to hold Ethan in high regard. Ethan Edwards, as played by Wayne, is still a virulent bigot who reverses his stance at the very end. The characters also didn’t repel me as they once had. That I classify it as such while watching it on a standard-definition feed from TCM bolsters the notion that the Blu-ray is likely a must-buy for any film fan. Ford was the iconic Western director, and the imagery he presents, not just in the mountainous tableaux in Monument Valley, but in the artfully simplistic yet direct choreography of the Edwards family sitting down to breakfast in the first act, is gorgeous. I’m not about to place The Searchers on my all-time favorites list, like you have, Gabe, but as I watched the film this time, I found much more to appreciate, even in simple filmmaking techniques. After revisiting the film a decade later, was I wrong to be so blunt? (Well, yeah.) And did my initial interpretation of the film miss the mark? Yet I almost was prideful when telling my professor so. I don’t want to characterize my first-blush reaction as a lie. But it’s safer to assume I was just being a punk, in the least punkish way possible. I know this is my problem.) Or, maybe it’s that I dislike most Westerns. ( Stagecoach is the only Wayne film where his presence doesn’t either bother me wholeheartedly or make me snicker ironically.
And that’s true: for the most part, I’m not a fan of John Wayne, no matter which film of his I see, be it Red River or Rio Bravo.
I could chalk up my initial loathing of the film to not liking John Wayne as an actor or presence in cinema. Yet today, I find myself struggling to figure out exactly why. Then and now, I’ve never been a huge fan of the genre, and this 1956 tale of an ex-Confederate soldier hunting down and attempting to rescue his niece from a vicious Comanche tribe turned me off instantly. No, I’d dared to besmirch the good name of John Ford’s seminal Western The Searchers. However, I wasn’t slagging the Glenn Close-Michael Douglas drama to my teacher. The class syllabus was, shall we say, sketchy, in that we watched and discussed that cinematic classic Fatal Attraction in the first week. Josh: I don’t remember much about my freshman year in college–thanks more to an unfailingly poor memory than to partying, I assure you–but one clear memory is that of my fall-semester film professor blowing his gasket when I told him I hated one of his favorite movies. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Can this debate ever be settled? It’s up to Josh and Gabe to answer these hard questions, so read on for the answers! One of your hosts considers that claim perfectly accurate, and the other one is Josh.
#JOSH SPIEGEL MOUSTERPIECE MOVIE#
As Sound on Sight’s Western month reaches its conclusion, two of the hosts of your favorite Disney movie podcast, Mousterpiece Cinema, Josh Spiegel and Gabe Bucsko met in the show’s vaunted and secretive HQ to discuss and debate what many people would claim is the greatest Western of all time: the 1956 John Ford film The Searchers.
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