Searchers, The (DVD)

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Then, too, Ford uses his favorite location for shooting, Monument Valley, the beauty of the landscape making a fascinating contrast with the brutality of the plot. Again, when I was a kid I took this landscape for granted as being the real West. I saw Monument Valley so often in movies I thought the entire West looked like that. Strangely, it never occurred to me that I grew up and lived in California, as far "West" as you could go in the continental United States, yet I never saw a single prairie or plateau like the ones in a John Ford Western. I never thought of myself as being a part of the actual "West," the one in the movies. I suppose film and television and literature in general continue to distort our perceptions of reality.

Anyway, Wayne may be playing a less-than-righteous individual here, but he never looked better. Rugged, handsome, in a characteristic red shirt and a rifle slung across his shoulders, he is the archetypal movie Westerner. But Ford makes this Westerner a person of dubious intent, an ambiguous man whom we never come fully to trust. Surely, that was Ford's sense of American history speaking in the movie, the sense that what the white settlers did in coming West was not always right or fair. And when we see Edwards himself taking a scalp, we're made sure of the fact.

The rest of the cast is up to par as well. Hunter as the young man who accompanies Edwards on the quest is properly youthful, enthusiastic, and arrogant. Natalie Wood as one of the girls they are searching for is beautiful and innocent. Ward Bond, a Ford regular, is bellowing, boisterous, and bigger than life. Vera Miles, John Qualen, Harry Carey Jr., Henry Brandon, and many others in the cast are more than adequate, but it is Wayne who towers above them all.

The film's drawbacks are minor: Ford's use of humor to break the built-up tension works in some cases, not in others; and the director's insistence on a romantic angle for young Pawley rather diminishes the movie's overall friction. But these are small concerns in a film that by and large captures the American spirit in all its glory and with all of its warts. "The Searchers" is at once an attractive and entertaining picture yet an intentionally harsh one in its depiction of the darker side of "the winning of the West."

Video:
In their restored and remastered print, Warner Bros. maintain most the film's original VistaVision aspect ratio of 1.75:1 across a widescreen television, and the results are generally superb. There are a few instances where perhaps the high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer is a trifle too dark, but in the main the image is sparkling, with no signs of age whatever. The colors shows up brilliantly, deep and vibrant. Object delineation is excellent; and detailing is generally well executed. Given the amount of wide-open expanses of land and sky involved in the shooting, there is relatively little grain in the picture.

Audio:
The Dolby Digital 1.0 monaural sound quality is just as sparkling as the picture quality, although you obviously won't find any surround information here. Nor is there much in the way of bass or dynamic extremes. However, you will find an extraordinary clarity in the dialogue and music that makes listening a pleasure on the ears.

Extras:
Disc one of this two-disc Ultimate Collector's Edition contains the feature film, a generous forty-four scene selections, and a widescreen trailer. The disc also contains a two-minute introduction by John Wayne's son, Patrick Wayne, a co-star in the film; and, more important, it has an audio commentary by Peter Bogdanovich, always a joy listening to. In fact, Bogdanovich along with Roger Corman are probably my favorite film commentators because they never fail to entertain as well as enlighten. These are people who are filmmakers through and through, who have not only studied film but practiced filmmaking. Bogdanovich is a writer, director, producer, actor, biographer, and film historian; listening to him talk about folks he knew and worked with is a pleasure.

Disc two contains three documentaries and yet another trailer. The first documentary is "The Searchers: An Appreciation," a new, 2006 feature, thirty minutes long, in which filmmakers Curtis Hanson, Martin Scorsese, and John Milius comment on the film. The second documentary is "A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers," a 1998 feature, thirty-three minutes long, that takes us behind-the-scenes of the film's shooting. And the third documentary is a vintage piece hosted by Gig Young, twenty-one minutes long, called "Behind the Cameras," which includes segments on "Meet Jeffrey Hunter," "Monument Valley," "Meet Natalie Wood," and "Setting Up Production." Finally, there is a theatrical trailer for a new WB release, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

In addition to the two discs, the Collector's Edition includes in separate envelopes a reproduction of 1956 "The Searchers" Dell comic book; a reproduction of the original 1956 Warner Bros. press book; and reproductions of filmmaker memos, correspondence, and photographs from the movie. All of this material is housed in a handsome, leatherette-embossed slipcase, the discs themselves contained in a foldout, plastic-and-cardboard Digipak.

Parting Thoughts:
John Wayne said that of the many films he made with director John Ford, "The Searchers" was his favorite. Maybe it's because of the relative complexity of the character he played. Certainly, Ethan Edwards is a conflicted individual with a dark side, much less the straight-arrow hero that Wayne usually played. In any case, "The Searchers" remains a much more multi-layered Western than most other such examples of the genre, and it is surely a classic of its kind.

"The Searchers" may be purchased separately in the deluxe, two-disc "Ultimate Collector's Edition" reviewed here, with all the bells and whistles; or in a regular, two-disc 50th Anniversary Edition; or in a big eight-movie box set, the "John Wayne/John Ford Film Collection." The box set also includes "Stagecoach," "The Long Voyage Home," "They Were Expendable," "Fort Apache," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," "Three Godfathers," and "The Wings of Eagles."

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