The Searchers

With The Searchers, John Wayne and director John Ford forged an indelible saga of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it.

Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, an ex-Confederate solider who sets out to find his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his obsessive quest, Ethan finds something unexpected: his own humanity.

Although quite dated in its problematic depiction of Native American peoples, Ford's epic harnesses VistaVision to capture the spectatular landscapes and sweeping skies of the American West and remains one of the most influential movies ever made.

The Searchers screens in a 4K restoration courtesy of Warner Bros.

Part of our "VistaVision!" series. Courtesy of Warner Bros. and Swank Motion Pictures.

“We may still be waiting for the Great American Novel, but John Ford gave us the Great American Film in 1956. Through the central image of the frontier, the meeting point of wilderness and civilization, Ford explores the divisions of our national character, with its search for order and its need for violence, its spirit of community and its quest for independence.” – Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“In truly great films — the ones that people need to make, the ones that start speaking through them, the ones that keep moving into territory that is more and more unfathomable and uncomfortable — nothing’s ever simple or neatly resolved. You’re left with a mystery.” – Martin Scorsese