134-478: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ( / ˈ v æ l ə n s / ) is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and James Stewart . The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a 1953 short story written by Dorothy M. Johnson . The supporting cast features Vera Miles , Lee Marvin , Edmond O'Brien , Andy Devine , John Carradine , Woody Strode , Strother Martin and Lee Van Cleef . In 2007,
268-561: A "mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West". Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, wilderness, and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, which is often dispensed through a shootout or quick draw duel. The Western genre sometimes portrays
402-470: A Comanche wife who runs away when she hears Scar's name; later, she is among the dead when the two men find a portion of Scar's band killed by soldiers. In New Mexico Territory, they find Debbie after five years, now an adolescent, living as one of Scar's wives. She says that she has become a Comanche and wishes to remain with them. Ethan would rather see her dead than living as a Native American, and tries to shoot her, but Martin shields her with his body and
536-566: A Comanche wounds Ethan with an arrow as they escape. Although Martin tends to Ethan's wound, he is furious with him for attempting to kill Debbie. Later, they return home. Meanwhile, Charlie McCorry has been courting Laurie in Martin's absence. Ethan and Martin arrive home just as Charlie and Laurie's wedding is about to begin. After a fistfight between Martin and Charlie, a nervous Yankee soldier, Lieutenant Greenhill, brings news that Ethan's friend Mose Harper has located Scar. Clayton leads his men to
670-453: A Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was shot in black-and-white on Paramount 's soundstages. Many stories and speculations exist to explain this decision. Ford preferred that medium over color : "In black and white, you've got to be very careful. You've got to know your job, lay your shadows in properly, get your perspective right, but in color, there it is," he said. "You might say I'm old fashioned, but black and white
804-462: A bleak picture. When the mystical storyteller starts to face death, he must highlight the imperfections of his environment, which is truly himself, so he can face death free of sins. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: Western (genre) The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or
938-520: A buck", that "living with the Comanche ain't living". Even one of the film's gentler characters, Vera Miles's Laurie, tells Martin when he explains he must protect his adoptive sister, "Ethan will put a bullet in her brain. I tell you Martha would want him to." This outburst makes it clear that even the supposedly gentler characters hold the same fear of miscegenation. Randy Roberts and James Olson write that Ethan Edwards: An important plot undercurrent
1072-428: A free press, town meetings, statehood debates, and the "civilizing influence" of education in frontier America. According to scholar Victor Bruno, the film uses the symbolism of the wilderness and the garden to represent the roles of the cowboy Doniphon and the civilized Stoddard. Bruno points out that after allowing Stoddard to receive the credit for Valance's death, Doniphon "sets fire to his own house, bringing about
1206-586: A frontal attack, but Clayton insists on a stealth approach to avoid killing the hostages. The camp turns out to be deserted, and further along the trail, the men ride into an ambush. Despite fending off the attack, the Rangers are left with too few men to fight the Comanche effectively. They return home, leaving Ethan to continue his search for the girls with only Lucy's fiancé, Brad Jorgensen, and Debbie's adopted brother, Martin Pawley. Ethan finds Lucy murdered (and, it
1340-399: A group of Tusken Raiders (though the character's mother is kidnapped, rather than a niece). Anakin massacres the kidnappers in vengeance, much like The Searchers' climactic battle in the Comanche camp. The opening scenes of Rogue One mirror those of The Searchers : the pig-tailed character of Jyn is hidden by her parents when their homestead is attacked in the same way little Debbie
1474-458: A group of Rangers to recover them. After discovering that the theft was a Comanche ploy to draw the men away from their families, they return and find the Edwards homestead in flames. Aaron, his wife Martha, and their son Ben are dead, while Debbie and her older sister Lucy have been abducted. After a brief funeral, the men set out in pursuit. When they find the Comanche camp, Ethan recommends
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#17327872263971608-481: A number of occasions, famous examples being Support Your Local Sheriff! , Cat Ballou , Mel Brooks 's Blazing Saddles , and Rustler's Rhapsody . George Lucas 's Star Wars films use many elements of a Western, and Lucas has said he intended for Star Wars to revitalize cinematic mythology, a part the Western once held. The Jedi , who take their name from Jidaigeki , are modeled after samurai, showing
1742-452: A popular art form. Western films commonly feature protagonists such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, who are often depicted as seminomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas , spurs, and buckskins , use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival and as a means to settle disputes using frontier justice. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds. The first films that belong to
1876-445: A process akin to ekpyrosis that razes his existence to the ground. To the day of his death, Doniphon becomes an ossified man — literally a fossil of a being that lived in a previous era." However, contrary to most opinions about the film, Bruno believes that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is Ford's indictment of America's increasingly "antimythological" character. "It is not a wonder that Ford begins his 'Age of Mortality' with such
2010-472: A retrospective analysis, The New York Times called Liberty Valance "...one of the great Western classics," because "it questions the role of myth in forging the legends of the West, while setting this theme in the elegiac atmosphere of the West itself, set off by the aging Stewart and Wayne." The New Yorker ' s Richard Brody described it as "the greatest American political movie", because of its depictions of
2144-434: A senator would attend the funeral of a poor rancher, Stoddard answers with a story that flashes back 25 years. Entering the then-unincorporated territory as a young lawyer, Ranse is beaten and robbed by infamous outlaw Liberty Valance and his gang. Tom Doniphon and his handyman, Pompey, find Ranse and take him to Shinbone, where Tom's girlfriend, Hallie, treats his wounds. Ranse learns Valance frequently terrorizes Shinbone and
2278-579: A series of widely praised combat documentaries for the Office of Strategic Services and was wounded at the Battle of Midway , and Stewart served with distinction as a bomber pilot and commanded a bomber group. "How rich did you get while Jimmy was risking his life?" he demanded. Wayne's avoidance of wartime service was a major source of guilt for him in his later years. Stewart related that midway through filming, Wayne asked him why he, Stewart, never seemed to be
2412-570: A setting, where it tasked players to lead a party of settlers moving westward in a covered wagon from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. The game only grew popular in the 1980s and 1990s as an educational game. The first video game Westerns to engage the mass public arrived in arcade games focused on the gunfighter in Westerns based on depictions in television shows, films and Electro-mechanical games such as Dale Six Shooter (1950), and Sega 's Gun Fight (1970). The first of these games
2546-688: A sheriff in fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming . Originally aired on the A&;E network from 2012 to 2014, it was picked up by Netflix in 2015 until the show's conclusion in 2017. AMC and Vince Gilligan's critically acclaimed Breaking Bad is a much more modern take on the Western genre. Set in New Mexico from 2008 through 2013, it follows Walter White ( Bryan Cranston ), a chemistry teacher diagnosed with Stage III Lung Cancer who cooks and sells crystal meth to provide money for his family after he dies, while slowly growing further and further into
2680-445: A situation would add further layers of nuance to Ethan's obsessive search for Debbie, his revulsion at the thought that she might be living as a Native American, and his ultimate decision to bring her home—and then walk away. Beyond the ostensible motivations, it might depict a guilt-ridden father's need to save the daughter he made by cuckolding his brother, then abandoned. The Searchers has influenced many films. David Lean watched
2814-411: A top-10 hit for Gene Pitney . Though based upon the movie's plotline, it was not used in the film. Pitney said in an interview that he was in the studio about to record the song when "... Bacharach informed us that the film just came out." It seems unlikely that the song would be used for the opening credits since its lyrics give the film's surprise ending away. The picture was released April 18, 1962, and
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#17327872263972948-448: A violent sexual act, drawing us 'a picture' of the act of rape which obsesses him." Glenn Frankel writes that in real life, "Rape was a fact of life for many captives, although it was seldom discussed by those women who escaped or were ransomed back to the white world." Early on, Martin earns a sour look from Ethan when he admits to being one-eighth Cherokee. Ethan says repeatedly that he will kill his niece rather than have her live "with
3082-589: Is a 1956 American epic Western film directed by John Ford and written by Frank S. Nugent , based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May . It is set during the Texas–Indian wars , and stars John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece ( Natalie Wood ), accompanied by his adopted nephew ( Jeffrey Hunter ). It was shot in VistaVision on Eastmancolor negative with processing and prints by Technicolor . The film
3216-589: Is a genre of literature set in the American Old West, most commonly between 1860 and 1900. The first critically recognized Western was The Virginian (1902) by Owen Wister . Other well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey , from the early 1900s, Ernest Haycox , Luke Short , and Louis L'Amour , from the mid 20th century. Many writers better known in other genres, such as Leigh Brackett , Elmore Leonard , and Larry McMurtry , have also written Western novels. The genre's popularity peaked in
3350-512: Is a series of seven books that meshes themes of Westerns, high fantasy , science fiction, and horror. The protagonist Roland Deschain is a gunslinger whose image and personality are largely inspired by the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone's films. In addition, the superhero fantasy genre has been described as having been derived from the cowboy hero, only powered up to omnipotence in a primarily urban setting. The Western genre has been parodied on
3484-443: Is a war film, but its action and characters are Western-like. The character played by Humphrey Bogart in noir films such as Casablanca and To Have and Have Not —an individual bound only by his own private code of honor—has a lot in common with the classic Western hero. In turn, the Western has also explored noir elements, as with films such as Colorado Territory and Pursued . In many of Robert A. Heinlein 's books,
3618-530: Is guilty of a few lengthy, slow periods in his story-telling, but for the most part the old, reliable Ford touches are there." Harrison's Reports gave the film a grade of "Very Good", but Brendan Gill of The New Yorker was negative and called it "a parody of Mr. Ford's best work." More recent assessments have been more uniformly positive. The film is considered one of Ford's best, and in one poll, ranked with The Searchers and The Shootist as one of Wayne's best Westerns. Roger Ebert wrote that each of
3752-411: Is illiterate, Ranse opens a school for children and adults in the back of the newspaper's office. He also begins practicing with Peabody's old gun after Valance bullies him in the restaurant. Hallie tells Tom of Ranse's gun practice. Tom takes Ranse to his ranch for a shooting lesson, shows off renovations that are intended for his planned marriage to Hallie and makes those intentions clear to Ranse. During
3886-575: Is implied, raped) in a canyon near the Comanche camp. In a blind rage, Brad rides directly into the camp and is killed. When winter arrives, Ethan and Martin lose the trail and return to the Jorgensen ranch. Martin is enthusiastically welcomed by the Jorgensens' daughter Laurie, and Ethan finds a letter waiting for him from a trader named Futterman, who claims to have information about Debbie. Ethan, who would rather travel alone, leaves without Martin
4020-413: Is maintained predominantly through relatively impersonal institutions such as courtrooms . The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a seminomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter. A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered
4154-454: Is real photography." Ford also reportedly argued that the climactic shoot-out between Valance and Stoddard would not have worked in color. Others have interpreted the absence of the magnificent outdoor vistas so prevalent in earlier Ford Westerns as "a fundamental reimagining [by Ford] of his mythic West" – a grittier, less romantic, more realistic portrayal of frontier life. Wayne and Stewart, two of Hollywood's biggest stars working together for
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4288-518: Is saved by her parents when they are attacked by the Comanches. Douglas Gordon 's 1995 artwork, 5 Year Drive-By , stretches out The Searchers from the original 113-minute runtime to five years (reflecting the events of the movie taking place over a timespan of five years), playing at a speed of one frame every 24 minutes. The 2007 film Searchers 2.0 by Alex Cox includes many discussions of The Searchers as well as other revenge films. In
4422-476: Is stark and lonely, a portrait of obsession, and in it we can see Schrader 's inspiration for Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver . [...] The film within this film involves the silly romantic subplot and characters hauled in for comic relief, including the Swedish neighbor Lars Jorgensen (John Qualen), who uses a vaudeville accent, and Mose Harper (Hank Worden), a half-wit treated like a mascot. [...] This second strand
4556-558: Is the good American hero driving himself past all known limits and into madness, his commitment to honor and decency burned down to a core of vengeance." For Brenton Priestley, Ford indicates that Scar's cruelty is also motivated by revenge ("Two sons killed by white men. For each son, I take many... scalps.") The theme of miscegenation also runs through the film. Many critical analyses of The Searchers highlight Ethan's view of Debbie as having been "contaminated" through her abduction and implied rape. The rape of captive white women by
4690-399: Is the obvious mutual attraction between Ethan Edwards and his brother's wife, Martha. Although no dialogue alludes to it, many visual references to their relationship are seen throughout the film. Some critics have suggested that this unspoken passion implies that Debbie—who is specifically described as eight years old, as Ethan returns from an eight-year absence—may be Ethan's daughter. Such
4824-757: Is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), women (often prostitutes ), gambling (draw poker or five-card stud), drinking ( beer , whiskey , or tequila if set in Mexico), brawling, and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank, and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, "where life has no value". Author and screenwriter Frank Gruber identified seven basic plots for Westerns: Gruber said that good writers used dialogue and plot development to develop these basic plots into believable stories. The American Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in
4958-480: Is unmistakable. It concentrates on the characters and establishes a definite mood. It's not sufficient, however, to overcome many of the weaknesses of the story." The New York Herald Tribune termed the movie "distinguished"; Newsweek deemed it "remarkable". Look described The Searchers as a "Homeric odyssey". The New York Times praised Wayne's performance as "uncommonly commanding". The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Though it does not consistently achieve
5092-412: Is usually punctuated with a Western music score , including American folk music and Spanish / Mexican folk music such as country , Native American music , New Mexico music , and rancheras . Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid , desolate landscape of deserts and mountains . Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting
5226-465: Is without interest, and those who value The Searchers filter it out, patiently waiting for a return to the main story line." The Searchers has been cited as one of the greatest films of all time , such as in the BFI's decennial Sight & Sound polls. In 1972, The Searchers was ranked 18th; in 1992, 5th; in 2002, 11th; in 2012, 7th. In a 1959 Cahiers du Cinéma essay, Jean-Luc Godard compared
5360-571: The American Film Institute : On "They Shoot Pictures Don't They", a site which numerically calculates critical reception for any given film, The Searchers has been recognized as the ninth-most acclaimed movie ever made. Members of the Western Writers of America chose its title song as one of the top 100 Western songs of all time. Scott McGee stated, "... more than just making a social statement like other Westerns of
5494-1342: The Atari 2600 and Gun Fight (1978) for the Bally Astrocade were derivative of Midway's Gun Fight . These early video games featured limited graphical capabilities , which had developers create Westerns to the most easily recognizable and popular tropes of the gunfighter shootouts. Western radio dramas were very popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were five types of Western radio dramas during this period: anthology programs, such as Empire Builders and Frontier Fighters ; juvenile adventure programs such as Red Ryder and Hopalong Cassidy ; legend and lore like Red Goose Indian Tales and Cowboy Tom's Round-Up ; adult Westerns like Fort Laramie and Frontier Gentleman ; and soap operas such as Cactus Kate . Some popular shows include The Lone Ranger (first broadcast in 1933), The Cisco Kid (first broadcast in 1942), Dr. Sixgun (first broadcast in 1954), Have Gun–Will Travel (first broadcast in 1958), and Gunsmoke (first broadcast in 1952). Many shows were done live, while others were transcribed. Westerns have been showcased in short-episodic web series. Examples include League of STEAM , Red Bird , and Arkansas Traveler . Within
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5628-711: The Battle of Pease River , resembles the rescue of Debbie Edwards when the Texas Rangers attack Scar's village. Parker's story was only one of 64 real-life cases of 19th-century child abductions in Texas that author Alan Le May studied while researching the novel on which the film was based. The ending of Le May's novel contrasts to the film's, with Debbie running from the white men and the Native Americans. Marty, in one final leg of his search, finds her days later, only after she has fainted from exhaustion. In
5762-931: The Civil War on the side of the Confederacy , and in the three years since that war ended, he also apparently fought in the Second Franco–Mexican War . He has a lot of gold coins of uncertain origin in his possession, and a medal from the Mexican campaign that he gives to his eight-year-old niece, Debbie. As a former Confederate soldier, when he is asked to take an oath of allegiance to the Texas Rangers , he refuses. Shortly after Ethan's arrival, cattle belonging to his neighbor Lars Jorgensen are stolen, and Rev. Captain Samuel Clayton leads Ethan and
5896-537: The Grand Canyon , Yosemite , and the giant redwoods , due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during the Great Depression . After renewed commercial successes in the late 1930s, the popularity of Westerns continued to rise until its peak in the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined. The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called
6030-651: The Western Writers of America chose it as one of the top 100 Western songs of all time. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was released in April 1962, and achieved both financial and critical success. Produced for $ US3.2 million, it grossed $ 8 million, making it the 15th-highest grossing film of 1962 . According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was considered a "money maker" at the British box office in 1962. Edith Head 's costumes were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design (black-and-white) , one of
6164-831: The cattle barons who oppose statehood, fails to intimidate the voters into selecting him. Valance challenges Ranse to a gunfight. Tom offers to assist Ranse in leaving town, but Ranse stubbornly declines. That evening, Valance and his gang vandalize the newspaper office and severely injure Peabody for reporting Valance's murder of a local farmer. Ranse arms himself and goes after Valance; even drunk, Valance easily wounds and disarms Ranse, then prepares to kill him. Ranse retrieves his gun and shoots, and Valance falls dead. Ranse returns to Ericson's, where Hallie treats his wounded arm; Tom enters and sees Hallie's affection for Ranse as she attends his wounds. He gets drunk and forces Appleyard to run Valance's men out of town. Tom then attempts suicide by setting fire to his house, but Pompey rescues him. At
6298-438: The review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 98 reviews, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: " The Searchers is an epic John Wayne Western that introduces dark ambivalence to the genre that remains fashionable today." On Metacritic , the film has a score of 94 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The film has been recognized multiple times by
6432-457: The space opera series Firefly used an explicitly Western theme for its portrayal of frontier worlds. Anime shows such as Cowboy Bebop , Trigun and Outlaw Star have been similar mixes of science-fiction and Western elements. The science fiction Western can be seen as a subgenre of either Westerns or science fiction. Elements of Western films can be found also in some films belonging essentially to other genres. For example, Kelly's Heroes
6566-419: The "Golden Age of the Western". It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors including Robert Aldrich , Budd Boetticher , Delmer Daves , John Ford , and others. Some of the popular films during this era include Apache (1954), Broken Arrow (1950), and My Darling Clementine (1946). The changing popularity of the Western genre has influenced worldwide pop culture over time. During
6700-712: The "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States , particularly the Southwestern United States , as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada . The frontier is depicted in Western media as a sparsely populated hostile region patrolled by cowboys , outlaws , sheriffs , and numerous other stock gunslinger characters. Western narratives often concern
6834-568: The 10 Ford/Wayne westerns is "... complete and self-contained in a way that approaches perfection", and singled out Liberty Valance as "the most pensive and thoughtful" of the group. Director Sergio Leone ( Once Upon a Time in the West , The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ) listed Ford as a major influence on his work, and Liberty Valance as his favorite Ford film. "It was the only film," he said, "where [Ford] learned about something called pessimism." In
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#17327872263976968-432: The 1960s and 1970s, Spaghetti Westerns from Italy became popular worldwide; this was due to the success of Sergio Leone 's storytelling method. After having been previously pronounced dead, a resurgence of Westerns occurred during the 1990s with films such as Dances with Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992), and Geronimo (1993), as Westerns once again increased in popularity. When television became popular in
7102-416: The 1960s, due in part to the shuttering of many pulp magazines, the popularity of televised Westerns , and the rise of the spy novel. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, now only carry a small number of Western novels and short-story collections. Literary forms that share similar themes include stories of
7236-407: The 1970s. These games and drew on the imagery of a mythic West portrayed in stories, films, television shows, and other assorted Western-themed toys. When game developers went to the imaginary West to create new experiences, they often drew consciously or unconsciously from Western stories and films. The 1971 text-based, Mainframe computer game The Oregon Trail was first game to use the West as
7370-582: The American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier ". Originally, these films were called "Wild West dramas", a reference to Wild West shows like Buffalo Bill Cody's . The term "Western", used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popular Western fiction , and were firmly in place before film became
7504-570: The American frontier, the gaucho literature of Argentina , and tales of the settlement of the Australian Outback. A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of art includes paintings, sculptures, and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included exploration of
7638-406: The Comanche camp, this time for a direct attack, but Martin is allowed to sneak in ahead of the assault to find Debbie, who welcomes him. Martin kills Scar to save Debbie. Ethan, finding Scar's body, scalps him for revenge. Ethan then finds Debbie, and pursues her on horseback. Martin chases them desperately, fearing that Ethan will shoot her. Instead, Ethan sweeps her up into his arms and takes her to
7772-429: The Comanche is an unspoken theme. No actual rape scene is depicted, but Alexandra Heller-Nicholas in her study of Rape-Revenge Films says, "the abduction, captivity, and implied rape of Debbie (Natalie Wood)... drives the narrative"; and Edward Buscombe points out a scene in which "[Ethan] turns off the trail to penetrate a narrow crevice in the rocks, and when he emerges, his savage stabbing with his knife seems to mimic
7906-460: The Comanches in 1865. Afterward, Johnson made at least three trips to Indian Territory and Kansas, relentlessly searching for another kidnapped girl, Millie Durgan (or Durkin), until Kiowa raiders killed him in 1871. Several film critics have suggested that The Searchers was inspired by the 1836 kidnapping of nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker by Comanche warriors, who raided her family's home at Fort Parker, Texas. She spent 24 years with
8040-416: The Comanches, married a war chief, and had three children (one of whom was the famous Comanche Chief Quanah Parker ), only to be rescued against her will by Texas Rangers . James W. Parker, Cynthia Ann's uncle, spent much of his life and fortune in what became an obsessive search for his niece, much like Ethan Edwards in the film. In addition, the rescue of Cynthia Ann, during a Texas Ranger attack known as
8174-672: The Eastern Bloc, or action films involving the Russian Revolution , the Russian Civil War , and the Basmachi rebellion. Many elements of space-travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the Western genre. This is particularly the case in the space Western subgenre of science fiction. Peter Hyams 's Outland transferred the plot of High Noon to Io, moon of Jupiter. More recently,
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#17327872263978308-1104: The Head of Alfredo Garcia contains dialogue with "direct tributes to such classics as John Huston 's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and John Ford's The Searchers ." Martin Scorsese 's 1967 film Who's That Knocking at My Door features a sequence in which the two primary characters discuss The Searchers . In 2012, in a Sight & Sound poll, Scorsese listed The Searchers as one of his all-time favorite films. Scott McGee, writing for Turner Classic Movies , notes " Steven Spielberg , Martin Scorsese, John Milius , Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders , Jean-Luc Godard, and George Lucas have all been influenced and paid some form of homage to The Searchers in their work." Wenders' Palme d'Or -winning 1984 film Paris, Texas in particular has been cited for similarities. The film influenced several aspects of George Lucas' film saga Star Wars . The scene in which Ethan Edwards discovers
8442-915: The Jorgensen ranch, where Martin reunites with Laurie. While everyone else enters the house, Ethan watches, then walks out. The Searchers was the first production from "distinguished turfman " C. V. Whitney ; it was directed by John Ford and distributed by Warner Bros. While the film was primarily set in the staked plains ( Llano Estacado ) of northwestern Texas, it was actually filmed in Monument Valley , Arizona / Utah . Additional scenes were filmed in Mexican Hat, Utah , in Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, and in Elk Island National Park . The film
8576-524: The Prairie , McCloud , The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams , and the short-lived but highly acclaimed How the West Was Won that originated from a miniseries with the same name. In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long Westerns and slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced, such as Lonesome Dove (1989) and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman . Also, new elements were once again added to
8710-659: The Washita River (near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma). The sequence also resembles the 1872 Battle of the North Fork of the Red River , in which the 4th Cavalry captured 124 Comanche women and children and imprisoned them at Fort Concho . Upon the film's release, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it a "ripsnorting Western" (in spite of the "excessive language in its ads"); he credits Ford's "familiar corps of actors, writers, etc., [who help] to give
8844-419: The Western formula, such as the space Western , Firefly , created by Joss Whedon in 2002. Deadwood was a critically acclaimed Western series that aired on HBO from 2004 through 2006. Hell on Wheels , a fictionalized story of the construction of the first transcontinental railroad , aired on AMC for five seasons between 2011 and 2016. Longmire is a Western series that centered on Walt Longmire ,
8978-826: The Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey . These featured veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show exhibiting skills acquired by living in the Old West – they included Annie Oakley (shooting) and members of the Sioux (dancing). The earliest known Western narrative film is the British short Kidnapping by Indians , made by Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn , England, in 1899. The Great Train Robbery (1903, based on
9112-705: The Western states and cowboy themes. Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell are two artists who captured the "Wild West" in paintings and sculpture. After the death of Remington Richard Lorenz became the preeminent artist painting in the Western genre. Some art museums, such as the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Wyoming and the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, feature American Western Art. With anime and manga ,
9246-478: The Wild West and modern technology like cars and cellphones, while also focusing primarily on being a Crime drama makes the show a unique spin on both genres. Walter's reliance on the desert environment makes the Western-feel a pivotal role in the show, and would continue to be used in the spinoff series Better Call Saul . The neo-Western drama Yellowstone was streamed from 2018-2024. Western fiction
9380-418: The biggest hits of the year. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream screen star in the wake of a decade of headlining B Westerns. Wayne had been introduced to the screen 10 years earlier as the leading man in director Raoul Walsh 's spectacular widescreen The Big Trail , which failed at the box office in spite of being shot on location across the American West, including
9514-618: The classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s (namely Kid Colt, Outlaw , Rawhide Kid , and Red Ryder ) or more modern ones as Blueberry ), cartoons, and parodies (such as Cocco Bill and Lucky Luke ). In the 1990s and 2000s, Western comics leaned towards the fantasy , horror and science fiction genres, usually involving supernatural monsters, or Christian iconography as in Preacher . More traditional Western comics are found throughout this period, though (e.g., Jonah Hex and Loveless ). Video game Westerns emerged in
9648-752: The conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–"frontier justice"–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them (e.g., True Grit has revenge and retribution as its main themes). This Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in which social order
9782-531: The convention. In the present, Ranse's rising political achievements – state governor, senator, ambassador to the United Kingdom, and likely vice-presidential nominee in the upcoming election – fill the intervening years. The newspaper editor decides publishing the story would ruin Ranse's legacy, burns the reporter's notes, and leaves Ranse to conduct Tom's funeral. When Ranse asks why, the editor says "when
9916-422: The crew's attention and announced, "One of our players doesn't like Woody's costume. Now, I don't know if Mr. Stewart has a prejudice against Negroes, but I just wanted you all to know about it." Stewart said he "wanted to crawl into a mouse hole", but Wayne told him, "Well, welcome to the club. I'm glad you made it." Ford's behavior "really pissed Wayne off," Strode said, "but he would never take it out on Ford,"
10050-428: The culture, such as spaghetti Westerns (Italy), meat pie Westerns (Australia), ramen Westerns (Asia), and masala Westerns (India). Being period drama pieces, both the Western and samurai genre influenced each other in style and themes throughout the years. The Magnificent Seven was a remake of Akira Kurosawa 's film Seven Samurai , and A Fistful of Dollars was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo , which itself
10184-407: The earlier British film A Daring Daylight Burglary ), Edwin S. Porter 's film starring Broncho Billy Anderson , is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin and William K. Everson point out (as mentioned above) that the "Edison company had played with Western material for several years prior to The Great Train Robbery ". Nonetheless, they concur that Porter's film "set
10318-463: The early 1960s, and their replacement by hour-long television shows, increasingly in color. Traditional Westerns died out in the late 1960s as a result of network changes in demographic targeting along with pressure from parental television groups. Future entries in the genre would incorporate elements from other genera, such as crime drama and mystery whodunit elements. Western shows from the 1970s included Hec Ramsey , Kung Fu , Little House on
10452-484: The few Westerns ever nominated in that category. Contemporary reviews were generally positive, although a number of critics thought the final act was a letdown. Variety called the film "entertaining and emotionally involving," but thought if the film had ended 20 minutes earlier, "it would have been a taut, cumulative study of the irony of heroic destiny," instead of concluding with "condescending, melodramatic, anticlimactic strokes. What should have been left to enthrall
10586-488: The film "a leisurely yarn boasting fine performances," but was bothered by "the incredulous fact that the lively townsfolk of Shinbone didn't polish off Valence [sic] for themselves. On TV, he would have been dispatched by the second commercial, and the villainy would have passed to some shadowy employer, some ruthless rancher who didn't want statehood." John L. Scott of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Director Ford
10720-625: The film repeatedly while preparing for Lawrence of Arabia to help him get a sense of how to shoot a landscape. The entrance of Ethan Edwards in The Searchers , across a vast prairie, is echoed in the across-the-desert entrance of Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia . Sam Peckinpah referenced the aftermath of the massacre and the funeral scene in Major Dundee (1965), and according to a 1974 review by Jay Cocks , Peckinpah's Bring Me
10854-632: The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Near the turn of the 20th century, U.S. Senator Ransom "Ranse" Stoddard and his wife Hallie arrive in Shinbone, a frontier town in an unnamed Western state, to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon. When asked by the local newspaper reporter why
10988-659: The film, Scar's Comanche group is referred to as the Nawyecka, correctly the Noyʉhka or Nokoni , the same band that kidnapped Cynthia Ann Parker. Some film critics have speculated that the historical model for the cavalry attack on a Comanche village, resulting in Look's death and the taking of Comanche prisoners to a military post, was the well-known Battle of Washita River , November 27, 1868, when Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry attacked Black Kettle's Cheyenne camp on
11122-415: The film, the characters attend a screening of a remake of The Searchers directed by Ted Post and starring James Mitchum as Ethan Edwards and Telly Savalas as Chief Cicatriz (Scar), though no such remake was ever made in reality (Ted Post had actually directed a remake of John Ford's Stagecoach ). Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan stated that the ending to the show's final episode, " Felina ",
11256-668: The film." Another condition imposed by the studio, according to Van Cleef, was that Wayne be cast as Doniphon. Ford resented the studio's intrusion and retaliated by taunting Wayne relentlessly throughout the filming. "He didn't want Duke [Wayne] to think he was doing him any favors," Van Cleef said. Strode recounted that Ford "kept needling Duke about his failure to make it as a football player", comparing him to Strode (a former NFL running back), whom he pronounced "a real football player". (Wayne's football career at USC had been curtailed by injuries.) He also ridiculed Wayne for failing to enlist during World War II , during which Ford filmed
11390-492: The first time, were considerably older (54 and 53, respectively) than the characters they were playing. Filming in black and white helped ease the suspension of disbelief necessary to accept that disparity. According to cinematographer William H. Clothier , however, "There was one reason and one reason only ... Paramount was cutting costs. Otherwise we would have been in Monument Valley or Brackettville and we would have had color stock. Ford had to accept those terms or not make
11524-537: The flaming wreckage of his family homestead is reflected in 1977's Star Wars , wherein the character Luke Skywalker finds that his homestead has been burned and destroyed by Imperial Stormtroopers . The Searchers was also an influence on the 2002 prequel film in the series, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones . In the film, Anakin Skywalker learns that one of his family members has been abducted by
11658-466: The friction on the set. "What a miserable film to make," he added. Stewart received top billing over Wayne on promotional posters and in the trailers, but in the film itself, Wayne's screen card appears first and slightly higher on a sign post. The studio also specified that Wayne's name appear before Stewart's on theatre marquees, reportedly at Ford's request. "Wayne actually played the lead," Ford said, to Peter Bogdanovich . "Jimmy Stewart had most of
11792-426: The genre tends towards the science-fiction Western – e.g., Cowboy Bebop (1998 anime), Trigun (1995–2007 manga), and Outlaw Star (1996–1999 manga). Although contemporary Westerns also appear, such as Koya no Shonen Isamu , a 1971 shonen manga about a boy with a Japanese father and a Native American mother, or El Cazador de la Bruja , a 2007 anime television series set in modern-day Mexico. Part 7 of
11926-576: The gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice , freedom, rugged individualism, manifest destiny , and the national history and identity of the United States . Native American populations were often portrayed as averse foes or savages . Originating in vaquero heritage and Western fiction , the genre popularized the Western lifestyle , country - Western music , and Western wear globally. Throughout
12060-430: The gusto to this film. From Frank S. Nugent, whose screenplay from the novel of Alan LeMay is a pungent thing, right on through the cast and technicians, it is the honest achievement of a well-knit team." Crowther noted "two faults of minor moment": Variety called it "handsomely mounted and in the tradition of Shane ", yet "somewhat disappointing" due to its length and repetitiveness; "The John Ford directorial stamp
12194-464: The harshness and isolation of the wilderness, and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Western films generally have specific settings, such as isolated ranches, Native American villages, or small frontier towns with a saloon. Oftentimes, these settings appear deserted and without much structure. Apart from the wilderness, the saloon usually emphasizes that this is the Wild West ; it
12328-466: The heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress . Similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable examples (e.g. the later Westerns of John Ford or Clint Eastwood 's Unforgiven , about an old contract killer ) are more morally ambiguous. Westerns often stress
12462-450: The highest Ford standards, The Searchers is surely the best Western since Shane ." The film earned rentals of $ 4.8 million in the US and Canada during its first year of release. Critic Roger Ebert found Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, "one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created". Ebert writes: " The Searchers indeed seems to be two films. The Ethan Edwards story
12596-676: The history of the genre, it has seen popular revivals and been incorporated into various subgenres. The classic Western is a morality drama , presenting the conflict between wilderness and civilization . Stories commonly center on the life of a male drifter , cowboy , or gunslinger who rides a horse and is armed with a revolver or rifle . The male characters typically wear broad-brimmed and high-crowned Stetson hats, neckerchief bandannas , vests , and cowboy boots with spurs . While many wear conventional shirts and trousers, alternatives include buckskins and dusters . Women are generally cast in secondary roles as love interests for
12730-401: The illicit drug market, eventually turning into a ruthless drug dealer and killer. While the show has scenes in a populated suburban neighborhood and nearby Albuquerque , much of the show takes place in the desert, where Walter often takes his RV car out into the open desert to cook his meth, and most action sequences occur in the desert, similar to old-fashioned Western movies. The clash between
12864-448: The imagination is spelled out until there is nothing left to savor or discuss." The Monthly Film Bulletin agreed, lamenting that the "final anticlimactic 20 minutes ... all but destroy the value of the disarming simplicity and natural warmth which are Ford's everlasting stock-in-trade." Despite this, the review maintained that the film "has more than enough gusto to see it through," and that Ford had "lost none of his talent for catching
12998-682: The influence of Kurosawa. The character Han Solo dressed like an archetypal gunslinger, and the Mos Eisley cantina is much like an Old West saloon. Meanwhile, films such as The Big Lebowski , which plucked actor Sam Elliott out of the Old West and into a Los Angeles bowling alley, and Midnight Cowboy , about a Southern-boy-turned-gigolo in New York (who disappoints a client when he does not measure up to Gary Cooper), transplanted Western themes into modern settings for both purposes of parody and homage. The Searchers The Searchers
13132-469: The larger scope of the Western genre, there are several recognized subgenres. Some subgenres, such as spaghetti Westerns , maintain standard Western settings and plots, while others take the Western theme and archetypes into different supergenres, such as neo-Westerns or space Westerns . For a time, Westerns made in countries other than the United States were often labeled by foods associated with
13266-788: The late 1940s and 1950s, Television Westerns quickly became an audience favorite. Beginning with rebroadcasts of existing films, a number of movie cowboys had their own TV shows. As demand for the Western increased, new stories and stars were introduced. A number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right, such as: The Lone Ranger (1949–1957), Death Valley Days (1952–1970), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961), Cheyenne (1955–1962), Gunsmoke (1955–1975), Maverick (1957–1962), Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963), Wagon Train (1957–1965), The Rifleman (1958–1963), Rawhide (1959–1966), Bonanza (1959–1973), The Virginian (1962–1971), and The Big Valley (1965–1969). The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
13400-472: The legend becomes fact, print the legend." On the return trip to Washington, D.C., Ranse contemplates retiring to Shinbone, which pleases Hallie. Hallie admits placing a cactus rose on Tom's coffin, a plant Tom knew Hallie liked. As Ranse thanks the train conductor for the railroad's courtesies, the conductor answers, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance!" In contrast to prior John Ford Westerns, such as The Searchers (1956) and She Wore
13534-401: The lesson, he tricks Ranse by shooting a paint can above his head and staining his clothes, telling Ranse he can expect the same kind of trickery from Valance. Ranse angrily punches Tom and leaves. Shinbone's men meet to elect two delegates to the upcoming statehood convention at the territorial capital. Tom refuses Ranse's nomination; ultimately, Ranse and Peabody are elected. Valance, hired by
13668-521: The list ranked it in 12th place. In 1998, TV Guide ranked it 18th. In 2008, the American Film Institute named The Searchers as the greatest Western of all time. In 2010, Richard Corliss noted the film was "now widely regarded as the greatest Western of the 1950s, the genre's greatest decade" and characterized it as a "darkly profound study of obsession, racism, and heroic solitude". The film currently maintains an 87% rating on
13802-485: The literary descendants of the knights-errant , who stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian romances . Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight-errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting villains of various kinds, and bound to no fixed social structures, but only to his own innate code of honor. Like knights-errant,
13936-461: The major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and producers. These smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. An exception was The Big Trail, a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. The epic film noted for its authenticity
14070-563: The male lead; or in supporting roles as saloon girls, prostitutes or as the wives of pioneers and settlers . The wife character often provides a measure of comic relief . Other recurring characters include Native Americans of various tribes described as Indians or Red Indians, African Americans , Chinese Americans , Spaniards , Mexicans , law enforcement officers , bounty hunters , outlaws , bartenders , merchants , gamblers , soldiers (especially mounted cavalry ), and settlers ( farmers , ranchers , and townsfolk). The ambience
14204-493: The man largely responsible for his rise to stardom. "He ended up taking it out on me." While filming an exterior shot on a horse-drawn cart, Wayne almost lost control of the horses and knocked Strode away when he attempted to help. When the horses did stop, Wayne tried to pick a fight with the younger and fitter Strode. Ford called out, "Don't hit him, Woody, we need him." Wayne later told Strode, "We gotta work together. We both gotta be professionals." Strode blamed Ford for nearly all
14338-683: The manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is based in the American Western setting. The story follows racers in a transcontinental horse race, the "Steel Ball Run". Golden Kamuy (2014–2022) shifts its setting to the fallout of the Russo-Japanese War , specifically focusing on Hokkaido and Sakhalin , and featuring the Ainu people and other local tribes instead of Native Americans, as well other recognizable Western tropes. Western comics have included serious entries, (such as
14472-453: The movie's ending to the reuniting of Odysseus with Telemachus in Homer 's Odyssey . In 1963, he ranked The Searchers as the fourth-greatest American movie of the sound era, after Scarface (1932), The Great Dictator (1940), and Vertigo (1958). The 1998 American Film Institute 100 greatest American films list ranked The Searchers in 96th place, and the 2007 iteration of
14606-516: The next morning, but Laurie reluctantly provides Martin with a horse to catch up. At Futterman's trading post, Ethan and Martin learn that Debbie has been taken by Scar, the chief of the Nawyecka band of Comanches. A year or more later, Laurie receives a letter from Martin describing the ongoing search. Reading the letter aloud, Laurie narrates the next few scenes, in which Ethan kills Futterman for trying to steal his money, and Martin accidentally buys
14740-432: The pattern—of crime, pursuit, and retribution—for the Western film as a genre". The film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become the screen's first Western star; he made several hundred Western film shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon faced competition from Tom Mix and William S. Hart . Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era (1894–1927). With the advent of sound in 1927–1928,
14874-492: The period were apt to do, Ford instills in The Searchers a visual poetry and a sense of melancholy that is rare in American films and rarer still to Westerns." Glenn Frankel 's 2013 study of the film calls it "the greatest Hollywood film that few people have seen". A major theme of the film is the historical attitude of white settlers toward Native Americans. Ford was not the first to attempt this examination cinematically, but his depiction of harshness toward Native Americans
15008-452: The real heart, humor and violent flavor of the Old West in spite of the notable rustiness of his technique." A. H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote that "Mr. Ford, who has struck more gold in the West than any other film-maker, also has mined a rich vein here," but opined that the film "bogs down" once Stoddard becomes famous, en route to "an obvious, overlong, and garrulous anticlimax." Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called
15142-637: The settlement of other planets is depicted in ways explicitly modeled on American settlement of the West. For example, in his Tunnel in the Sky , settlers set out to the planet New Canaan, via an interstellar teleporter portal across the galaxy, in Conestoga wagons , their captain sporting mustaches and a little goatee and riding a Palomino horse—with Heinlein explaining that the colonists would need to survive on their own for some years, so horses are more practical than machines. Stephen King 's The Dark Tower
15276-557: The seventh-best film of all time based on a 2012 international survey of film critics and in 2008, the French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma ranked The Searchers number 10 in their list of the 100 best films ever made. In 1989, The Searchers was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress , and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry ; it
15410-589: The sides [sequences with dialogue], but Wayne was the central character, the motivation for the whole thing." Parts of the film were shot in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, California . The film's music score was composed by Cyril J. Mockridge , but in scenes involving Hallie's relationships with Doniphon and Stoddard, Ford reprised Alfred Newman 's "Ann Rutledge Theme", from Young Mr. Lincoln . He told Bogdanovich that he used
15544-476: The slaughter of his brother's family. In a 1964 interview with Cosmopolitan , Ford said, There's some merit to the charge that the Indian hasn't been portrayed accurately or fairly in the Western, but again, this charge has been a broad generalization and often unfair. The Indian didn't welcome the white man... and he wasn't diplomatic... If he has been treated unfairly by whites in films, that, unfortunately,
15678-469: The song " There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight " are played in scenes by bar musicians and a marching band. Mockridge's main theme that opens the picture can also be heard, in a somewhat different form, in a trailer for River of No Return with Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe released in 1953. The Burt Bacharach - Hal David song " (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance " became
15812-686: The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 the week ending April 28, 1962, peaking at number four in June. Jimmie Rodgers also recorded the song, in the Gene Pitney style. James Taylor covered it on his 1985 album That's Why I'm Here , as did The Royal Guardsmen on their 1967 album Snoopy vs. the Red Baron . It was also covered by Australian rock band Regurgitator on its 1998 David/Bacharach tribute album To Hal and Bacharach . In 2010,
15946-473: The surrounding country since the local marshal , Link Appleyard, is too cowardly to stop him. Tom says Valance only understands force, but Ranse is determined to bring Valance to justice through the law. While establishing his practice, Ranse buses tables at Peter Ericson's steakhouse , where Hallie works, and befriends Dutton Peabody, the editor of the Shinbone Star newspaper. After learning Hallie
16080-426: The target of Ford's venomous remarks. Other cast- and crew-members also noticed Stewart's apparent immunity from Ford's abuse. Then, toward the end of filming, Ford asked Stewart what he thought of Strode's costume for the film's beginning and end, when the actors were playing their parts 25 years older. Stewart replied, "It looks a bit Uncle Remussy to me." Ford responded, "What's wrong with Uncle Remus?" He called for
16214-454: The territorial convention, Ranse is nominated for delegate to Congress, but withdraws after a representative of the cattle barons accuses him of building a career from murdering a man. Tom arrives and explains to Ranse that it was he who killed Valance; knowing that Ranse could not beat Valance, Tom shot him with Pompey's rifle at the same time Ranse fired. Tom encourages Ranse to accept the nomination for Hallie's sake before quietly walking out of
16348-419: The theme in both films to evoke repressed desire and lost love. The film scholar Kathryn Kalinak notes that Ann Rutledge's theme "encodes longing" and "fleshes out the failed love affair between Hallie and Tom Doniphon, the growing love between Hallie and Ranse Stoddard, and the traumatic loss experienced by Hallie over her choice of one over the other, none of which is clearly articulated by dialogue." Portions of
16482-410: Was The Missouri Traveler in 1958 with Brandon deWilde and Lee Marvin , and the last was The Young Land in 1959 with Wayne's son Patrick Wayne and Dennis Hopper . Author Alan Le May 's surviving research notes indicate that the two characters who go in search of a missing girl were inspired by Britton Johnson, an African-American teamster who ransomed his captured wife and children from
16616-439: Was Midway 's Gun Fight , an adaptation of Taito 's Western Gun (1975) which featured two players against each other in a duel set on a sparse desert landscape with a few cacti and a moving covered wagon to hide behind. Atari 's Outlaw (1976) followed which explicitly framed the shootouts between "good guys" and "outlaws" also borrowing from gunfighter themes and imagery. Early console games such as Outlaw (1978) for
16750-490: Was a critical and commercial success. Since its release, it has come to be considered a masterpiece and one of the greatest and most influential films ever made . It was named the greatest American Western by the American Film Institute in 2008, and it placed 12th on the same organization's 2007 list of the 100 greatest American movies of all time . Entertainment Weekly also named it the best Western. The British Film Institute 's Sight & Sound magazine ranked it as
16884-635: Was a financial failure due to Depression era theatres not willing to invest in widescreen technology. By the late 1930s, the Western film was widely regarded as a pulp genre in Hollywood, but its popularity was dramatically revived in 1939 by major studio productions such as Dodge City starring Errol Flynn , Jesse James with Tyrone Power , Union Pacific with Joel McCrea , Destry Rides Again featuring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich , and especially John Ford's landmark Western adventure Stagecoach starring John Wayne , which became one of
17018-407: Was easily his worst career reversal. As part of its promotion of The Searchers in 1956, Warner Bros. produced and broadcast one of the first behind-the-scenes, "making-of" programs in movie history, which aired as an episode of its Warner Bros. Presents TV series. The Searchers is the first of only three films produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney 's C. V. Whitney Pictures; the second
17152-452: Was influenced by the film. The 2016 Canadian film Searchers is a partial remake of the film, in which an Inuit man in 1913 finds his wife and daughter have been kidnapped. However, co-director Zacharias Kunuk discarded the original's plot about conflicts between white people and indigenous peoples, instead using only Inuit characters. Kunuk explained racism was not an intended theme of his film. Kunuk said he watched Western films in
17286-470: Was inspired by Red Harvest , an American detective novel by Dashiell Hammett . Kurosawa was influenced by American Westerns and was a fan of the genre, most especially John Ford . Despite the Cold War , the Western was a strong influence on Eastern Bloc cinema, which had its own take on the genre, the so-called Red Western or Ostern. Generally, these took two forms: either straight Westerns shot in
17420-440: Was often the case in real life. There was much racial prejudice in the West. Film scholar Ed Lowry writes, "[W]hile the Comanches are depicted as utterly ruthless, Ford ascribes motivations for their actions, and lends them a dignity befitting a proud civilization. Never do we see the Indian commit atrocities more appalling than those perpetrated by the white man. "Wayne is plainly Ahab ", wrote cultural critic Greil Marcus . "He
17554-477: Was one of the first 25 films selected for the registry. The Searchers was the first major film to have a purpose-filmed making-of , requested by John Ford. It deals with most aspects of making the film, including preparation of the site, construction of props, and filming techniques. In 1868, Ethan Edwards returns after an eight-year absence to the home of his brother Aaron in West Texas . Ethan fought in
17688-572: Was shot in the VistaVision widescreen process. Ford originally wanted to cast Fess Parker , whose performance as Davy Crockett on television had helped spark a national craze , for the Martin Pawley role, but Walt Disney , to whom Parker was under contract, refused to allow it and did not tell Parker about the offer, according to Parker's videotaped interview for the Archive of American Television . Parker has said retrospectively that this
17822-407: Was startling, particularly to later generations of viewers; Roger Ebert wrote, "I think Ford was trying, imperfectly, even nervously, to depict racism that justified genocide." At the heart of The Searchers is Wayne's performance as the angry, vengeful Ethan Edwards. From the beginning of his quest, he is quite clearly less interested in rescuing Debbie than in wreaking vengeance on the Comanches for
17956-515: Was the first Western television series written for adults, premiering four days before Gunsmoke on September 6, 1955. The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during primetime. At least six of them were connected in some extent to Wyatt Earp : The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp , Bat Masterson , Tombstone Territory , Broken Arrow , Johnny Ringo , and Gunsmoke . Increasing costs of American television production weeded out most action half-hour series in
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