# Let's Discuss John Ford's movie, The Searchers and Red River with John Wayne **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 18, 2021, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-john-fords-movie-the-searchers-and-red-river-with-john-wayne/938205 "2021-03-18T23:55:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-john-fords-movie-the-searchers-and-red-river-with-john-wayne/938205/21 "2021-03-21T16:25:58Z")
I also have to disagree. _The Searchers_ isn’t a bad movie just because the lead character is a bad person. You can make a great movie about a terrible person. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-john-fords-movie-the-searchers-and-red-river-with-john-wayne/938205/22 "2021-03-21T17:00:11Z")
The Searchers is the greatest Western ever made. It’s the Great American Movie, about the self destructive nature of the racism that is at the heart of what it means to be an American. It’s also about sacrifice and betrayal and redemption through love. It’s about the two irreconcilable contradictions that define us as a nation: the genocide of native Americans, and the story of the anti-heros who pushed west to escape society and in doing so forged a path for society to follow them; the men whose very nature made them both essential to the survival of society, and unwelcome to live among them. (one of the many ways in which The Dark Knight is an homage to Ford). John Ford was our Shakespeare. The Searchers is as great a work as King Lear. . . . [[Here’s a bit I wrote on Westerns a while back.]](https://drunksunshine.com/yippie-ki-yay-moviegoer/) ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-john-fords-movie-the-searchers-and-red-river-with-john-wayne/938205/23 "2021-03-21T17:12:08Z")
I’m not a fan of Westerns, but The Searchers is a great movie. I’ve seen it a few times but always have to leave the room when the family gets massacred. I see Wayne’s character as someone who nowadays would be suffering from PTSD, and the idea of killing Debbie doesn’t seem far fetched given the times and Wayne’s mental health. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-john-fords-movie-the-searchers-and-red-river-with-john-wayne/938205/24 "2021-03-22T04:47:07Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Not a fan. You have to completely buy into the conceit of the fiction of this kind of history. I pretty much agree with the previous poster (Crane). > > But full disclosure, as much as like westerns I don’t really appreciate Wayne’s projects. He’s got about as much range as Daisy air rifle. Although I did love The Cowboys. But more for the ensemble than the star. > > The two best westerns ever made were Hombre and Unforgiven. Unforgiven is just straight-forward escapism grime. > > But for subtle subtext and complex layering it’s hard to beat Hombre. The conceit of which fiction? Captivity fiction or Westerns? **The Searchers** was based loosely on the life of Cynthia Ann Parker - captured by the Comanche at about 9, then captured by the Texas Rangers at about 35 and never returned to her family, the Comanche. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-discuss-john-fords-movie-the-searchers-and-red-river-with-john-wayne/938205.md?page=1)