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By
NICK ZEGARAC
John Ford was a master craftsman of the American cinema. Though he dabbled in melodrama and action during his directorial career, his everlasting contribution to the movies remains in those galvanic distillations of the old west put forth by an unparalleled series of legendary films. "The Searchers" ranks among his most finely wrought and meticulously hand-crafted projects. Indeed, "The Searchers" is the film in which Ford's unique commentary upon the power, beauty and frailty of the western frontier culminates in his most harrowing revisionist perspective -- exposing both its grandeur and its flaws. The film stars the iconic John Wayne as Ethan Edwards -- a strangely majestic antihero who vows bloody revenge after his cousin and family are slaughtered by marauding Comanches. But Ethan's search for his surviving niece (Natalie Wood) becomes a sinister and all-consuming obsession when he learns that she -- having been abducted while still a child -- has now adopted the ways of her captors and, at least in Ethan's mind, has become one of them. The film tackles racism in the form of Ethan's distrust of one time family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is part Cherokee. Visually speaking, sweep and spectacle of Death Valley has never been quite so poignantly captured on film.
While Warner Home Video has made "The Searchers" available in anamorphic widescreen, the home film enthusiast may find its image quality lacking when compared to more current DVD releases. The visual splendor of the transfer falls short of expectations. Though colors can be rich, there's something of a muddiness and lack of balance to them in many of the indoor scenes. In addition, several scenes appear to be suffering slightly from color shrinkage, creating a slightly out of focus image that is distracting. Age related artifacts are present but do not distract so much as the digital anomalies of pixelization and edge enhancement, which greatly plague the background information in most of the long shots. A slight shimmering is inherent in all of the scenes. Black and contrast levels can be solid at times, while sometimes appearing slightly pasty. Ditto for the unnatural flesh tones, which are either overly pink or a ruddy orange. The audio has been remastered and delivers a nice expansive presentation, which is in keeping with the vintage of the original sound elements.
There are no extras, not this time around. Sadly, this film deserves at least a documentary.
"The Searchers" is a masterful western, on par with "Stagecoach" and "High Noon." Definitely one to add to your film library. |
