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Presented as part of BIG PICTURE: A Century of Stories1h 59m / NR (R equivalent) / Western, Adventure, Epic
VENUE: Historic Duncan Auditorium
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Working together for the twelfth time, screen icon John Wayne and legendary director John Ford forged The Searchers into an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays ex-Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, a believer more in bullets than in words. He’s seeking his niece (a teenage Natalie Wood, her second appearance in this month’s Big Picture), captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won’t surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness to find the men who murdered his loved-ones. And despite his obsessive, five-year quest, Ethan ultimately encounters something he didn’t expect to find: his own humanity.
In spite of it being incontrovertibly one of the most significant, influential and technically proficient films ever made, it would be wildly irresponsible to show The Searchers without addressing the shocking moral and social positions embedded within it. This is a film that whose main character, portrayed as flawed but definitely heroic, is a former Confederate soldier with a contempt for Native Americans that collapses into bloodlust. Native Americans are portrayed as savage killers and implied rapists. As Roger Ebert put it, “I think Ford was trying, imperfectly, even nervously, to depict racism that justified genocide.” But as troubling as it is, it’s not a screed. Audiences in 2026 are lucky that the film permits a reading of John Wayne’s Ethan as the murderous, damaged villain that he is. Film scholar Ed Lowry writes, “[W]hile the Comanches are depicted as utterly ruthless, Ford ascribes motivations for their actions, and […] dignity befitting a proud civilization. Never do we see the Indians commit atrocities more appalling than those perpetrated by the white man.” Put another way, by Griel Marcus, Ethan “is plainly Ahab […] he 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.”
Tampa Theatre played The Searchers in its first run from June 6 -14 of 1956. Viewer discretion is advised.
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Event venue
Tampa Theatre, 707 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602-4400, United States
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