THE SEARCHERS
TCM, 10:00 p.m. ET
Director John Ford made many wonderful movies, in several different genres, but this 1956 film may be his best Western, and anyone’s. A family’s home and ranch is attacked by a Comanche raiding party, and the marauders massacre everyone but the youngest daughter, who is taken prisoner. Her uncle Ethan, played by John Wayne, and her adopted brother Martin, played by Jeffrey Hunter, set out in search of her – a search that ends up taking years. And what complicates the quest, and (in a good way) the movie, is that Wayne’s Ethan is a Civil War veteran from the Confederate side, deeply bigoted, especially against Native Americans. The longer the Indians elude him, the more his hatred rises, which ends up affecting the rescue mission in very unpredictable ways. The searchers move across seasons and lands, and director Ford makes great use of it all, particularly of the Monument Valley vistas he made famous in his movies. Natalie Wood plays the long-abducted young woman, giving a potent performance – and Wayne, showing some very dark shades, was never better.