69 Years Later, John Wayne’s Western Masterpiece Still Delivers the Greatest Performance of His Career

The Western genre came to define John Wayne, and he embraced the archetype and the power it had over audiences. Wayne will always be known as the gun-toting icon seen in numerous Western classics, yet there was big difference between his different roles still. No one would call Ringo Kid from Stagecoach the same as J.B. Books from The Shootist. Wayne started to explore different character traits, philosophies, and personalities with his characters as his career went on. This helped make many of his films iconic, including Red River, Rio Bravo, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

While there are similarities between all of his films, each character had a different aura and a different purpose in each story that was told. John Wayne knew how to embody these characters and get the most out of what they had to offer audiences from an entertainment and thematic perspective. The more complex these characters were, the more interesting the films and the more popular John Wayne became. More importantly, John Wayne was taken more and more seriously as an actor the more diversified his roles were, and it made him a special kind of genre icon. John Wayne is synonymous with Westerns, having made more than three dozen in his career. This always makes it kind of hard to determine which was his best and which one featured his greatest performance of all.

The Searchers Is Still One Of the Greatest American Westerns Of All Time

Ethan and Martin hunt down the enemy in The Searchers.Image via Warner Bros

It can be hard to imagine one of the most popular Westerns of all time also being one of the most underrated, but when it comes to John Wayne films, it’s a little more plausible. This is only because Wayne made films like Stagecoach, Red River, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Those films are his most popular and the ones normally considered to be his best. However, to this day, The Searchers is a film that grabbed the hearts of so many fans, and a lot of iconic filmmakers have cited it as a defining film in the Western genre.

Since its release, it has garnered more and more appreciation and is often considered to be one of the best movies ever made, not just the best Westerns ever made. Reuniting John Wayne and John Ford once again, The Searchers tells the story of a Civil War veteran who finds himself in the midst of a personal and philosophical crisis when a tribe of Native Americans abducts his niece and murders his family.

If there is a controversial element to The Searchers, it usually revolves around the common criticisms of classical-era Westerns that often painted Native Americans in an ugly, stereotypical light. With all of that being said, The Searchers is one of the defining Westerns to challenge those same controversial tropes, as it portrayed unfamiliar themes and archetypes as well.

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In the film, John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, who has become a drifter in the years since fighting multiple wars and has taken on several odd jobs that have led to a comfortable living. Ethan is a mysterious figure who remains a wonder to his brother and his brother’s wife. Still, Ethan has found a true sense of family in his brother’s home, where he is welcomed by all and beloved by his nieces and nephews.

Things change drastically in the story when Ethan’s family is murdered and his two nieces are abducted (one of whom is also later killed). This leads to a personal vendetta against the Native tribes and a vengeful pursuit by Ethan to find his missing niece. This journey lasts for several years and begins to corrupt Ethan’s sense of morality and psychological stability as he becomes more and more consumed by a thirst for blood and growing disdain for the Native American people.

This puts Ethan at odds with some of his own allies and makes him one of the more complex characters that John Wayne has ever played. To this day, fans love The Searchers for its deeply relevant social themes, deconstruction of the Western hero, and John Wayne’s performance, which just might be the greatest of his career.

John Wayne’s Greatest Performance Was Never Topped After The Searchers

Ethan Edwards goes looking for his niece in The Searchers.Image via Warner Bros

In 1956, John Wayne really embraced a different kind of protagonist when he played Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. After the release of the film, Wayne played around with different and complex characters that presented the same kind of challenges as Ethan. While he had played villains before, Ethan is somewhere in between and remains morally ambiguous for the audience throughout the entire film. Only at the very end, does Ethan’s arc take on even greater meaning and actually propel his story to greater emotional heights. This remains one of the most exceptional aspects of The Searchers all these years later.

The story is full of compelling character moments, iconic action and effective pacing, but remains most resonant because of the way that John Ford brings to life the novel’s material in the final act. Through Ethan’s arc and John Wayne’s greatest performance, there’s a deep connective element to how Ethan shatters in the last thirty minutes. Psychologically and emotionally, Ethan’s disillusioned state and overwhelming xenophobia blinds him when finally confronted with a difficult truth about his niece Debbie. Only through serious reflection, realization and change does the story reach its head and Ethan becomes the character that fans can most root for.

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Fans don’t always expect John Wayne to be able to balance the natural dichotomies of the mythic Western hero, but in The Searchers, it is an intentional element of portraying the character. Ethan Edwards borders between hero and villain, which speaks to the greater realism of humanity and challenges the romanticization of Western tropes.

This is what made Wayne’s performance and complete embodiment of these ideas so influential. In a lot of ways, The Searchers is one of the key Westerns of American cinema that would be referred to a lot during the genre’s evolution in later years. As his career continued, John Wayne played characters similar to Ethan Edwards, but none as iconic or emotionally impactful. Some of his post-Golden Age films are also iconic, but for different reasons than why Ethan Edwards and The Searchers are so iconic.

Fans love The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Sons of Katie Elder, and True Grit most when referring to Wayne’s later years as an actor. Each film features memorable performances from Wayne, but playing characters less complex than Ethan Edwards. Something will also transcend time when it comes to the 1956 John Ford classic. It should be no wonder that the film remains an influential staple of the genre for people everywhere.

The Searchers Remains A Favorite Of Many Legendary Filmmakers

Director Martin Scorsese on the Set of The Wolf of Wall StreetImage via Paramount Pictures

It’s those who study cinema most who understand why The Searchers is the true masterpiece of Wayne’s career. Regardless of how the film propelled the genre forward in a lot of ways, it also happens to be wildly entertaining as a ’50s Western, especially with the genre finding some lulls in that decade, which would materialize even more in the 1960s. This is another feat of John Wayne, who managed to always keep Westerns relevant even when they weren’t as popular as the early years of cinema. Wayne is an icon and has had an effect on many people, especially other filmmakers.

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John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are arguably the two greatest Western actors of all time, but a rift between them kept the duo from working together.

What might surprise fans is how many genre filmmakers wanted to make Westerns in their careers but got stuck in a generation that had seen a shift in audience appeal. Westerns made many of the greatest filmmakers, who instead went on to be key voices in the new “genre films” of later generations. While the Western was the quintessential genre film throughout many decades, things shifted to horror and science fiction in the ’70s and ’80s.

John Carpenter, Joe Dante, and George Lucas were incredibly influenced by Westerns but defined an era of sci-fi and horror. Many legendary filmmakers loved Westerns and have mentioned The Searchers on more than one occasion. Carpenter and Dante love the film, but even Martin Scorsese has shown it love several times and even references it in a couple of his films. There’s no denying its impact, influence, or status in the genre or in John Wayne’s overall career.

Release Date

May 26, 1956

Runtime

119 minutes

Director

John Ford

Writers

Frank S. Nugent

Producers

C.V. Whitney

• Jeffrey Hunter

  Martin Pawley

• Vera Miles

  Laurie Jorgensen

• Ward Bond

  Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton