The Searchers will be on TCM Monday, May 4, 2020 at 10:15 pm.

Get the popcorn ready!

Great movie!

One of his best.

It is starting with a short documentary on Ford and his location selection in Moab and Monument Valley. Talk to you tomorrow.

My favorite scene is the push shot with the Camera below Ethan with a hint of glow from the ranch being burned before you see it. You see Ethan’s face, his eyes, and his mouth.

His arm comes back in the wind with the Winchester effortless more by will of mind than a physical act being unsheathed.

I experience primal fear, anger, and fear for whoever caused Ethan to react that way every time. The fear invoked. The anger invoked is better and equal to the best horror.

Simply the best western ever made. Yes, Wayne made some other outstanding movies, but noe ever came close to The Searchers.

It follows the excellent book by Alan Le May very closely. Great read and great film.
It's in a three-way tie for first place with me, with the original "Stagecoach" and "Shane."

Oh dear; hard to rate “The Best Western.”

For Duke, I really like The Cowboys and The Shootist, original Stagecoach, and Big Jake.

The Shootist has one of my favorite pieces of dialogue. Duke kills the guys who come into his room at night. Lauren Bacall is lecturing to him, “I’m an old man. Afraid of the Dark.”

Of course, Bug Jake and The Cowboys have Great Dialog. “Your fault, my fault, no bodies fault, I’m going to hollow your head off.”

You turn around! I want you to see this coming!”

Duke replies, “Go to Hell.”

I love the Calvary Trilogy equally.

Oh! how can we forget The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
“That’s my steak Liberty.” Kicks the flunky in the face. “I said you pick it up.” The film is very deep with myth making, the role of media, how folks get over to become powerful, the tensions of statehood and rights.

Other top tier Westerns in my book

Oxbow Incident (Henry Fonda)
The Gunfighter (Gregory Peck)
Unforgiven (Eastwood)

Yeah, in years past, I used that imitation/parody at parties with hands on hips (Ala Duke) "That's my beefsteak Valance, you pick it up." "Stagecoach + Hondo"were another 2 favorites. Although it is hard to top the Duke, as westerns go, I enjoyed "Quigly Down Under"w/ Selleck + "Hombre" w/Paul Newman. Too many to list, actually; ain't that great?!

John Wayne's favorite movie was The Searchers.

Shane is in my Top Ten. Best fist fight ever.

Big Country when Rufus crashes the party and gives them a royal ass eating.

And then, of course, one must rank western comedy. My favorites:

Texas Across the River....Best lines..."Mother run too fast" and "Who wants it"

Water Hole #3.....Supposedly a take off on The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Not a comedy, but the hardest I ever laughed was watching The Two Who Road Together.

John Ford was not permitted to finish that film and was replaced on set. Life has got too long with him.

I heard before he was pulled or replaced the Female lead kept a horse drawn wagon from overturning. Ford was so impressed. He let her eat apple pie. Sweets were against her contract.

Searchers is a classic. True Western that captures so many things is Hud.

Yes indeed. Hud reminds me of my youth in Wichita Falls.

You gotta would enjoy a channel on YouTube called HOCK (History at the O C Corral)

It focuses on the early western expansion including the Republic of Texas through a study of the early Texas Rangers.

The Comanche got what they gave and gave it first to tribes that had settled in Texas and Oklahoma before Anglo settlement.

The US Government has no idea that by relocating Eastern Tribes to what is now Oklahoma they were feeding them to the Comanche.

You might enjoy reading "Plum Creek" about the battle of Texas Ranger Battalion under Jack Coffee Hays against the Comanches, using the relatively new Colt Patterson revolvers; that really changed the face of mounted warfare.

Yes. I would.

Plum Creek is covered.

And Hayes surviving at Monument Rock.