SILVER

John Wayne’s performance in THE SEARCHERS ranks as one of his greatest and most challenging, combining commanding authority with darkest obsessions. Wayne’s anti-hero Ethan Edwards is implacable in his efforts to track down the Comanches who massacred his family and took young niece Debbie hostage. Martin (Jeffrey Hunter), his adopted nephew and fellow searcher, is concerned that if they find Debbie, Ethan’s intentions may be more murderous than merciful. John Ford’s greatest film is also his most psychologically complex, with the thwarted desires, simmering resentments and possibly criminal past of Ethan only briefly hinted at, but fully informing his character’s outsider status, alienated from the very family he loves. The excellent cast includes Ward Bond, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood, John Qualen and Antonio Moreno. DIR John Ford; SCR Frank S. Nugent, from the novel by Alan Le May; PROD C. V. Whitney, Patrick Ford. U.S., 1956, color, 119 min. NOT RATED

AFI Member passes accepted.