The Searchers
Warner Bros. | Release Date: May 26, 1956 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
94
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Austin ChronicleLouis Black
A meditation on survival, The Searchers is about the loss of faith and the death of heroes. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The Searchers contains scenes of magnificence, and one of John Wayne's best performances. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterJack Moffitt
This C.V. Whitney production is undoubtedly one of the greatest Westerns ever made. For sheer scope, guts and beauty I can think of no picture of the Indian Wars of the Southwest to compare with it. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
By the time of The Searchers, Wayne had toughened to match Ford's darker vision. Redemption is still out there, but it has to be fought for, and sometimes winning it doesn't make anyone happier. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
A deeply emotional experience that is also a grand entertainment, The Searchers is a true American masterpiece. Read full review
100
EmpireKim Newman
In 1956 audiences flocked to The Searchers precisely because it was a John Wayne western, and lapped up its mix of Injun-fightin' action, rough comic knockabout and intense, emotional storyline. Seen now, it is all that and much, much more. Read full review
100
Washington PostGlenn Frankel
Directed by John Ford, The Searchers is widely recognized not only as the greatest American Western but as one of the best Hollywood films of all-time. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
The Searchers gathers the deepest concerns of American literature, distilling 200 years of tradition in a way available only to popular art, and with a beauty available only to a supreme visual poet like Ford. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
John Wayne's Ethan is his all-time top performance: funny, romantic, hard-bitten, scary, the personification of machismo. Read full review
90
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
There is perhaps some discrepancy in the play between Wayne's heroic image and the pathological outsider he plays here, but it hardly matters, given the film's visual splendour and muscular poetry in its celebration of the spirit that vanished with the taming of the American wilderness. Read full review
90
VarietyRonald Holloway
The box office appeal of John Wayne combined with the imprint of John Ford makes The Searchers a contender for the big money stakes. It's a western in the grand scale - handsomely mounted and in the tradition of Shane. Read full review
90
The DissolveTasha Robinson
The Searchers is more a look at American genocide and racism, and the poison of revenge-obsession, than it is an adventure movie, and it feels like one of the wisest and most mature Westerns on the classics docket. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen
Decades before an apologist Western such as Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves, The Searchers bluntly addressed this country’s racism toward Native Americans by putting one of Hollywood’s most famous faces on it. Read full review
80
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
A rip-snorting Western, as brashly entertaining as they come. Read full review
50
The New YorkerPauline Kael
You can read a lot into it, but it isn't very enjoyable. The lines are often awkward and the line readings worse, and the film is often static, despite economic, quick editing.
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