The Searchers

I unashamedly love today's movie - The Searchers, directed by John Ford in 1956. It has everything that I normally hate, like John Wayne and John Ford, but it's one of my favorite movies. It's shot incredibly well, and so many shots are just breathtaking. It also is not a traditional role at all for John Wayne - he plays a character who is racist and suspicious, who can't really function well in normal society.

I feel like I've watched The Searchers at least once a year, which is sort of funny because some director or another I liked once said that he does the same. I haven't meant to watch it so much - I just always saw it for classes in college, or later, worked it into my essays that I was writing (even a poetry essay!) I don't feel tired of it, though. To me, it always stands apart from other westerns, and I always enjoy watching it.

Red River

Well, no use in putting this post off any longer or trying to find a "nice way" to write it. I didn't like any part of Red River, directed by Howard Hawks in 1948. Anthony loves westerns, and he agrees that there was somehow not a single part of this movie that was enjoyable. To be fair, his love of westerns seems, like mine, to be exclusive to spaghetti westerns with the exception of The Searchers, so I guess we have some sort of bias, here. I also really don't like John Wayne, for a large number of reasons. Wait. There was one good part - where John Wayne got his ass kicked by Matt. I don't get any part of this movie. The women are shrill and annoying, and if they're not being objectified, they're yelling and nagging. The movie would be better if they just weren't even in it. There is weird racism and animal abuse. Everyone mumbles and I kept having to turn up the volume on my TV only to be assaulted by the stereotypical soundtrack of choirs and violins with some "western" noises mixed in.