‘The Searchers’: the John Wayne movie Quentin Tarantino couldn’t stand
There’s no denying that John Wayne will always be remembered as one of the most legendary stars Hollywood has ever produced, but that doesn’t automatically make him one of the industry’s greatest-ever actors with an illustrious filmography overflowing with seminal epics.
Of course, ‘The Duke’ amassed more than a few on both counts, not least of all an Academy Award win for ‘Best Actor’ in True Grit. Red River, Rio Bravo, Stagecoach, The Sons of Katie Elder, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and many more stand the test of time, but it’s not without merit to suggest Wayne’s persona has endured longer and stronger than his back catalogue.
That was his intention, though, with Marion Morrison painstakingly crafting the idealised version of himself from the ground up, which was designed explicitly to make him the most popular star in the business. The approach can’t be faulted when it clearly worked an absolute treat, even if some of the modern era’s finest filmmakers aren’t enamoured with his finest features.
Quentin Tarantino has placed many influential actors and auteurs in his crosshairs, lambasting them as overrated or over-glorified. Wayne isn’t quite on his enemies list, with the two-time Academy Award winner a noted fan of Rio Bravo and Stagecoach in particular, although he draws the line at the legend’s magnum opus.
If Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese used Wayne and John Ford’s The Searchers as the impetus to launch two of the most successful and storied directorial careers in cinema history, then that says it all about how inspirational the elegiac western is. It’s unquestionably one of the best movies ever made and arguably the finest effort its genre of choice has ever seen, even if it failed to win Tarantino over.
“Well, I never liked The Searchers,” he matter-of-factly put it when reflecting on the film’s legacy with Deadline. “I always thought it was kind of mundane, other than the Ethan Edwards character. I always loved John Wayne’s performance in it, but I just never cared for the movie. It’s the kind of ’50s western I don’t care for.”
Tarantino does at least approve of Wayne’s work as Ethan Edwards, so it’s not like he’s hating on it for no reason. Anyone who tries to deny The Searchers as an impactful and timeless work of cinema doesn’t have a leg to stand on, which doesn’t mean they’re obligated to join Spielberg and Scorsese in worshipping at its altar. The Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs mastermind appreciates it for what it is, even if it doesn’t speak to him on a deeper level.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it is a surprise that Tarantino flies in the face of convention by declaring that not only is The Searchers nowhere near his favourite Wayne flick, he doesn’t even think it’s particularly enjoyable at all.
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