The Searchers
John Ford (1956)
My review.
TLDR : Great but it could have done so much more with the material.
8/10
I could quote so many of your sentences that stood out to me. Very insightful review. I'll quote a few, just because.
Ford shows a true ability of dosing his ingredients to make something that is not too much of anything while being plenty of everything.
I'm sitting here, looking at those words saying, "yep." That style of storytelling creates so much reflection and avenues of thought. I find his movies put me in the most contemplative of moods.
The colours are vivid and the camera shows us huge swathes of savage land that let us understand just how completely alone these characters are not only on their mission but during their entire lives, lost as they are in something that is not quite yet a functioning country.
nice. Not much of a comment, but what you wrote sits very well with me. A better comment might be, When I went to Monument Valley a few years ago, the vastness really overwhelmed me as stood on the red dirt and walked among the buttes. I felt very small indeed and admittedly lonely. Ford captured that feeling, just how you said he did.
a smidgen (or is it a dollop) of romance
It might me a dash, or a pinch.
This humanized Wayne's character from the very beginning and I was prepared to follow him anywhere, through his darkness and through his quest. It didn't matter how hateful or misguided he was. I cared and that's all that mattered.
Thanks for the wonderful write-up DarkeningHumour!