The Searchers The Searchers The Searchers is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, set during the Texas–Indian wars, and starring John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece (Natalie Wood), accompanied by his adoptive nephew (Jeffrey Hunter). Critic Roger Ebert found Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, "one of the most compelling characters Ford and Wayne ever created". The film was a commercial success. Since its release it has come to be considered a masterpiece and one of the greatest and most
Backlash (1956 film) his hand. Carson's men ride in and fatally shoot him just before Jim steps out in the open. Backlash (1956 film) Backlash is a 1956 Technicolor Western film directed by John Sturges starring Richard Widmark and Donna Reed. It was directed by John Sturges (with whom Widmark would also make another western "The Law and Jake Wade"), and unfolds in the vein of the psychological Western (a subgenre that has yielded many films, e.g. those of Anthony Mann, with whose films this bears comparison). It delivers an unconventional story, written by Borden Chase, that sometimes crosses into film noir, as