Hollywood started to drastically change during the late 1960s and early 1970s, with many filmmakers looking for new ways to innovate the medium, turning away from rigid studio control. Instead, these directors were interested in the freedom exerted by European and experimental filmmakers, seeking to take the same approach within their own movies.
One of the key filmmakers to emerge from the ‘New Hollywood’ era was Martin Scorsese, who has since become a cinematic titan, releasing countless box-office hits and critically acclaimed works such as Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street.
Of course, filmmakers from the New Hollywood era, like Scorsese, still looked back to other Hollywood classics for inspiration – after all, many of these films partly inspired European movements such as the French New Wave in the first place. The Taxi Driver director has cited many old Hollywood favourites as some of his go-to watches and ultimate sources of inspiration, including Vertigo and Citizen Kane.
He is also a great fan of westerns, particularly by John Ford, arguably the most important contributor to the genre. He once picked out The Searchers, released in 1956, as one of his all-time favourite movies. It stars John Wayne in the leading role, one of his many collaborations with Ford, playing a war veteran. Once returning home, he must embark on a mission to find his niece, played by Natalie Wood, who has been abducted.
While Scorsese didn’t agree with Wayne’s politics – he was staunchly right-wing and incredibly racist – he has always maintained that Wayne is one of the all-time acting greats. In a review of The Searchers for The Hollywood Reporter, Scorsese referred to his portrayal of Ethan in the film as “the greatest performance of a great American actor.”
He expanded on Wayne’s performance, stating, “The character of Ethan Edwards is one of the most unsettling in American cinema. In a sense, he’s of a piece with Wayne’s persona and his body of work with Ford and other directors like Howard Hawks and Henry Hathaway.”
In The Searchers, Wayne’s character is also incredibly racist, with Scorsese calling him “genuinely scary” and “a cousin to Melville’s Ahab.” Perhaps that’s why Wayne plays his role so convincingly.
For Scorsese, he frequently returns to The Searchers because of its challenging nature, explaining, “The core of the movie is deeply painful. Every time I watch it — and I’ve seen it many, many times since its first run in 1956 — it haunts and troubles me.” Calling it a “touchstone,” Scorsese explained that “In truly great films – […] the ones that keep moving into territory that is more and more unfathomable and uncomfortable — nothing’s ever simple or neatly resolved.”
Watch the trailer for The Searchers below.
