The Searchers is not a favorite John Ford film of mine. It's his Vertigo -- a deliberately-paced film focused on pathology (why are critics obsessed with pathology??). Not a good time.
As far as Westerns go, my favorite of his is Wagon Master. Hurricane was on TCM last night -- a delirious valentine. John Ford had great taste in men -- he's our Visconti. Remember the brothers washing coal dust off their skin in How Green Was My Valley? John Ford showed how that spectacle -- that sensual memory -- helped forge a sensibility, an approach to life evidenced in better, compassionate/complex, films (Sun Shines Bright! Judge Priest! Sergeant Rutledge!) than The Searchers.
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