I have long been wary of the classic Hollywood westerns – with their simplistic “good battling evil” morality, akin to Japanese Noh plays.

Then, in the '60s and '70s, we got a different version of the western when Sergio Leone came along with his morally ambiguous spaghetti western. Clint Eastwood inherited the mantle of the western hero from John Wayne, making the gunslinger a more subversive character. 

My recollection of John Wayne from his cowboy movie days of the '50s and '60s was a kind of cartoonish Superman/Cowboy who never missed and was ready to cold-cock any miscreant with one punch ("Somebody ought to belt you in the mouth, but I won't, I won't, the hell I won't," - "McLintock!"). 

So, when I recently rewatched John Ford's "The Searchers," I was completely taken by surprise and astounded by how this film uses time-tested western familiarities to give us something unique that stands in a class by itself. This is a film that subverts the western movie tradition by ultimately offering us an unfamiliar and hostile world of immense beauty, danger and moral ambiguity.

From the beginning, we are placed in a desert world that represents Texas after the Civil War. But it might as well be the moon. Principal photography was shot, as with many John Ford movies, in the vast openness of Monument Valley, and secondarily in Colorado snowstorms where temperatures on set dropped to 20 degrees below zero – in contrast to the 120-degree temperature the crew faced in Utah. The movie was shot in full color Vista Vision, the precursor to 70mm IMAX and OMNIMAX. 

Although we are given some historical footholds throughout the movie, there is very little backstory. What we do know is that it opens with Ethan Edwards, the John Wayne character, returning to his brother's family's homestead in the desert after years of serving the Confederacy in the Civil War. He’d been spending time on the trail, we know not where, and he won't say (did he steal those freshly minted gold coins?). 

He walks in out of the desert as if he was formed of the sand and sun. His brother's neighbors have packed up and left. We soon come to realize that Ethan has a deep-seated hatred for the Comanche and other indigenous tribes, although we do not know why, and his sentiments are not necessarily shared by his family (The movie is set at the end of a real 40-year war between Mexican/Texan settlers and the Comanche, although this is not explained in the film). 

His adult "nephew" Martin (played by the late Jeffrey Hunter) is one-eighth Cherokee and was inadvertently found as a child by Ethan, whose family adopted him. 

Ethan is deeply suspicious of Martin, and his pedigree. And it appears that trouble has a way of accompanying Ethan on his life's journey, for as soon as he arrives, the homestead is set upon by marauding Comanche and Ethan's two nieces are kidnapped, leading to a yearslong search for the two girls by Ethan and Martin.

At the center of this movie is John Wayne's masterful and riveting acting. Unlike many of his other roles, he plays this character in deadly earnest. He is opinionated, obsessed, full of rage and vengeance. He’s a loner, yet commanding and loyal, dispensing of justice in his way. As he says at one point to his nephew Martin, "I promise you we'll find them as sure as the turning of the earth." 

We witness the turning of Ethan through the course of the movie as he becomes more accepting or forgiving. We come to understand Ethan not just by what he says but through Ford's shooting of Wayne silently turning and gazing at others, walking in a certain way, or holding his body in a certain manner. This is acting and directing of the first caliber.

"The Searchers" has inspired and is referenced in countless movies made since this movie was released in 1956, either thematically or cinematographically, or both. Some obvious references are "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" – the shot of Max looking down from the mountain at the biker gang's encampment is the same shot as the one where Ethan looks down upon the Cherokee encampment - as well as "Taxi Driver," "True Grit," "Moby Dick" and "Zero Dark Thirty" to name a few.

"The Searchers" will be shown as part of the Chestnut Hill Film Group's 52nd year of Tuesday Nights at the Movies, Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Woodmere Art Museum. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

For more information visit woodmereartmuseum.org