My Ultimate Top 10 Best John Wayne Movies List

 

The Searchers movie with John Wayne poster1. The Searchers (1956)

If there’s one John Wayne film that deserves the description, ’It doesn’t get any better than this’, than that film is “The Searchers”, most definitely the best of all of the films John Wayne worked on with director John Ford.

Over the years it has grown in critical stature to the point where “The Searchers” now regularly makes it onto the top ten list of best films ever made.

It’s influenced numerous directors such as Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader and Steven Spielberg. George Lucas even purloined part of the story for the first Star Wars movie in a direct homage to John Ford.

There aren’t many other films that can lay claim to that, as well as also inspiring a number one hit single, “That’ll Be the Day”, for Buddy Holly and the Crickets in 1957.

Duke’s character, Ethan Edwards, is a snarling, angry, bigoted racist who wants to put a bullet into his niece’s head because she had the temerity to be abducted by a party of warring Comanche and is therefore tainted by association with her kidnappers.

It’s obvious from the outset that you’re not going to be presented with the kind of steadfast, upright, morally correct individual that Wayne is usually associated with, which is what makes the film so unique in Duke’s career.

For example, we see Wayne shooting three men in the back, shooting out the eyes of a dead Comanche warrior, mutilating the corpse of another dead Comanche and attempting to murder Debbie, his own niece.

John Ford’s use of landscape in the film is a wonder to behold. The wilderness of Monument Valley hides the marauding Native Americans just before they snake along the slopes surrounding Ethan and his search party.

The valley then reduces the size of the individuals in pursuit of Debbie until they are rendered almost invisible to the naked eye by a backdrop that has not changed in millions of years, and will remain in place long after Ethan and his compatriots have turned to dust.

Ford came close to equating Monument Valley as character in the earlier “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”, but it is in “The Searchers” that the director perfectly encapsulates the isolation and unforgiving savagery of the wilderness as exemplified by the location itself.

Just as in “Rio Bravo”, there are so many special moments to celebrate in “The Searchers” that will forever stay in the memory of those who revere this film as much as we do, and would take quite a while to list, but here’s a few to be going on with:

  • Ethan’s sister-in-law, Martha, emerging from the cabin at the opening of the film into the bright sunlight just as Ethan appears riding though the magnificent landscape of Monument valley;
  • The wonderfully understated moment when Ward Bond as the Reverend Clayton pretends to ignore the obvious feelings that Ethan and Martha have for each other;
  • The look of sorrow on Ethan’s face when he realises later on that he won’t get back in time to save his brother’s family from an Indian attack;
  • The look of pure contempt suffused with pity on Ethan’s face for the white captive of the Comanches who mistakes a doll for her dead child;
  • The iconic moment when Ethan lifts Debbie high into the air then tells her, “let’s go home Debbie” (a scene that still makes the hair stand up on the back of the neck no matter how many times it is viewed);
  • Finally, the lone figure of Ethan standing in the cabin doorway as Debbie is welcomed back into the fold, Wayne holding his right arm in homage to actor Harry Carey Sr. before walking away in search of heart and soul as the cabin door closes behind him. It’s a poignant finish to an unbearably sad film.

There’s not much more to be said about “The Searchers” that hasn’t been said before. It is truly a masterpiece and, like I said at the beginning, it doesn’t get any better than this.

And don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise, pilgrim.

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Steve is a film scholar of note, gaining both an MA in film studies and a Ph.D. for his thesis on the silent films of John Ford. Steve, a scriptwriter and published novelist, provides much of the content you see here and is a dedicated aficionado and longtime fan of John Wayne, John Ford and Western films in general.

12 thoughts on “My Ultimate Top 10 Best John Wayne Movies List”

  1. My list includes the funnest John Wayne movies you can enjoy often

    The Horse Soldiers
    Rio Bravo
    Eldorado
    The Undefeated.

    The Searchers and others aren’t films to see over and over and enjoy.

    Reply
    • Thanks Buck. Not so sure about ‘The Horse Soldiers’ in your list and the non-inclusion of ‘The Quiet Man’ but you’ve given us a potentially good idea for an article maybe further on down the line.

      Reply
  2. Love the list but I have always liked The Undefeated with Duke and Rock Hudson. Probably not good enough for the list but a very good movie.

    Reply
  3. I saw an intervierw of John Wayne (forgot who the interviewer was) and he stated that IF he had to choose one, he would probably choose “The Searchers.” I think he felt that was about his best work at least at the time of that interiew!

    Reply
  4. You picked the best…at # 1; But I just love, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” it has ethos/character that you can feel and embrace, but only hope to live up to.

    Reply
  5. Good list, I agree all your choices are excellent movies. I would only add one, my personal favorite, 1966’s “El Dorado”. I avoided that film for years because I thought of it as an inferior remake of “Rio Bravo”, but several years ago my son got totally obsessed with it on Netflix and I was kind of forced to watch it over and over, and like and behold I found that I loved it! Not knocking “Rio Bravo”, still one of my all-time favorites, but I think “El Dorado” is a slightly better film. Tighter, better acting, better villains… and James Caan can actually act. Rick Nelson is one of the all-time great rock ‘n rollers, but he nearly damages the movie with his awful performance.

    Both great movies, but I really feel that “El Dorado” has been very unfairly maligned over the years. It’s a great, underrated movie.

    Reply
    • Bruce, isn’t that the great thing about movies? You see one first time around then years later you revisit it and you get a whole other opinion on it. Either way it always comes down to personal preference so keep on championing “El Dorado” and you never know, you might get us to change our minds one day. Thanks for the comment and glad you liked our article on the JW / Howard Hawks movies.

      Reply
    • Sorry about that. There was another page to go to – trying to add to the suspense – there was a small number 2 to hit but it should be clearer now. Thanks for your interest.

      Reply

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