The Searchers, made in 1956 and staring John Wayne, is about as classic western as you can get (this is John Wayne, after all). Classic or not, it is still in pretty stark contrast to The Unforgiven (#98) style western, that is more bloody and dark. I didn't particularly like it, not being a fan of westerns, but it wasn't bad. My feelings about it can be summed up in my first reaction: The screen pans across a beautiful but desolate desert, with a woman facing it, so you cannot see her face. I think that this is looking like it will be pretty accurate (Her costume boded well)... and then I saw her face. RED LIP STICK. Nuff said. One thing that I really loved, and now will try and quote as often as possible, is Wayne's response to anything that try's to threaten Him. No matter what potentially injuring thing confronts him, he scorns it with a, "That'l be the day!"
The movie follows Wayne's character, who swears to hunt down the Indian tribe that killed his family and kidnapped his niece, and to kill them as well as to save the girl, all the kin he has left. He is helped, or rather, hindered by an eager young man who seems to want nothing more then to put off his wedding date as well as to save the girl (who's like a sister to him)... of course!
There are funny bits, and John Wayne is freaking sexy, but mostly it was longer then it had any business being, and perpetually racist: Racist of Mexicans, but especially of Native Americans. To me it evoked the image of a boy in the '50's playing cowboys and Indians, after an outing to the theater to see this movie. By making hooting and grunting noises to portray their language, and layering himself with gaudy paint and feathers, he embodies more about his generation then he knows. Now I know you're all, "Come on Kelly, calm the heck down. It's just a movie, and a classic at that. Just embrace the time and the simplicity." And to that I would say... Ok! Because, after all, I would take this somewhat inaccurate classic over it's more serious and disturbing opposite (The Unforgiven). So there you have it, one less western to think about!
This movie is also considered an analogy of the American identity: thus the "searchers". They are driven by -- well who can tell, but they can't stop. The racism is meaningful too, because the American identity both cannot depend on or ignore bloodlines in its search for itself.
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