Paul and Corey Cross the Streams: S6E07 [THE SEARCHERS (1956)]

Ranked at 15, John Ford's The Searchers (1956) has been generally touted as the best American western. German journalist Andreas Kilb called The Searchers, "The essence of American Myth in one film," and Paul (but maybe not Corey) agrees - with the caveat that that's not exactly a good thing. Ford had already made 100 films by this point in his career and worked with star John Wayne in a great number of them. The Searchers marked a maturation of the genre for Ford in which he wanted to tackle the topic of racism through an anti-hero for the ages, Ethan Edwards. Even within the film and in the context of the time of its relief, there's a feeling of deep ambivalence in how to feel about Ethan Edwards. And in 2024, the feeling has only grown more complicated (or perhaps clearer than ever). It all leads to an excellent discussion of America, settler colonialism, and racism as the ideology that allowed/s for the creation of them both.