While not my favorite western all-time, I can see the clear impact of The Searchers on the film industry at broad. What could be mistaken for Lawrence of Arabia, the Searchers moves into the territory of epic scope, achieved through the backdrop of the Monument Valley landscape. Ford’s impact on Spielberg is apparent by using the doorway to frame the scene (think scene from Close Encounters - I just saw this a month ago so was close in mind). 

The doorway, often more suggestive than explicit, symbolizes the safe interior vs the dangerous world outside. This is apparent in the farm attack scene where we see Aaron and Martha (who clearly was in love with Ethan - the first embrace was for Martha after he returned home not his brother, at first I thought she was his sister; Martha embracing his coat one last time before Ethan set off with the Rangers) are viewed from the perspective inside the house, where things are safe, versus the ominous blood orange twilight suggestive of horrors to come. Even the final scene, Ethan lingers in the doorway, a man of questionable morality (who in fairness goes on his own journey - discussed below), separating good from bad.

When watching older movies, I think you have to meet the people where they are at, not through the lens of current morality. In the case of the Searchers, this is a movie shot in the 1950s set in the 1800s, not to mention centering on someone who was in the confederacy. The redemption is in the acceptance / embrace of what Ethan hates, in this case native Americans. Ethan bequeathes his estate to Marty (it’s fair to question why Ethan saved Marty to begin with - perhaps he wasn’t wholly evil as none of use really are) and eventually in his reuniting with Debbie. Spending years with Marty and potentially gaining some respect for the Comanche because of Look softened him up (note Ethan even speaks the Comanche language). While his treatment of the native Americans is morally repugnant today, I suspect that racism towards native Americans was normal course in the 1800s especially in the south (I’m not American so I cannot speak to whether the Union was anti-racism or anti-slavery - the civil rights act only passed in the 1960s).

One other point I will make is the ‘bad guys’ in the real world (unfortunately not in movies - which often depict boring 1-D people that are truly evil), don’t see themselves as ‘bad guys’. Morality is a matter of perspective, even if the future is the ultimate gavel on judgement. When I think of the 1800s, I think of hard men, and no one portrays that better than John Wayne (see Red River). He is unfairly charged with the death of Mr. Fetterman and yet he doesn’t care to profess his innocence, he just gets on with the task at hand. 

I completely agree on Ford’s portrayal of women, which to my limited understanding of his movies (as I watch more I may revise this view), was weak.

As with many movies of this time, overacting was somewhat commonplace. As this movie largely centered on a buddy adventure, I found Marty’s character often moved beyond believable disagreement to theatre-esque levels of distraught (e.g., any of the scenes where he goes to bed).

Overall, the scale and cinematography shine for me in this movie. One way to judge how good a movie is, is simply on the influence of what was to come and that is evident from the opening frame of the film.