The Searchers (1956) is one of America's top one-hundred films ever made. John Ford directed this film with John Wayne as the leading role, his supporting actors/actresses were Natalie Wood, Jeffery Hunter, Vera Miles, and Ward Bond.The film tells the story of a man, Wayne, searching for his captured nice, but actually is searching for his humanity. This film dones not focus on Wayne as a hero, as much as it does on him trying to find himself. The montage, visual elements, action, and sound elements are what makes this film so great.
             The montage, or narative continuity and character explination is what hooks the viewer into watching the film.
             Narative continuity is how the film flows, or how the story is told. Throughout the movie the story is told, or percieved as if the viewer were there experiencing it all. When Ethan(Wayne) is comes home and the whole family is sitting in the livingroom by the fire they are telling the story through their dialouge and the actions. There is a part in the film that is nariated though.When Marty sends the letter back home to Laurie to tell her about his journey, she reads the letter aloud to the family and that is how that part of the film is shown to the viewers. When she reads the part about him finding a wife, the film shows much more detail than she reads. Like him finding wife, the film shows how he got his wife, how she followed them, and how he lost her. Character explination allows the viewers to get to know the characters. Through out the film the viewers will get to know little bits and pieces of information about the main characters. They are not as obvious, so the viewer needs to read between the lines. At the very beginning of the film when Ethan returns home, his nephew Aaron asks him, "How was California," and Ethan replies, " California? How should I know?...No, I ain't been to California. I don't plan to go either." Then Aaron asks him to tell them about the war, so...