Influence
The Searchers has influenced many films. David Lean watched the film repeatedly while preparing for Lawrence of Arabia to help him get a sense of how to shoot a landscape. The entrance of Ethan Edwards in The Searchers, across a vast prairie, is echoed clearly in the across-the-desert entrance of Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia. Sam Peckinpah referenced the aftermath of the massacre and the funeral scene in Major Dundee and, according to a 1974 review by Jay Cocks, Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia contains dialogue with "direct tributes to such classics as John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and John Ford's The Searchers."
Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door features an extended sequence in which the two leading characters discuss the film.
Scott McGee, writing for Turner Classic Movies, notes "Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, John Milius, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, Jean-Luc Godard, and George Lucas have all been influenced and paid some form of homage to The Searchers in their work." Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan pays a shot-specific homage to the famous doorway shot when the Army brings the news of the death of Private Ryan's three brothers to their mother. In Star Wars, the burning of Luke Skywalker's homestead is very similar in both context and composition to the burning of the Edwards' homestead in The Searchers.
Alex Cox's Searchers 2.0, while not a sequel or a remake as the title may suggest, is named for the John Ford classic. The main characters discuss films, especially westerns, including The Searchers throughout the film.
"That'll Be the Day", a song written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison, and recorded by various artists, was inspired by their viewing of this film in June 1956. John Wayne's frequently used, world-weary catchphrase, "That'll be the day" inspired the young musicians. The film served as the inspiration for the name of the British band The Searchers.
Read more about this topic: The Searchers (film)
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“Somewhere along the line of development we discover who we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else’s life not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“The private life of one man shall be a more illustrious monarchy,—more formidable to its enemy, more sweet and serene in its influence to its friend, than any kingdom in history. For a man, rightly viewed, comprehendeth the particular natures of all men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The talk shows are stuffed full of sufferers who have regained their health—congressmen who suffered through a serious spell of boozing and skirt-chasing, White House aides who were stricken cruelly with overweening ambition, movie stars and baseball players who came down with acute cases of wanting to trash hotel rooms while under the influence of recreational drugs. Most of them have found God, or at least a publisher.”
—Calvin Trillin (b. 1935)