Quentin Tarantino has admitted that he isn’t a fan of John Wayne’s seminal western The Searchers, but that hasn’t stopped him from borrowing its most iconic sH๏τ. Tarantino tends to wear his cinematic influences on his sleeve. Tarantino borrowed some of his most iconic scenes from other movies. The opening sH๏τ of Jackie Brown is taken from The Graduate; the Ezekiel 25:17 speech in Pulp Fiction is taken from Karate Kiba; and the ear-cutting torture scene in Reservoir Dogs is taken from the original Django.

But not all the movies referenced in the Tarantino oeuvre are counted among his personal favorites. There are plenty of poorly received movies that Tarantino loves, and plenty of highly acclaimed movies that Tarantino dislikes. The Searchers is an example of the latter; it’s been hailed as a groundbreaking masterpiece, but Q.T. isn’t a fan.

Quentin Tarantino’s Comments On John Wayne’s The Searchers Explained

Tarantino Always Thought The Searchers Was “Mundane”

In an interview with ᴅᴇᴀᴅline to promote his book of film criticism, Cinema Speculation, Tarantino was asked about The Searchers, which is mentioned several times throughout the book. Tarantino was quick to clarify that the only reason The Searchers comes up so much is because it was a huge influence on the “movie brat” generation that the book focuses on. Tarantino pointed out that he’s personally “never liked” the John Ford-directed classic. He’s always felt that The Searchers is “kind of mundane.”

He likes Wayne’s lead character, Ethan Edwards. Ethan is one of the most interesting, three-dimensional roles of Wayne’s career; it challenged his typical straightforward hero archetype with some ahead-of-its-time moral ambiguity. But despite enjoying Wayne’s darker, grittier performance in this role, Tarantino “never cared for the movie.” He added that he doesn’t enjoy many westerns from that era — although Tarantino is on record praising Rio Bravo, released just three years later (and also starring Wayne), as one of his favorites.

Quentin Tarantino Was Influenced By The Searchers, Despite Not Liking It

Tarantino Has Copied The Famous Doorway SH๏τ A Couple Of Times

Despite disliking The Searchers, Tarantino has copied its most iconic sH๏τ — the bookending images of Wayne framed in the doorway, looking in at a peaceful life he’ll never get to enjoy — in two of his own movies. In Kill Bill: Volume 2, the Bride is framed like Wayne in the doorway of the wedding chapel. And in Inglourious Basterds, Col. Hans Landa is framed in the doorway as he watches Shosanna Dreyfus flee from the dairy farm.

The influence of The Searchers on Tarantino’s work is a kind of trickle-down effect. So many of his favorite filmmakers (including the movie brats chronicled in his book) were mᴀssively influenced by and indebted to The Searchers and other Ford movies. Tarantino may not like The Searchers as a movie, but he definitely likes one sH๏τ from it.

Source: ᴅᴇᴀᴅline