In the iconic closing shot of THE SEARCHERS, Civil War veteran and aging cowboy Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) stands in the door of a homestead as the family he is part of—yet distanced from—is reunited. In front of him is the warmth of domestic life, behind him is the expansive and unforgiving American Southwest. Edwards has come to the end of his years-long, obsessive search for his niece Debbie (Natalie Wood), and now, post-war, post-heroism, he is purposeless and alone, a figure of the past in a world that is rapidly changing. Cradling his arm, framed within a frame, Wayne—a commanding presence at 6’4”—appears small and vulnerable. Wayne starred in more than a dozen John Ford films, but THE SEARCHERS reigns supreme, a rich and complex exploration of racism and revenge that ends with one of the most referenced frames in cinema history. “In its final moment,” Martin Scorsese wrote, “THE SEARCHERS suddenly becomes a ghost story.” Content consideration: includes racist depictions of Native Americans.