A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and the Searchers

The Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers (1998)

*** (out of 4)

Patrick Wayne, John Milius, Pippa Scott, Lana Wood, Dan Ford and Peter Rainer (as Harey Carey, Jr.) lend their voices to this rather interesting look at the making of THE SEARCHERS. This is a rather weird way to tell a story but it actually works nicely. The voices will tell their piece of the story, mention their name and then the next actor will tell their story. This documentary runs just over a half hour and does a pretty good job at talking about the various details in the production. This includes the original story, the title change, it being bought to get Ford and Wayne back together and then the shooting of the picture. We get some pretty good stories about the production, it's unbearable heat and the various reaction to the people involved. This includes stories about what was done once filming was over and why Ford and Wayne brought so much to the picture. With such a short running time you're obviously not going to get the complete story of the filming of the movie but for the most part I think this does a nice job at telling you some great stories and at least giving you an idea of what went on in the picture. There's plenty of behind-the-scenes footage, which is great to see and we even get a couple outtakes from the picture. Fans of the film will certainly want to check this out.