8. The Searchers
John Ford's classic western remains one of the definitive examples of the genre. Generally considered to be the best western ever made, the Searchers follows two characters, John Wayne's Racist ex-confederate and his adopted nephew, as they spend five years hunting down a tribe of Comanches who kidnap one of their relatives. The Searchers uses several different techniques and visual motifs to achieve many of its iconic scenes. Ford uses doors as a framing device on a number of occasions, most notably at the beginning and end of the film where John Wayne is seen entering and leaving a house as the camera looks at the door. Ford uses the environment of the American West to full effect, placing the characters traveling across it almost as figures in a painting. Contrasting images are also used throughout the film, such as the use of snow, rivers, desert, night, and day to illustrate the length of the hunt. A marvel of a film, The Searchers use of natural environment is one of the most potent in film history and ensures that the pairing of John Wayne and John Ford is one of the most memorable in cinema.