Watching The Searchers, almost every scene was composed almost like a painting.
Last time I watched the movie, I took some images of the screen, and it was tough to get the various artifacts and saturations out to make them recognizable, but these scenes describe what I mean:
Leaving at the beginning
Bad news
Finds body
Walking along ridge
Scouting
His rival courts his girl
Old Biddies at wedding
Riding in the snow
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I love Wayne's character. It is a very different role for him. Rooster Cogburn in True Grit was a hard character, but he had a degree of gregariousness and love of life to him. This character (Ethan Edwards) has none of that. He is a spare, hard man, thinks of Indians as vermin in a racist sense, and is a unrelenting man. The most telling quote (to me) was:
"...Injun will chase a thing till he thinks he's chased it enough. Then he quits. Same way when he runs. Seems like he never learns there's such a thing as a critter that'll just keep comin' on. So we'll find 'em in the end, I promise you. We'll find 'em. Just as sure as the turnin' of the earth..."