The Searchers: Seeking Cinema History in Monument Valley

Sixty years ago, John Ford and his film company left Hollywood for Goulding’s Lodge and Monument Valley to make The Searchers, a film that many consider the greatest Western film of all time. While many other directors in the 1940s and 1950s were pushing the envelope on new locations, themes, social issues and violence, including Budd Boetticher, Henry Hathaway and Anthony Mann, Ford with his leading man John Wayne, changed Westerns going forward with his the adaptation of the Alan LeMay’s novel of the same name. Why not plan a visit to Monument Valley this summer? Western film buffs visiting Monument Valley should consider staying at Goulding’s Lodge (Gouldings.com), where Ford, Duke and the top stars lived during the summer, or at the new hotel, The View Hotel, (MonumentValleyView.com) with every room facing east to receive the perfect view of sunrise and sunset across the red rocks Ford made famous in his cinema masterpiece.