94 out of 100 based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The film has been recognized multiple times by the American Film Institute: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies – number 96 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – number 12 AFI's 10 Top 10 – number 1 Western Film On "They Shoot Pictures Don't They", a site which numerically calculates critical reception for any given film, The Searchers has been recognized as the ninth-most acclaimed movie ever made. Members of the Western Writers of America chose its title song as one of the top 100 Western songs of all time. Scott McGee stated, "... more than just making a social statement like other Westerns of the period were apt to do, Ford instills in The Searchers a visual poetry and a sense of melancholy that is rare in American films and rarer still to Westerns." Glenn Frankel's 2013 study of the film calls it "the greatest Hollywood film that few people have seen". Critical interpretations Race relations A major theme of the film is the historical attitude of white settlers toward Native Americans. Ford was not the first to attempt this examination cinematically, but his depiction of harshness toward Native Americans was startling, particularly to later generations of viewers; Roger Ebert wrote, "I think Ford was trying, imperfectly, even nervously, to depict racism that justified genocide." At the heart of The Searchers is Wayne's performance as the angry, vengeful Ethan Edwards. From the beginning of his quest, he is quite clearly less interested in rescuing Debbie than in wreaking vengeance on the Comanches for the slaughter of his brother's family. In a 1964 interview with Cosmopolitan, Ford said, Film scholar Ed Lowry writes, "[W]hile the Comanches are depicted as utterly ruthless, Ford ascribes motivations for their actions, and lends them a dignity befitting a proud civilization. Never do we see the Indian commit atrocities more appalling than those perpetrated by the white man. "Wayne is plainly Ahab", wrote cultural critic Greil Marcus. "He is the good American hero driving himself past all known limits and into madness, his commitment to honor and decency burned down to a core of vengeance." For Brenton Priestley, Ford indicates that Scar's cruelty is also motivated by revenge ("Two sons killed by white men. For each son, I take many... scalps.") The theme of miscegenation also runs through the film. Early