The Searchers

Even though it's early spring time, The Searchers are watching and reviewing Late Spring (1949) this week, from iconic Japanese director Yosujiro Ozu. Friend and analytical-film mentor to Chris, Daniel Kieckhefer joins the podcast on Episode 51 to discuss Ozu's meditative and subtle nature and why he may or may not appeal to people who watch his films. Comparisons to other Japanese cinema, Alfred...

For their 50th episode The Searchers return to the genre that inspired the podcast's title and connected the three of them in the first place, The Western, with a review of the The Tall T (1957). Topics discussed during the review include The Ranown Cycle, Randolph Scott's career in the 1950s, A vs B westerns, Anthony Mann/James Stewart collaborations, and more. Cheers to another 50 episodes. Than...

This week The Searchers are back covering a classic Korean film. No, not from that Hollywood-glamorized (and overrated) director, Bong Joon-ho! Nothing from directors Park Chan-wook nor Na Hong-jin. Chris, Ben, and Kevin are joined by guest and mailbag-frequenter Odie Arbuckle to explore the dare-we-say classic Korean action film The Terrorist from 1995. Why does no one talk about 1990s Korean cin...

Chris and Ben are joined by regular guest Nick Langdon to discuss Sidney Lumet's PRINCE OF THE CITY from 1981. Not our first Lumet outing, and not our first time talking Treat Williams. This episode was a long time coming, and we're happy to have Nick back as always. PRINCE OF THE CITY TRAILER Stay tuned for the next episode, which will feature a special guest whose never been on the show but whos...

Two Hong Kong films in a row (kind of)! Hey, y'all, The Searchers Podcast is back with another one... This week we review Patrick Tam's LOVE MASSACRE (1981). In addition to reviewing the film, the three of us discuss Tam in terms of his mentorship of Wong Kar-wai, Hong Kong and other "New Wave" film movements, colors in film, and more. Tune in! To follow along, find the film on YouTube, HERE , as...

This week's episode is continuing down the tracks on the Hong Kong cinema train, in a roundabout sort of way. Ben is joined by guest John Grace from the Midnight Movie Cowboys Podcast, who graciously provides his knowledge of Bud Spencer and Hong Kong Cinema for the Italian crime-action-comedy movie, Flatfoot in Hong Kong (aka Flatfoot Goes East) from 1975 that was largely set in Asia. This film i...

Attention everyone, this is your Trailer Park supervisor speaking. Julian's Christmas contest scheme is no more! You will all have to give all your presents back to me so I can turn them into the authorities. If not, Barb has informed me that I won't be able to get drunk on Christmas Day. And there's no way that's going to happen!  

Merry Christmas from the Searchers! This week, we return to the trading post format and trade 3 Christmas films. Below are the films and the timestamps in case anyone wants to avoid spoilers. Chris reviews Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - 00:00:00 Ben reviews Something from Tiffany's (2022) - 00:21:00 Kevin reviews White Christmas (1954) - 00:39:08 See you next year! (Hint: there may be a special...

This week on The Searchers, Kevin, Ben and Chris discuss the latest film from legendary director Hayao Miyazaki, How Do You Live? Unfortunately it was re-titled by GKids to "The Boy and the Heron," which the three of us agree was a dumb move by the distributor. We meditate over why Miyazaki chose this as his potential last film, and why it was something that pulled him from retirement. Historical...

It's time to feel the impact with this review of Jean-Claude Van Damme's Double Impact. Ben introduces both Kevin and Chris to one of his favorite JCVD films from his 80s and 90s stardom. We get into the nitty gritty on the production, select scenes from the movie, the music, and everything Hong Kong. Enjoy the Muscles from Brussels? Well then this one is dedicated to you. How could two Van Dammes...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!! We all have many things to be thankful for, but for today's episode The Searchers are extra thankful for director John Frankenheimer... well, because he lets us rant about movies for 90 minutes. Listen to guests Nick Langdon and Max join Chris in explaining to Ben their recent project in which they delved into the filmography of the prolific director. Movies discuss...

NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS… spooky season is now over… we’ve now sailed off in our rusty bucket in search of a new destination on which to drop anchor. This time (EPISODE 40!) returning to a breezy and sweet picture by the great John Ford, aka 1955's Mister Roberts starring Hank Fonda. Ford wasn't the only director due to production problems; however, he ended up crafting his Pacific-set perfect...

Happy Halloween week, y'all! To culminate our first Horror-Adjacent October, Ben, Chris & Kevin review Dead Heat (1988) starring Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo. The movie follows Roger Mortis, a police detective who is paired up with a new partner named Doug Bigelow. The two end up investigating a series of strange murders committed by criminals who seem to come back from the dead. As they dig...

Our second episode for 2023 Halloween covers Sonny Chiba in Wolf Guy (1975), and it's Kevin's first Sonny Chiba movie!! Woah! We read two mailbags at the beginning of the episode which gets us into some western TV talk. Afterwards we get to the meat of the discussion with our thoughts on the Toei cult classic, a description given to Wolf Guy by Arrow Video. Topic timestamps for those who use Podbe...

The gang is all back to talk about our first "horror adjacent" film of the 2023 Halloween season. This week it's John Carpenter's Vampires. Submit your mailbags to us at thesearcherspodcast@gmail.com . Thank you!! Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to us. Reviews really do help! Follow us on Letterboxd.com if you'd like to see what we've recently watched...

Ben and Chris talk about two episodes they watched from Sherlock Hound, an anime from the 1984-1985 season inspired by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character. The two episodes are "Little Martha's Big Mystery!?" (小さなマーサの大事件！？) and "The Air Battle Over Dover!" (ドーバー海峡の大空中戦！), both directed by none other than Hayao Miyazaki. Yes, we've touched on him before in a Cinema Crusades...

Christopher and Benjamin return to the well of westerns with their review of Rawhide directed by Henry Hathaway, who most fans of the genre will know as the director of True Grit (1969) among other notable collaborations with John Wayne. Hathaway also dabbled in film noir in the 1940s, so it's no surprise this B&W western was influenced by that directorial style. Rawhide includes maybe the bes...

Summer break is over, and kids are going back to school. On this week's episode of The Searchers, we review Painted Faces which is about children going to a very different and difficult school in Hong Kong during the 1960s to train for Peking Opera. Those children included Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. After covering Jackie Chan on episode 2 of the podcast, we're excited to finally be ma...

It's already that time again.. another The Searchers episode out now! This time, Kevin and Ben discuss how Tom Cruise is trying to carry action cinema, heck, cinema in general, on his back alone in his Mission: Impossible series. Did Cruise & team succeed this time around with its 7th installment? Listen and find out. There will be a couple weeks until the next episode is released, so enjoy th...

Let's get down to bizzo, shall we? This week The Searchers are joined by friend of the pod and fellow movie reviewer Nick Langdon to review the Australian film Roadgames from 1981. It stars Stacy Keach and Jamie-Lee Curtis and is directed by Richard Franklin. Tune in to be filled in to loads of information about Australian cinema since Mr. Langdon comes from down unda, mate. We had a great time di...

We're back with another episode of The Searchers, and do we have a special ep for all you faithful listeners! Join us as we discuss the long forgotten, Academy-Award-winning (when that meant something) drama film from 1963 Lilies of the Field starring Sidney Poitier. This episode is even more special because we have friend o' the pod Joe Wilson guest spotting with Ben and Kevin. Joe is one of the...

The Searchers Podcast turns 30 (episodes total, that is) this week with our review of Certified Copy (2010). Certified Copy (Copie conforme) is a film written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami , and it is now available on Tubi, HERE . This film is our way of keeping the Italy topic going for one more episode!  Set in Tuscany, the film focuses on a British writer ( William Shimell ) and a French ant...

All three of The Searchers reunite after quite some time to cover Kevin's pick: Broken Lullaby (1932) directed by Ernst Lubitsch. This pre-Code drama stars Lionel Barrymore , Nancy Carroll, and Phillips Holmes . We talk about the "Lubitsch Touch" among other things, such as Chris listening to silent films with Phil Collins as his own personal film soundtrack... Can someone mailbag in and inform Be...

Hey gang, it's Hump Day again! This week we're going old school back to Medieval Times and the Golden Age of Hollywood with our review(s). We're covering three movies on this episode of the Searchers. Ivanhoe (1952), Knights of the Round Table (1953), and The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955) make up the unofficial trilogy by director Richard Thorpe and actor Robert Taylor. Listen to Chris and...

This week on The Searchers, Chris and Ben delve into the Eurocrime genre, aka Poliziotteschi, and review Execution Squad (La polizia ringrazia). Please enjoy, everyone. ANNOUNCEMENT: Next time we are covering three movies directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Robert Taylor! Go find 'em! Submit your mailbags to us at thesearcherspodcast@gmail.com . Please rate us a 5/5, and review us on Apple, Sp...