The Searchers 4K UHD (1956) (Warner Archive Collection)

[MifuneFan]

Warner Archive has just announced plans to release The Searchers (1956) on 4K UHD on December 17th! It is their first 4K release, and will include HDR/Dolby Vision and be encoded by Fidelity in Motion. I got to see the restoration recently in theaters (in 70mm) and it looked incredible.

The Searchers 4K Blu-ray

Warner Archive Announces Its First 4K UHD — John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS

Perhaps the greatest collaboration between the legendary director John Ford and his famed leading man John Wayne, the 1956 Warner Bros. classic The Searchers will be arriving on 4K UHD Blu-ray disc, meticulously restored and newly remastered from its original VistaVision camera negative.

The film will be available as either a 4K UHD Blu-ray disc combo pack, including a newly remastered Blu-ray disc, or as a stand-alone Blu-ray disc. SRP for the 4K/Blu-ray combo pack will be $29.99, and the remastered Blu-ray will have an SRP of $21.99. Both iterations will contain over an hour of special features in HD on the Blu-ray disc, with the feature itself having an archival commentary from the late Peter Bogdanovich. The Searchers will release on December 17, and is available for pre-order at leading online media retailers.

The new 4K UHD Blu-ray presentation of the feature will be available with Dolby Vision and HDR10. Both the 4K and Blu-ray discs will contain the feature's original monaural audio track which was restored from the best available source materials to provide a clean and dynamic audio presentation.

The film underwent an extensive restoration earlier this year, at Warner Bros. Motion Picture Imaging and Warner Bros. Archival Mastering (for audio). This restoration was undertaken by Warner Bros. Discovery in collaboration with The Film Foundation and made its public premiere on April 21st of this year at the 15th annual TCM Film Festival.

Compression and authoring for Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray were performed by Fidelity in Motion. To maintain the highest possible image and sound quality for home viewing, these optimized encodes fully utilize the available bandwidth and disc space on the BD100 and BD50 formats.

The Searchers was filmed using the 8-perf 35mm VistaVision process, where the negative went through the camera horizontally with double the frame size of traditional 35mm film, thus yielding incredible clarity with great depth of field. The original negative along with yellow separation protection masters were used for this new presentation, to fully restore the film's original color palette capturing the masterful cinematography of Winton C. Hoch, a frequent Ford collaborator. The result is a revelatory presentation which is a testament to the artistry that went into creating this beloved motion picture.


About "The Searchers"

John Wayne and John Ford made The Searchers a landmark Western with an indelible image of the frontier and the people who challenged it. Although not nominated for any awards at the time of its release, the film has since been widely acknowledged as one of the supreme triumphs of the genre. The Searchers was placed on the National Film Registry in 1989 and ranked number 12 on the American Film Institute's 2008 list of "100 Greatest American Films of all time."

Wayne plays an ex-Confederate soldier searching for his niece (Natalie Wood), captured by the Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his five-year search, he encounters something unexpected: his own humanity. Beautifully shot by Winton C. Hoch (four-time Academy Award winner), thrillingly scored by Max Steiner (21 Academy Award nominations, 3 wins) and memorably acted by a wonderful ensemble including Jeffrey Hunter (King of Kings, The Longest Day), Vera Miles (The Wrong Man, Psycho), Natalie Wood (Rebel Without a Cause, Gypsy, West Side Story) and frequent Ford cast member Ward Bond (My Darling Clementine, The Quiet Man), The Searchers endures as "a great film of enormous scope and breathtaking physical beauty." (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic).

Special Features on the 4K UHD disc and the Blu-ray disc:

• Archival Commentary by Director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc?) on both the 4K and Blu-ray discs.

On the Blu-ray disc:

• Original Theatrical trailer (HD)
• The Searchers: An Appreciation (HD)
• A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers (HD)
• Newsreel coverage of the film's world premiere (HD)
• Outtakes (HD)
• Behind the Cameras (segments from the 1956 Warner Bros. Presents TV series): (HD)
• Meet Jeffrey Hunter
• Monument Valley
• Meet Natalie Wood
• Setting Up Production

Running time: 119 Minutes
COLOR
NOT RATED
DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect ratio 16x9 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH
For the 4K UHD Blu-ray: Dolby Vision, HDR10, BD100
For the Blu-ray: BD50

4K UHD Blu-ray/Blu-ray 2-Disc combo-$29.99 SRP
Blu-ray-$21.99
Street date: December 17, 2024

ALLIED VAUGHN ENTERTAINMENT is the exclusive licensed distributor of the Warner Archive Collection.

[dallywhitty]

I've had this on Blu-ray for years but it's still sealed...

[nicwood]

Wow, wow, wow. Never expected this, only dreamed about it. And a FiM encode!!!!!

[Worship.my.wreck]

Count me in

[maverick22]

Someone help me out here please.

I'm not a huge fan of westerns, but I do like those that are considered at the top / the best.

Where does this rank roughly - near the top?

[MifuneFan]

Looks like the Blu-ray.com news post from Michael Reuben was removed. Possibly went up too soon?

edit: All good, they just had to change the links apparently

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=35453

[Mose Harper]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

I've had this on Blu-ray for years but it's still sealed...

Funny, but I have too.

Mine was to replace the HD DVD that got several spins up until I fully migrated to this format after that ones demise.

Still, a favorite movie and I've been waiting for this inevitable restoration/remaster for what seems like forever. I won't be waiting for a killer deal, just a whatever is the best first week deal I can find.

[harry o]

Comfortably at the top in my humble opinion.

[Mose Harper]

Originally Posted by maverick22

Someone help me out here please.

I'm not a huge fan of westerns, but I do like those that are considered at the top / the best.

Where does this rank roughly - near the top?

Yes.
Top tier. Though don't go in expecting a Leone film.

[ToonySpoonGoon]

Dolby Vision? Original audio? FIM???

Need this energy from Warner's every time man

[Cremildo]

Still the greatest western I've ever seen. That's unlikely to ever change.

Imagine Winton Hoch's colors on 4K HDR. Bring it on.

[Brad1963]

Holy s--t! Best news all year! What a great way to cap off 2024!

[maverick22]

Originally Posted by Mose Harper

Yes.
Top tier. Though don't go in expecting a Leone film.

Thanks.

I remember seeing a bunch of members here really wanting a western that starts with an "S" to come to 4k. I'm starting to assume it was this one now.

Wow, just when we thought December couldn't get anymore expensive

[professorwho]

I'm not even a western person, but WAC jumping into UHD alone is enough to make me support their first. DV, OG audio AND an FiM encode are just the icing on the cake.

Now, WAC, if you can give us the UHD equivalent of this set with this quality, we will forever be in your debt:


(Mainly for The Wild Bunch alone)

[themp3000]

Oh this is a beauty to see. Definitely preordering when it goes up somewhere I trust.

[Parkerbcn]

Excellent news! A true classic with an encode by Fidelity in Motion. I hope it's the first of many Warner Archive 4K UHDs to come with this level of care.

[Geoff D]

Fidelity encode? And Dobly? And OG audio? Thank god WAC really do operate like an indie label within Warners, this is absolutely AMAZING news. If this was Warners proper then it'd be another passable encode stuffed onto a UHD66 with no Dobly. Hopefully sales will be good enough that it might convince them to start doing these things for future deep catalogue releases, and not for modern toss like Tag and The Intern. (Seriously, what the actual f*ck?)

[SmittysGelato]

I'll have to pick up Rio Bravo at the same time and do a John Wayne Double Feature.

[BluProofie]

Fantastic news.

[garyd97]

Awesome! I will be preordering this one.