I'm so grateful to have another virtual visit with Tom and Dana discussing my favorite film The Searchers! You can hear the episode on Greatest Movies of All Time Website and follow GMOAT on Instagram for much more.
Don't forget you can also read the complete Cinema Legacy Poll in which myself and many other podcasters took part thanks to GMOAT!
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My Coffin of Oscar Disdain
by Kristin Battestella
My piss-ant attitude toward Oscar pundits this messy awards season did not happen overnight. As I've mentioned on Blue Sky and in several Video and Podcast appearances alongside my previous Why I'm Disinterested in Awards Season op-ed; my disdain for the Academy Awards began early. Here then are the chronological nails in my coffin and why the head scratching, so often erroneous Oscars are not worth such out of control, vicarious obsession for everything but the films that are supposed to mean the most to us.
As a kid in the eighties I was aware of the Oscars purely as prestige. Awards were for art house, international, period piece epics and serious films that I often didn't get to see. Oscar winning films weren't for everyone, and that exclusivity remains largely true. Many popular films and blockbusters or genre hits of the decade have endured more than many of the obscure, out of touch eighties Best Picture nominees. Maybe I didn't understand the details then, but the Academy's unwelcoming, full of itself nature was already apparent.
The Searchers receiving no nominations
When we got our first VCR, I fell in love with what cinema should be upon seeing The Searchers. In consulting my ye olde film guides and Oscar books, however, I was completely baffled that The Searchers not only didn't win any of the big awards, but it wasn't even nominated for anything! This was a how sway before there was even how sway. I read more literature agreeing on the mastery of John Ford's seminal piece, and this lack of Academy acknowledgment remains flat out WRONG. Little me knew it then, and my disdain deepened upon reading of more fifties Oscars errors – like Rear Window going empty-handed.
Goodfellas losing Best Picture
Surely, historical Oscar mistakes were just a fluke of classic film to be studied, right? Alas no, as I saw the Academy screw up again in real time when Goodfellas did not win Best Picture. Everything I already thought about Oscar's elite attitudes was compounded by the white savior Dances with Wolves defeating the unmistakably Italian Goodfellas. This egregiousness made it personal.
Falling in love with the mid-century acting masterclass that is Montgomery Clift's unfortunately brief body of work is something every so-called classic connoisseur should do. Although nominated four times for The Search, A Place in The Sun, From Here to Eternity and Judgment at Nuremberg; Clift never won. A case can also be made that he deserved more nominations for The Heiress, Red River, I Confess, Suddenly Last Summer, Wild River, or The Misfits yet because he's not an Oscar winner, Clift is now considered somewhat second tier in the classic pantheon. My budding teen self was once again confounded how some of the best films and performances will always be on the outside looking in when it comes to Oscar.
The ignoring of Terence Stamp for The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert
Obviously I knew nothing of the drag scene in nineties Sydney, but I learned everything I needed to know about rainbow compassion from Priscilla. Famed as the villainous Zod in Superman, Stamp's middle-aged transsexual widow was a revelation transcending cinema. A tender, delicate performance that was a bold, daring statement speaking to post-AIDS attitudes that continues to resonate today. Naturally the fearful Academy dared not touch such superb insight – instead choosing the relative safety of only acknowledging Priscilla for costumes.
L.A. Confidential not winning Best Picture
Somewhere along the line I heard someone say that the Screenplay winners are actually the better movies than what wins Best Picture. Never has this been more true than the heaps of praise upon the blockbuster Titanic, which is not the better picture than the neo noir masterpiece that is L.A. Confidential. Here the eighties prestige swung the other way – choosing the popular film and box office success as increasingly necessary to win. Whether you are a complex, sophisticated piece that stands the test of time apparently has nothing to do with it.
No nomination for Guy Pearce for Memento
Too bad for everyone who's tired of hearing me say it, but this is my hill. Guy Pearce's lack of Academy acknowledgment for Memento highlights all of Oscar's problems. Playing it safe #oscarssowhite not properly awarding Denzel Washington for Malcolm X lead to his against type make up win alongside the nomination acclaiming offensive performances like I Am Sam. This slap in the face was enough to make me stop actively paying attention to awards season for the rest of the decade. When the Academy doesn't recognize someone like Pearce and Christopher Nolan as the future of twenty-first century cinema, what are they even doing?
A point for Christian Bale's win!
Believe it or not, I took one nail out of my Oscar coffin in 2011 when Christian Bale won for The Fighter. I even called my parents to tell them the kid from Newsies won an Oscar! Despite his previously being overlooked for more daring performances like American Psycho and The Machinist, this was a rare occasion where the Academy finally did something right.
Michael Fassbender's nominations for the wrong films
Of course, my return to active awards interest was not meant to be as the impressive Fassbender was ignored for excellent performances in Hunger and Fish Tank. He was on the outside looking in at no nomination for Shame with jokes all season instead, and Carey Mulligan was also unfairly lost in the shuffle. Of course, Fassbender was graced with a seemingly obligated nomination for 12 Years a Slave, and I laughed at his subsequent nod for the stereotypically baity Steve Jobs. Forcing one of our most daring actors into awards safety turned me away yet again.
Guy Pearce receiving no acknowledgment for The Rover
I casually knew Pearce was once again not in the awards conversation for The Rover, having long accepted that it's worth seeking out his edgy, raw films that standing pat Oscar would never touch. However after having to wait for and then finally see The Rover, I was once again angry at how the supposed bar of award excellence could ignore such haunting material. Even in absentia this reaffirmed my Oscar free attitude for the next decade.
So now I was lured into the awards circus once more thanks to the world's apparently waking up to Guy Pearce's being worthy of acclaim for The Brutalist. We're in the home stretch of what has been the messiest, nastiest, cutthroat, and ridiculous award season. Everything about why I hated awards has increased tenfold in the social media age with Oscar obsession totally out of touch on everything that's happening in this disastrous 2025. Euphoric pundits play along in a game of predictions, patterns, and if this than that algorithms that have nothing to do with any meaning found in the films and performances. When the wannabe experts admit that the best doesn't win, film goers are supposed to accept that falsehood instead of enjoy the movies that move them? I object the devotion to contrived Academy politics over quality cinema.
I don't expect Guy Pearce to win anything. Even if he did, this year is the tenth and final nail in my Coffin of Oscar Disdain. I've had one foot out the door with my back turned for most of this century, and I will never be drawn back into award punditry and patheticness over art ever again.
Oscar is dead to me. I don't know her. ⚰️
It's very exciting to be part of other podcast ventures and appearances! After taking part in The Revisionist Almanac Let's Get Spooky Collab last year, it was my turn to take part in The Almanac's 1956 episode. See and Hear as at long last I rectified the award wrongs for The Searchers!
Thank you Andrew for inviting me to take part! With all the terrible things happening recently, it's a comfort to know my voice has meaning – even if it's in a tiny capacity talking about the movies we love.
You can also pick up some @RevAlmanac swag, but my cat photobombed my show and tell attempt!
Follow our Podcast tag for more and revisit previous guest appearances:
Greatest Movies of All Time – Ben-Hur
Making Tarantino – House of Dark Shadows and Frankenstein Must be Destroyed
The Lone Screenplay Nominee – Stand by Me
Infamous for not alphabetizing her physical media collection, Kristin Battestella shares her budding DVD Snapcase collection – from early video release memories and classic films to horror movies and sentimental favorites.
Thank you for watching!
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If you've been reading our classic film reviews and actor countdowns moonlighting at InSession Film, you may have heard about the new Women InSession film podcast including Yours Truly alongside my fellow female film critics at InSession! 🙋♀️
You can listen to the First Three Episodes of Women InSession wherever you hear your favorite podcasts. This opening trilogy is a bit of a Classic Film dive:
Women InSession Episode 1: Our Top 3 Classics with @Zita Short
Women InSession Episode 2: George Stevens and A Place in the Sun with @ZitaShort and @Amy Thomasson
Women InSession Episode 3: Westerns from a Feminine Perspective with @ZitaShort
We have a fun, new announcement! Beginning this week we have a new podcast to add to the InSession Film family, led by @thereforereview @Zita_Short @filmswithamy @athomasson11 @ShadanLarki and @eRockReviews! pic.twitter.com/w8JzcdDObG
— InSession Film (@InSessionFilm) July 20, 2022
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Larger than Life Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton Pictures
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The Searchers Is My Favorite Movie of All Time 
My parents might remember it differently, but I quickly became obsessed with all things Indian after seeing The Searchers. My hair was always in braids, I had pipes, drums, rubber tomahawks, and moccasins. Lipstick makes great face paint, and I went through numerous construction paper feather headdresses. Years later, I carried on this tradition by teaching my nieces how to build teepees in the backyard-much to my mother’s dismay. All this imagination and delight from one viewing of an old western!
Ethan Edwards also possesses a bizarre knowledge of the Comanche Indians in The Searchers. He knows which Army agencies the local tribes frequent; he speaks their language and knows their customs. How can he be so knowledgeable yet hate Indians so? Look carefully for a tombstone early in the film detailing the death of Ethan’s mother by a Comanche raid. Is this why he only knows the bad side of a Comanche? All these questions I’ve raised, and The Searchers doesn’t always provide a satisfactory answer. In contrast to some of its heavier and complex motifs, John Ford also makes sure there’s a fair bit of western humor. Mose Harper (Hank Worden, 
He’s one of the stalwart personifications of the American Hero. When John Wayne got the bad guys onscreen in so many World War II pictures like Sands of Iwo Jima and They Were Expendable, so did we. When John Wayne put his own money into the overstuffed and overzealous The Alamo, we still watched. Even when John Wayne supported 
Jeffrey Hunter, however, does stand in John Wayne’s way. For every “That’ll be the day!” from Ethan, we have Martin’s contesting, “Not likely!” Seemingly cast as the young pretty boy most pictures seem to require, Hunter (His Christopher Pike from the original Star Trek pilot is my favorite and I love Sergeant Rutledge) is the idealistic antagonist to Ethan. According to The Searchers’ gospel, part Indian Marty’s thoughts shouldn’t matter against big, white Ethan. Nevertheless, Martin’s quest to stay with Ethan in order to save Debbie from her Uncle’s pathos is essential for the viewer. Hunter is the perfect sidekick to 
as I did the first time I saw The Searchers-you know Debbie when you see her. Likewise, The John Ford Stock Company charms the viewer. Veteran character actor Ward Bond (Sergeant York, 
I don’t suppose there’s much I can say about John Ford that a master of film making, history, or viewing doesn’t already know. From The Iron Horse, Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, and How Green Was My Valley to The Quiet Man, Mister Roberts, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; John Ford entertained the budding motion picture generation and constructed the essentials of filmmaking that we rely on today. His direction here is harsh and wise. In some ways, The Searchers is not meant to be a pretty and charming picture. Yet, in others ways, how can it not be? Ford’s mastery of cast, cameras, and characters clicks on all cylinders. But of course, the incredible locations and vistas of 
One distinctly unique style of The Searchers is the deliberately minimal use of close ups. I never thought to notice this in other pictures, but it makes absolute sense here. There are only about a dozen medium close-ups, and although those zooms get closer to a characters’ thoughts and feelings, the lack of a true close ups represents the distance still between critical people and the people amid nature. Even when Ford takes his camera as close as we’re going to get, your eye is still drawn to everything else in the frame. There’s the famous zoom where 
Despite its wonderful cast and visuals, The Searchers is not a western where the good guys where white hats and the bad boys are all in black. It’s reflections on racism, Manifest Destiny, and the Confederacy are clear enough to any modern viewer. From the first mention of Ethan’s allegiance to the South to Laurie’s final declaration that a bullet in Debbie’s brain is best, we know this picture says a lot more than most westerns or most of its McCarthy era compatriots. Not only commenting on its story material, The Searchers also says a lot about its time. There are no black actors in sight-and I’m sure if I researched enough I could find out that surely there were real American Indians involved in the production. Nevertheless, you can’t see any of them onscreen. Painted white actors- Scar actor Henry Brandon was born in 
Like other John Ford pictures, The US Cavalry makes an appearance here. Instead of being the hero, however, The Searchers offers a somewhat underhanded treatment of the Army. First the Cavalry and its Indian Agencies interfere with Ethan’s search and provide little help. Later, Lieutenant Greenhill is made out to be a dumb, spoiled boy who doesn’t know what he’s doing-and he and his bugler are the only significant Cavalrymen in the picture. Some viewers think a brief scene in which Captain Clayton has an undisclosed rear end injury is out of place; however, I think he was stuck in the butt with Greenhill’s sword. He’s warned earlier by Clayton to take care with his ‘knife’, and to me the butt wound represents the pain in the backside that Northern interference and reconstruction was to the still proud South. 
Also seeming to rub the wrong way in The Searchers is the juxtaposition of religion and violence. The local reverend is also the ranger captain for goodness sake, and he has no problem shouting Hallelujah after he’s shot a few Indians. Clayton also comments in the opening moments of the film that Debbie still isn’t baptized-does this mean she’s more susceptible to those Injun ways? Before a battle with Scar, Mose erroneously prays, ‘That which we are about to receive, we thank thee, oh Lord.’ Shortly thereafter, Martin has mixed feelings about his first Indian kill, but he quickly gets over it and continues firing. This observance of white hypocrisy parallels the relationship between Ethan and Scar, for both fights to avenge killed family. Ethan constantly refers to evil Bucks, non-human Comanche, scalping-he even shoots the eyes out of a dead Indian so the man will ‘wonder forever between the winds’.
The Searchers’ numerous releases on DVD and now blu-ray; its preserved status with the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry; and its countless placing on numerous Top lists, critics’ choices, and American Film Institute countdowns should give you some indication as to how important this picture is to American cinema. Ranked as the number 1 western and 12th best film of all time by the AFI, you can’t consider yourself a fan of great movies unless you’ve seen this picture. Despite my praise, The Searchers is not a film one watches obsessively like others. It certainly takes more than one viewing to catch all its complexities, but The Searchers also needs time to germ and stew. There has to be time for you to forget, if possible, touching pieces or perhaps change yourself and thus your viewing perceptions. This film should be watched every few years or so and only in a proper viewing format-not cut up with commercials on television. The Searchers must be seen in its entirety every time for full effect-Ford’s epic vision demands it.
