Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)

In my rea​ding life, I had only read two screenplays, Thomas McGuane's The Missouri Breaks (a hot mess) and William Goldman's Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (an unvarnished delight), so I was all sixes and sevens when I began reading The Searchers. Now, let me allow that I have seen this beautiful film again and again and, for most of my life, its critics have selected it as the greatest American movie of all time. That will change. The script is a fine one, save for an occasional lapse into sloppy usage ("tearing around") and John Ford, the director, was thereby given a beautiful palate to paint his picture, but this film, probably a result from the time it was written, will only see its reputation go down. You see, as is the case with Gone with the Wind or Birth of a Nation, it is offensively racist, essentially because it's hate-ridden lead character, Confederate veteran Ethan Edwards, never misses a chance to denigrate the Indians and the 'half-breeds' who populate his world. (It is jarring to discover that, by 1950's indifferent Hollywood standards, author Nugent would actually alter "his source material's 'visceral loathing' for the Indian characters, transforming them into victims of government-sanctioned criminal exploitation. In the place of like-minded Indian leaders, he introduced contrast between the young, hot-blooded warrior and the wiser veteran, which became a standard feature of the Hollywood Western.") And, to his credit, his story is peopled with larger-than-life characters and that is a saving grace! And let's not neglect its powerful redemptive ending! In a sense,
The Searchers is more of a psychological portrait of a twisted human being than it is a story of frontier violence and mayhem.… (altro)

Our family of five boys (and some Irish heritage) watched this film repeatedly, and loved it then and now.

"The screenplay by Frank S. Nugent was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story of the same name by Maurice Walsh, later published as part of a collection titled The Green Rushes." -
"The film employed many actors from the Irish theatre, including Barry Fitzgerald's brother, Arthur Shields, as well as extras from the Irish countryside, and it is one of the few Hollywood movies in which the Irish language can be heard.
Filming commenced on June 7, 1951.[citation needed]

All of the outdoor scenes were shot on location in Ireland in County Mayo and County Galway. ... Ford made considerable efforts to get the costumes correct for the period with Ó’Maille – The Original House of Style in Galway tasked with sourcing the costumes."
Wikipedia

There were some fun interesting items here that didn't make it into the main Wiki entry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AThe_Quiet_Man… (altro)