John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) will be the first 4k Ultra HD title under the Warner Bros. Archive label. The 2-disc edition with 4k Blu-ray and 2k Blu-ray arrives on Dec. 17 with the newly-restored film on both formats.
On 4k Blu-ray, The Searchers is presented in 2160p resolution at 1.85:1 (16 x 9) aspect ratio with Dolby Vison/HDR10. The soundtrack is provided in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono “restored from the best available source materials to provide a clean and dynamic audio presentation.”
Over an hour of legacy bonus materials are included in both the Blu-ray and 4k Blu-ray editions (on the Blu-ray). The 4k Blu-ray Disc does include, however, an archival commentary from the late Peter Bogdanovich.
The Searchers is list priced $29.99 for the 2-disc 4k Blu-ray/Blu-ray edition and $21.99 for the single-disc Blu-ray edition.
Special Features (4K Blu-ray & Blu-ray)
- Archival Commentary by Director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc?) on both the 4K and Blu-ray discs.
Special Features (Blu-ray)
- 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
Restoration Process
“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.”
– Warner Bros. Archive
