But that was then and this is now. I've already seen other John Ford movies (The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Fort Apache), and gotten used to the John Ford style of depicting the Old West, up to the point where I can say that Clementine and Liberty Valance are classics of the genre (and I can say that John Ford is better than Howard Hawks in the Western department as well). And even The Searchers is a lot better now than it was then. I don't think the movie itself has changed; my opinion of it has.
Wayne stars as Ethan, a man who apparently fought with the Confederate Army during the civil war, but didn't return home for another three years afterward. We don't know where he's been, and he is not interested in telling us, or the brother and family whom he returns to. There is, however, a curious moment in which Wayne gives his brother a bag of coins, and says it's 20 Yankee dollars, which are clean and freshly minted. This begs the question: where did he get the money? As well, the sheriff (Ward Bond) says that he "fits a lot of descriptions".
Tragedy strikes the family when a Comanche tribe, led by a man named Scar, destroys the house, killing Ethan's brother, and the brother's wife and son. The two daughters are taken captive. This situation would naturally anger any person, and any person would want vengeance, but Wayne's character has a particular type of vengeance, because it isn't directed toward specific people, but towards Native Americans in general. The fact that a band leader orchestrated the killing of Ethan's family just make his feelings more justifiable in his eyes. His anti-Indian rage extends to Martin, an adopted son of the family, who was found by Ethan when Martin was just a baby. Martin is 1/8 Cherokee, and Ethan never tires of making snide insults towards him.
