23. American Civil War veteran Ethan Edwards spends years tracking down the survivors of a Comanche massacre, his nieces Lucy and Debbie.
Which 1956 film, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, am I talking about?
From Quiz What's in a Title? Revenge in Films
Answer:
The Searchers
The title obviously refers to the quest to find the two girls which Ethan (Wayne) embarks upon. The massacre takes place at Ethan's brother's homestead and is probably motivated by revenge. His brother, sister-in-law (with whom Ethan has a very strong bond), and nephew are all slaughtered, but his two nieces, Debbie and her older sister Lucy, are abducted. At first the search party is a posse which includes some Texan Rangers, Lucy's fiancé, and Debbie and Lucy's adopted brother, Martin Pawley. By the time they actually find Debbie, it's just Ethan and Martin. Many things drive the men, not least revenge.
Ford biographer and renowned film critic Peter Bogdanovich has said of "The Searchers" that although on its release it wasn't a huge success critically, "time is the best critic and The Searchers has grown in esteem because it's undeniable, it's so powerful, an American epic about a loner, a racist, about a way of life, the reverberations of which we are still living with."