The movie starts out with Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) coming to visit his brother in Texas. He is a Civil War veteran who fought for the Confederacy. The war had actually ended three years prior and there were rumors that he had traveled to California during that time frame, but he denies it. Whatever he did, he seems to have done decently okay for himself as he provides his brother payment for temporary shelter. The next day, Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton (Ward Bond) comes to the house. Cattle was stolen from a nearby ranch and a posse is being put together to chase down the thieves. Ethan goes with the group while his brother and most of the family stays behind. After going a distance on horseback, they come upon the cattle - they're all dead. They quickly realize that a group of Comanches has set a trap where they've gotten a group of armed men to leave their homesteads, which would leave their places wide open for attack.
The groups split in two with one group riding to one location while the other group goes back to the Edwards location. By the time one of the groups gets back to the Edwards homestead, it is too late. The place is burned down and most of the family has been killed. The two young girls, Ethan's nieces, appear to have been abducted: Debbie and Lucy. The two groups re-form and ride off to try and rescue the girls. They come across the Comanche warriors and are outnumbers by about 2 to 1. The group is able to find protective cover with the use of a river as defense and survive the attack. Due to the fact that they don't have the necessary military advantage, the group makes the determination that they simply can't rescue the two girls.
Ethan along with his brother's adopted son Martin (Jeffrey Hunter) and Lucy's fiance Brad (Harry Carey Jr.) continue a smaller search. Ethan discovers than Lucy was murdered and Brad goes on a heroic, but ultimately stupid attempt for revenge against the Comanches. Ethan and Martin continue on, but a winter storm causes them to lose track of the tribe. They spend the next two years continuing their search, but ultimately give up. During those two years, and "shown" off-screen, Ethan puts out a $1,000 award for information on Debbie.
Upon returning back to the small community, Ethan and Martin learn that there is a potential lead waiting for them that Debbie is still alive. After staying for only a day or so, they go back out on a four year search. The movie spends time on the first year of the search and then jumps to the fourth year. In the fourth year, they get another lead on the exact location of the Comanches and head to the tribe to attempt a negotiation for her release.
So I think I'll stop the spoilers at this point.
The very first thing that stuck to me throughout the movie was that Ethan is an anti-hero. Forget current movies such as "The Joker" and "Suicide Squad," this movie is a real anti-hero movie. (Okay, maybe I shouldn't slam "The Joker.") From the first 10 minutes or so, Ethan comes across as an extreme racist. As mentioned above, Martin has been adopted into the Edward's family. Martin happens to be a quarter Comanche. Ethan verbally attacks him throughout most of the movie. When the initial search party comes across a buried Comanche (someone that Ethan's brother had likely killed during the homestead attack), Ethan shoots him in the eyes to prevent him from enjoying the afterlife. The rest of the search party rebukes him for this. Later in the movie, he basically issues the Western version of what I'm calling a death fatwa.
And yet, the audience watching the movie wants him to find his niece. This is a person who dedicates six years of his life in search of someone who he only saw when she was a baby and then for less than 24 hours as a child. So even though he is racist to the bone, there is also good in him. You can also see how he starts to treat Martin as family. The movie seems to indicate that racism can be over-come by actually interacting with people of different races.
If this movie was re-made today, I think the movie would explore Martin's character more. Here's a person who is a quarter Comanche. What conflicts is he going through during the movie? His adopted family is white, but he does have Comanche blood. Does he feel any conflicting loyalties as his adopted family that is basically pushing the Comanche's off their land? Admittedly, the Comanches killed his family (a father, mother, brother and sister), but this is a war between two groups.
In Texas, as shown in the movie, there are various Comanche tribes. Only one tribe has kept on fighting against the US. The other tribes have made peace with America and many of them are living in impoverished conditions that is briefly highlighted in a couple scenes. Perhaps that is the story line that would be interesting to explore for Martin. Martin is able to live in White America. In fact, he also has a white girlfriend and if they get married, his children would be just 1/8 Comanche. I'm sure that is a story line that deserves some exploration.
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