In “Taken” Liam Neeson has what boils down to a matter of days, hours really, to track down his kidnapped daughter and save her. If he had real star power and better contract negotiating skills, he could have gotten up to 5 years to rescue her, the way John Wayne saves his niece in the classic western “The Searchers.”

Saddle up, Pilgrim, for another edition of Retro Movie Moments, this time focusing on what many consider to be the greatest western movie ever made.

Set in Texas in 1868, “The Searchers” is the story of Ethan Edwards (Wayne), an ex-Confederate soldier (and possible mercenary in Mexico) returning home after a prolonged absence of many years. He is emotionally scarred from years of fighting and such a racist bigot that he can hardly tolerate eating at the same table as his adopted nephew Martin (Jeffrey Hunter) who is one-eighth Cherokee. Ethan also has a strained relationship with his brother and seems to be in love with his brother’s wife…a sentiment she seems to return.

Before tensions at home boil over, Comanches are seen raising a ruckus at a nearby ranch, and a posse of Texas Rangers deputize Ethan and Martin to help hunt them down.

Drawn into a trap by the Indians, the white gunmen are lured away from their ranches where the Comanches strike. By the time the Rangers realize they’ve been duped, the Edwards’ homestead has been burned to the ground and the family slaughtered–the two youngest nieces kidnapped.

Ethan and Marty soon set off on an epic 5-year journey to rescue them. The older girl is soon found raped and murdered, but 9-year-old Debbie (Lana Wood) is being raised by the Comanches as one of their own. (Lana’s older and more famous sister, Natalie Wood, plays the 14-year-old Debbie at the end of the movie.)

Ethan and Martin’s quest to save Debbie takes them from beautiful terrain to the brink of insanity in this A-typical western that gives us one of the very first anti-heroes of the genre and a probing look into the darker depths of human nature.

One cannot go any deeper into the themes and development of this film without first noting director John Ford’s and cinematographer Winton C. Hoch’s stunningly gorgeous capturing of Monument Valley in Utah and Arizona (not Texas) in remarkable Technicolor VistaVision. Oh, to see this on an original VistaVision screen! The blu-ray is remarkable, but, man, it’s a shame there aren’t many VistaVision screens left.

Far from being the first time Ford filmed in Monument Valley, this 1956 release has got to be the most jaw-droppingly beautiful use of the landscape on film. The clean, deep-blue sky provides great contrast to the desert sands and red rocks that pop off the screen and invite you in to explore on horseback.

The biggest theme in the movie is how racism and hatred can ruin a man and make him crazy enough to risk killing his own flesh and blood. And yet the greatest irony of this picture is that it uses a blue-eyed white man to play the bloodthirsty Indian chief named Scar (Henry Brandon). Despite a phenomenal tan, Brandon’s eyes and near-pompadour hairstyle make him a little difficult to believe as an Indian–especially when nearly all of the other Indians in the movie are played by actual Native Americans. Hollywood wasn’t ready to trust a Native American to carry an important role–even a stereotypical one–despite the fact this movie is about confronting racism against Indians. One can write that off as a product of the times, but it is the only thing that rings false in this movie.

To add another conundrum to the issue of race during that time period and a little before it in Hollywood…a former colleague of mine at a South Dakota newspaper is Blackfoot. His father and uncle worked for several years as extras in any number of Hollywood westerns. I once asked him about the treatment and stereotyping of Indians in the movies back then and how his father and uncle dealt with it. He said that at the time his dad wasn’t thinking about it that way. He was just excited to be making movies and meeting the likes of John Wayne, Gary Cooper and many others.

Getting back to “The Searchers,” John Wayne said it was his favorite John Ford picture. He even named one of his sons Ethan after his character.

Ford, who got his start in silent movies, used great economy of dialog to tell this story. He relied heavily on his actors to really act and his cinematographer to maximize the story telling through the photography. It is not a chatty movie, but a great deal of the story unfurls without the need for words. It is captivating, requiring your full attention.

At the time, the movie had only modest box office success as just another western. It didn’t even get recognition from the folks behind the Academy Awards.

Regardless, the movie’s impact on American culture is pronounced. Wayne’s oft-repeated line in the film “That’ll be the day” was the inspiration for the late, great Buddy Holly’s rock ballad of the same title. Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg all credit “The Searchers” with having a profound impact on them. This is most noticeable in Lucas’ original “Star Wars.” Lucas all but steals scenes directly from “The Searchers.” Luke Skywalker finding his slain aunt and uncle at his burning desert home is virtually the same shot as Ethan and Martin finding their ranch burned and family killed. Even the recent hit “Taken” is built on the frame of “The Searchers.”

While “The Searchers” is generally a “heavy” movie, it laughs at itself liberally. Toward the end, there’s a young cavalry lieutenant who is given a hard time because his father–the regiment’s colonel–got him a commission. That lieutenant is John Wayne’s 15-year-old son Patrick whose dad got him the role.

No one on screen or behind the camera can give the kid too much trouble because virtually every secondary character in the movie had been in virtually every John Ford film from “Stagecoach” (1939) and “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940) to “The Searchers” in 1956 and many more to come.

So, for a great classic western from the vaults of DVDPlanet.com, be sure to examine “The Searchers.” Root around a little deeper and find other great classics by Ford and John Wayne. Until next time, I hope you enjoyed this Retro Movie Moment.