John Wayne gives one of his most complex performances as an obsessed Civil War vet consumed by a quest for vengeance after his family is slain and his niece (Natalie Wood) is abducted by Comanche warriors. Shot in the high-resolution, widescreen format known as VistaVision, John Ford’s epic saga is one of American cinema’s most iconic and influential works—and one of its thorniest—at once spinning and grappling with the myths of the frontier.