Hey, pilgrim! You forgot your pop-gun!

Foghorn Leghorn (alias Rooster Cogburn)

"Get off your soldier and milk your horse, drink"

Jeremy

Alright...

Rio Bravo - it's got everything. Dean Martin playing a drunk. Walter Brennan playing a lame old deputy (who also does an impression of the Duke) Ricky Nelson as the hot, cheesy token-pop-star-cast-as-a-young-gunslinger and Angie Dickinson...>3<...as the female interest. It's directed by Howard Hawks (still at the top of his form). It's a great western. There is a moment of quite shocking violence when the Duke does 180 degree spin-on-his-heels and rifle whips a villain across the face in a saloon.

Chisum - the film that introduced me to the whole Wayne thing (when I was about fourteen). Loved it then. Fondly remembered.

The Cowboys - much underrated late entry, I think.

and....

Hatari - I haven't seen this since I was a kid, but I loved it then. Also directed by Howard Hawks. And, I think (perhaps somewhat controversially), the last of their great collaborations. They made a couple of other - somewhat duff - entries later.

Oddly enough, there is nothing by John Ford on my list. I cannot say that I have enjoyed the John Ford/John Wayne collaborations that I have seen. Ford's sentimentalism just turns me right off. Although The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is probably the best of them.

I think it's only fair to say at the end of this brief list that I have long since grown out of my fanboy interest in John Wayne.

Bill Markley

Thanks for your positive comments about John Wayne. My favorites are "True Grit," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," and "The Quiet Man."

"True Grit" has a great story which includes redemption for a boozing, almost over-the-hill lawman Rooster Cogburn, and the maturing of a tough-minded girl who and learns to appreciate the imperfect Rooster.

"...Valance" has lots of rollicking fun, and also a very touching portrayal of the kind of inarticulate man upon whom civilization depends, but who sometimes doesn't get appreciated like he should.

"The Quiet Man" has plenty of rollicking too, plus great scenery, John Wayne having fun, and lots of political incorrectness which is sorely needed in this world.

Mr Eugenides

The Shootist - perhaps not his absolute best, but even the presence of a young Ron Howard cannot spoil the knowingly elegiac mood of this underrated film. It's said that when the young Howard asked the Duke for some acting advice, Wayne told him, "Ron, if you want to look menacing - close your mouth."

Swansongs can sometimes be overly saccharine - think of On Golden Pond, or Edward G Robinson's misjudged final scene in the movies in Soylent Green - but when it's done right (Gran Torino?) a canny filmmaker can use the weight of an actor's historical baggage to inform and texture his movie, and I think that's what Don Siegel managed to do in Wayne's last film. Wayne wasn't even the first choice for the part, but he's absolutely perfect for it.

Rhoda Klapp

True Grit, for the dialogue. Three Godfathers is good too.

And (nearly) anything else by Ford. I love the way he uses music. Yes, it's sentimentality, but so what. I just love to see all the familiar faces, too. Victor Mclagen, Ward Bond, Harry Carey jr...the magnificent Maureen.

THX1138

It has to be The Searchers.

The great ending:

http://tinyurl.com/dy2uml

It ends where it begins and the man alone walks away.

Jeremy

Alex:

I wish you had let this thread remain at the top of your blog for a while longer.

I think that one of the problems with Red River is that Wayne is physically too young for the part he is playing. Ten-to-fifteen years later and he would have been perfect. Although Montgomery Clift (as you would expect) makes a better fist of the "young gunslinger" role in Red River than Ricky Nelson does in Rio Bravo. Although Nelson, to be fair, has a throwaway pretty-boy cheesiness that Clift lacks. Take your pick. Brennan too, I think, is just that much older and better in Rio Bravo than he is in Red River - he just seems to have the whole persona and patter of his character nailed down slightly better.

Rhoda Klapp:

Three Godfathers (I've seen it only once) is actually quite a good example of what I would regard as both the failings and the virtues of a John Ford/John Wayne film. Visually, it's beautiful to look at. It's very artistically shot and soaked through with those lovely, rich technicolours. But in terms of script and characterisation it's utterly conventional, with great dollops of the pietism and sentimentalism that put me off Ford/Wayne films.

Hawks, I think is the more interesting of the two directors. Why? Because - pace Red River - he is prepared to shift the story dynamics slightly to one side of the utterly conventional. I suppose the now-you-see-it-now-you-don't homoerotic subtext to Red River is a case in point. It just makes the thing a bit less conventional and a bit more interesting.

In hindsight (and it is a very long time since I have seen the thing) Stagecoach probably does deserve its reputaion as one of the most effective John Ford/John Wayne westerns. It has an interesting situation and a good cast of very varied characters.

I wouldn't mind sitting through Red River again. And I would also like to see Legend of The Lost - which everybody writes off but which (again) I saw as a kid and really enjoyed. I've got a feeling that's another Hawks/Wayne outing from the late fifties.