Rooster Cogburn I like, mostly because John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn bring their old pro chemistry to the proceedings. With Wayne's iconic drawl and Hepburn's East Coast trembling, the banter between them is just so damn listenable. Even today, if I'm in a deli and someone orders a Reuben all I can hear is Katharine Hepburn's shrill "R-r-r-reubahn".
Not a fan of The Undefeated. I couldn't find the Confederates who were "too proud" to stay in the union particularly sympathetic. Wayne is the best thing about this movie. Rio Lobo gets bashed a bit by critics, but I always enjoy it when it's on.
1969 True Grit 1969 The Undefeated 1970 No Substitute for Victory (Narrator) 1970 Chisum 1970 Rio Lobo 1970 Swing Out, Sweet Land (Himself) 1970 Harry Jackson: A Man and His Art (Narrator) 1971 Big Jake 1972 The Cowboys 1972 Cancel My Reservation (Himself) 1973 The Train Robbers 1973 Cahill, United States Marshal 1974 McQ 1975 Brannigan 1975 Rooster Cogburn 1976 The Shootist 1977 Star Wars (voice only as Garindian) And here is John Wayne in Star Wars. He's Garindian, the snoot guy's voice. Obviously heavily altered.
I can tell you all that as a kid, it was a BIG THRILL when Dad took us to see a JW in the late 60's/early 70's. Off topic, but I even remember seeing Paint Your Wagon on the big (and I mean really big) screen. Vancouver, where I grew up, was on the vaudeville circuit in the 30's, so the theatres were just gorgeous: Capitol, Orpheum, Vogue, Coronet. We saved the Orpheum and the Vogue. We saved the Vogue and the Orpheum, but the Coronet and Odeon are history. Here's a photo of Granville Street looking south from Robson Street:
I saw True Grit in a theatre. I was 12 or so. Liked it & I will still watch it. Think he made one call Brannigan? He was a cop or something. And the Shootist as well. Don't remember many others.
Big Jake is one of my favorite of all of his movies. Also his last one with Maureen O'Hara (and her last movie for 20 years).
If nothing else (and there was a lot else), JW conveyed the importance of being larger than life itself. A famous American once said: "Dream Big Dreams; little ones lack the momentum to carry themselves forward." Again, an incredible time to be young.
My dad did some summer stock theater and while he didn't meet John Wayne (he did meet Betty White), he use to say John Wayne was the best "re-actor" he ever saw. He's brilliant at it. The next time True Grit is on, watch him and especially the scene with Glen Campbell at the dugout, talking about who will shoot whom. He is listening to Campbell's every word. Carefully. His acting skills were finely tuned.
To me, it's one of those "if it's on, I watch it" sort of movies. It's just a great piece of movie making.... nothing to incredible, but just fully satisfying. Has Ron Howard ever spoke about it in any interviews?
'The Cowboys' is perhaps my favourite John Wayne film and I'm coming to the conclusion that it may contain Wayne's best performance. A great film.
I remember watching the Tonight show with Johnny Carson and John Wayne came on the set and they were talking about the Cowboys film. Wayne was really impressed with Bruce Dern as an actor.
John Wayne fan here. The Cowboys (1972) is one of the great westerns and the best film John Wayne made in the 1970s. He is riveting to watch, especially in the last half hour. In the 1970s, I particularly enjoyed The Train Robbers (1973). The story is paper thin but I like the style and visual aesthetic of the film, and of course John Wayne's presence. It could have been a Budd Boetticher / Randolph Scott suspense western like they did in the late 1950s. Burt Kennedy wrote those and he wrote and directed The Train Robbers. McQ (1974) offers one of John Wayne's most subtle performances. He plays a sad man in his retirement from the police department who gradually comes to realize that all the people he trusted went corrupt as soon as he was out of the way. It's a deeply felt but very small performance. Instead of projecting in big broad John Wayne style he internalizes. For some reason fans just aren't reading him in this film. Then the action starts the third act and nobody cares. I don't enjoy watching John Wayne die slowly in The Shootist (1976) although it is one helluva film. He is in absolute command of the screen. The music score is completely wrong and undermines the film for me. Director Don Siegel often screwed up the scoring of his films.
*The Cowboys" I was a kid (10) at the time and so envied those kids... in the style of the movie. I really enjoy most all his films and love many of them.
Fairly new JW fan here. I've seen about 25-30 of his films in the last year and The Shootist is his absolute best in my opinion. Deserves a Criterion release. The novel is excellent is well, though quite a bit bleaker. Like a previous poster stated, I've found most JW films for under $5 at Half Price Books. Lots of them are free on Tubi and Vudu as well. The Cowboys was also excellent. Great coming of age tale and didn't expect to see Duke die. Roscoe Lee Brown was wonderful, as was Bruce Dern. I actually enjoyed Rooster Cogburn more than True Grit. Duke and Katie's back-and-forth felt like a procession of hilarious memes. Very feel-good movie. Big Jake was quite a bit nastier and violent than a lot of the JW movies I've seen. I thought it was thrilling. The Train Robbers felt rather assembly line, but its enthusiasm is infectious and Ann-Margret is beautiful. McQ was a cool Dirty Harry lite. The 1970s Seattle locale was a big part of the appeal for me. I'm from Seattle but was born later. I like to seek out movies and shows set in Seattle of the past... The Parallax View also delivers on this front. Rio Lobo's opening is amazing. The rest of it wasn't quite as great as Rio Bravo and El Dorado, but tied the trilogy together in a crowd pleasing way.
Having worked in the oil and natural gas industry years ago I always get a laugh when Hellfighters is on. It's based on Paul Adair's exploits fighting oil well fires usually caused by a blowout. The phone rings, closeup on said phone, and the dramatic tension filled music begins.
I have both of these on bluray and really like them. The prob with McQ is Clu Gulager. A shocking actor. He ruined so many films and TV shows.
True grit is a strange film. It doesn't quite work for me. Kim Darbys part is just off. She character she plays is incongruous. Glenn Campbell was not an actor and should not have been in it. He does a Bobby Darrin in True Grit. I like the film but its out of kilter and could have been so easily better with better casting and character development.
Hellfighters is a pretty interesting movie for The Duke. It certainly is different. It's also a really hard one to find on streaming services. I checked it out from the library decades ago and have been itching to see it again.
In fact, True Grit (though I prefer the Coens' version) and The Shootist are the only two post-Hatari Wayne films that I think qualify as good films, though I can take the knockabout stuff in McLintock and cameos in The Longest Day and How the West Was Won. Prior to Hatari, he's a in a slew of great movies, mostly directed by Ford but there are a few outside of that.
