I just caught the Heston movie The Last Hard Man recently, and it was pretty watchable.
Id recommend.
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John Wayne suffered from the identical fate of Elvis. Elvis just has to appear on stage and fans would go wild. John Wayne was cast is films because he was John Wayne and John Wayne sold theater tickets. It was not until he was cast in Red River did Howard Hawks recognize Wayne's ability to act:
"According to Hawks, Wayne's frequent director John Ford was so knocked out after seeing the actor as Tom Dunson in Red River, he remarked, "I never knew the big son of a bitch could act," and would thereafter come around and watch whenever Wayne worked with Hawks."
This is an excellent review of Wayne's performance in Red River.
Wayne did make a few excellent films. I do buy in to the believe that he won best actor for True Grit more of his acting legacy than for his performance in True Grit. Wayne's acting performance in his last film, The Shootist, was much better. I believe that Wayne would have been recognized more for his ability to act rather than his movie roles had he been more discriminating in roles he played. Some of his movies were abjectly stupid. But John Wayne was John Wayne, and people paid to see john Wayne more so than his films.
John Wayne is buried not too far from where I live. I have never visited his grave. His boat, Wild Goose, is used as a tour boat in Newport Harbor. I was on it a few years ago, including a tour of his quarters.
He used to live in Bayshore Estates in Newport Beach.
I still like John Wayne. However, I do think that there were better actors of that era including Steve McQueen & Clint Eastwood. But John Wayne was John Wayne and he sold theater tickets.
BTW, I like Rio Bravo, but Dean Martin was the best actor in that film.
Red River is more than an excellent western. It is an excellent film. It is a western adaptation of Mutiny on the Bounty. Tom Dunson proved that mutiny can be justified.
�If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.� ***US President James Madison***
Another I just remembered liking pretty well is The Culpepper Cattle Co.
Although not a movie about the 'Old West' but post WW2 west, All The Pretty Horses is also a fairly decent western theme movie.
(The young boy, Lucas Black, that played, Frank Wheatley, friend to Billy Bob Thorton's character, Karl, in Slingblade, plays an excellent scene stealing part in a supporting role as the character, Jimmy Blevins, in this movie.)
Ulzana's Raiders is a very good western movie too.
Ulzana's Raid. One of the very few western movies to portray the management of horses as critical in a long pursuit
Also I'm gonna throw in Geronimo. An American Legend for Robert Duvall's fine portrayal of Al Seiber.
Birdwatcher
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
I like "Big Jake" best of all his westerns, but I like those films at the "transition" times, when the West was changing (think "The Professionals") and a few others. A few cars, new-fangled pistols, etc.
I liked "Big Jake" because it had that stuff, and old Richard Boone as the bad guy. He did a really good bad guy. Didn't like the Duke's idiot son trying to act, but no one movie is perfect.
You can roll a turd in peanuts, dip it in chocolate, and it still ain't no damn Baby Ruth.
Slightly off topic, but I have heard people say that Lee Marvin was as roudy as the characters he played in his films.
That is true. Marvin and Jack Palance were good friends and after finishing shooting their respective teevee shows, one at Desilu Studios and the other at Paramount Studios, they would go bar hopping in the various bars on Santa Monica Blvd. and Melrose Blvd. Palance, back in those days, was known to be a bit rowdy at times, too. Their studios paid for more than a few bars that were damaged when Marvin and Palance got kinda "rowdy."
Another "watering hole" that was frequented by John Wayne and his friends, Ward Bond, Bruce Cabot, etc., was the old Cock & Bull Bar & Grill on upper Sunset Blvd., in West Hollywood. It wasn't too unusual for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's deputies to have to go there late in the evening and "settle things down."
L.W.
"Always go straight forward, and if you meet the devil, cut him in two and go between the pieces." (William Sturgis, clipper ship captain, 1830s.)
Try it out. I think it's worth it even buying from Amazon. It's okay for family. A very low profile flik that came out a decade or so ago. Leon Coffey is an ex pro-rodeo clown...and did a great performance. Stars Mark Valley. A few stories co-mingled into one decent movie.
Just put my DVD version on............
Confucius say: He who angers you.......controls you.
