John Wayne fans

[johnnie]

I'm not really a fan, but ACM is running a lot of his movies this weekend. I just thought I would tell ya.
http://www.amctv.com/article?CID=2118-1--0-5-EST

[ewagner]

1. The High and The Mighty

I saw it when I was a young kid and a devout airplane nut...I loved the movie back then....I only got to really dislike John Wayne when I was a teenager and realized how phoney his movies were...

I haven't seen The High and the Mighty in over 35 years so I'm curious how I will react to it now.

[GalleryGod]

23. There's Awful Overacting-but...there's Duke,too.

Duke and the crew clears the San Gabriel Mtns. sees the landing lights (that form a giant cross) and utters
:patriot: "Now I lay me down to sleep" GOOOOOOOSEbumps!

Love the flick....it was tied up in the William Wellman estate battle not Duke's Estate. FWIW:woohoo:

[AngryAmish]

2. The Searchers

Greatest American movie. Prove me wrong.

[jobycom]

5. I don't agree, but I couldn't prove you wrong.

It's a great film. Wayne's best work was with John Ford, I think. Ford saw that Wayne's demeanor could be as disturbing as heroic, and he shot films that made Wayne look both at the same time. The Searchers is one of the best. Disney World shows clips of it in the line for their "Great Movie Ride."

[youspeakmylanguage]

8. It was an incredibly racist movie...

The entire movie was designed to de-legitimize interracial relationships.

See the Mighty White Man (and confederate soldier to boot!) hunt down and slaughter the "savages" who kidnap and "defile" his niece! Watch him deal with the shame of being part "savage" himself!

The greatest american movie is Citizen Kane.

[Felix Mala]

11. I like Welles, but I wouldn't call Kane the best AM... Touch of Evil

is better than Kane... I'm very partial to Lady From Shanghai, too.

[youspeakmylanguage]

13. That wasn't my personal opinion...

...but the consensus of most film critics and historians. I just assume they are correct on the subject.

I think the greatest american movie is "Apocalypse Now", but I can accept the fact that people would disagree.

[Felix Mala]

16. Hey, I'm a critic AND a historian...

Best is hard to define. There are important films, like Kane, that pushed what film could do through technique and narrative. And then there are films that capture uniquely American qualities - the disparity between the promise of our founding documents and the reality of those documents in practice.

Along those lines, movies like City Lights, The Grapes of Wrath, Midnight Cowboy, etc.

[youspeakmylanguage]

19. Wow, am I talking to Roger Ebert here?

I loved you on The Critic!

Seriously, you're right. It's hard to define "The Best". Opinions, even professional ones, vary.

[AngryAmish]

31. Not really a racist movie

Uncle Ethan (Wayne) was not exactly a good guy. He refused to surrender in the civil war and was a bank robber or other kind of thief (remember when he gave his brother all that gold and his brother said there isn't a mark on the coins - hint - gold coins get beat up over time). And he doesn't kill his neice at the end. I don't buy the racist angle.

[Felix Mala]

10. Well, High Noon is a better western and a better movie

Gary Cooper didn't need a lot of shoutin' and a lot of shootin' to show what he was made of...

[youspeakmylanguage]

12. The greatest western of all time is Once Upon a Time in the West...

...with Eastwood's "Unforgiven" riding in at a close second. Leone's "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" is a distant third.

[Felix Mala]

14. With Eastwood, I have to go with High Plains Drifter...

You don't often see Americans paying for the strong-armed cowardice.

[youspeakmylanguage]

15. Sorry, Eastwood was never as good...

...as he was in the Spanish desert.

[Felix Mala]

17. That's why those movies are always about "border towns"

so they could use Spanish extras as Mexicans.

[youspeakmylanguage]

20. Most of the "Mexican" extras were actually southern Italians...

Most Spaniards have fair hair and eyes, or fair skin w/ dark hair and eyes. Spaniards were used for the white American parts.

[Felix Mala]

18. Also, what about The Wild Bunch? I think it's still considered to

be the most violent film ever made.

[youspeakmylanguage]

21. "Most Violent" should not equal "Best"...

...otherwise the greatest American movies would be the Rambo series.

[Felix Mala]

27. Don't put words in my mouth.

[youspeakmylanguage]

29. What words did I put in your mouth?

My original post:

The greatest western of all time is Once Upon a Time in the West, with Eastwood's "Unforgiven" riding in at a close second. Leone's "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" is a distant third.

Your direct response:

Also, what about The Wild Bunch? I think it's still considered to be the most violent film ever made.

My direct response to that:

"Most Violent" should not equal "Best" - otherwise the greatest American movies would be the Rambo series.

Please point out where, exactly, I put words in your mouth.

[ewagner]

24. Agree 100%

about Once Upon a Time in the West

Henry Fonda as the baddest, most evil bad guy ever....multiple story lines and Claudia Cardinale to top it off! Music was a nice touch too.

[youspeakmylanguage]

25. The music was incredibly incredible...

The actors (and actress) were incredible. The DVD is incredible.

The only thing not incredible is Best Buy selling the DVD for $9.99 while "Constantine" is selling at full price.

[jobycom]

3. Watch John Wayne for a while, then watch W. Understand his accent now?

This is not a knock of John Wayne, just of Bush. In 92, Bush was a New England preppie whimp with an accent like John Kerry and a demeanor like Les Nesman. He made himself over by, I believe, trying to imitate John Wayne. His accent, his walk, his growl, his snarl, his clipped speech. He failed, but that's what he's trying to do. IMHO.

[Felix Mala]

28. You can understand W's entire agenda... Return to those thrilling

cowboy days when a man was man and a woman was just a little above a black man and a little below your horse. It appeals to those longing for The Great America era that was mostly a fiction. But heck, why not try for it anyways?

[jobycom]

30. Yep. Conservates are just pining for their childhood tv shows and acting

like they are in them.

[kick-ass-bob]

4. What was his appeal?

I really don't understand. I honestly can't sit through one of his movies. I wanted to like him, but just couldn't.

:shrug:

[jobycom]

7. He was the other side of Jimmy Stewart. The other type of "common man"

Jimmy Stewart was the soft side of the common man, who wore his insecurities on his sleeve by still acted righteous and heroic. Wayne was the harder side, the man who hid his insecurities and emotions while trying to act righteous and heroic. But you still saw the insecurities, in his quick furrowed brow, or his broken speech as he tried to reason everything out as he spoke, or his quick temper. In his best films, you saw the conflict even as you saw the unbending hero. I'm not completely sure Wayne did it on purpose, even. But it was there.

He's not my favorite, and I'm not old enough have watched him in the day. But I've started to see why he was interesting to watch. Not in his bad films, but in better ones, like The Searchers, or Liberty Valance, or True Grit.

He was also a complex man. He supported Viet Nam, of course, and helped George Bush Daddy campaign against one of my heroes (Ralph Yarborough). But he wasn't a simple conservative. A local liberal radio personality in Austin was in The Green Berets. Back in 92 when conservatives where using John Wayne's image to complain about gays in the military, Cactus Pryor talked about the movie. He said there were several actors who were openly gay, and John Wayne hired them, worked with them, respected them as professionals, and was friends with them. He wasn't sure how Wayne would have come down on the issue.

[KG]

6. The Sands Of Iwo Jima

Artist/Band: Truckers Drive-By
Lyrics for Song: The Sands Of Iwo Jima
Lyrics for Album: The Dirty South

George A. was at the movies in December '41
They announced it in the lobby what had just gone on
He drove up from Birmingham back to the family's farm
Thought he'd get him a deferment there's was much work to be done
He was a family man, even in those days
But Uncle Sam decided he was needed anyway
In the South Pacific over half a world away
He believed in God and Country, things was just that way

Just that way…..

When I was just a kid I spent every weekend
On the farm that he grew up on so I guess so did I
And we'd stay up watching movies on the black and white TV
We watched "The Sands of Iwo Jima" starring John Wayne

Every year in June George A. goes to a reunion
Of the men that he served with and their wives and kids and grandkids
My Great Uncle used to take me and I'd watch them recollect
about some things I couldn't comprehend

And I thought about that movie, asked if it was that way
He just shook his head and smiled at me in such a loving way
As he thought about some friends he will never see again
He said "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima"

Most of those men are gone now but he goes still every year
And George A's still doing fine, especially for his years
He's still living on that homestead in the house that he was born in
And I sure wish I could go see him today

He never drove a new car though he could easily afford it
He'd just buy one for the family and take whatever no one wanted
He said a shiny car didn't mean much after all the things he'd seen
George A. never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima

[Felix Mala]

9. True Grit - Fill your hands, you son-of-a-bitch!

He was usually best playing against type as in The Searchers...

[ProfessorGAC]

22. I Like Just Three

The Cowboys; Big Jake; El Dorado. Only the second one is a guilty pleasure. Not really that good a movie, but i like it anyway.

That's it.
The Professor

[bikebloke]

26. Picked up Rio Bravo at the library

It had been decades(couple of them) since I'd seen a John Wayne flick. I was curious how it would go over after all this time. It didn't. I thought, this is like a TV show....click! Rio Bravo was the prototype for Gunsmoke. Then some wee trivia tidbit drifted to the surface. John Wayne turned down the lead for Gunsmoke. James Arness got the part and the rest is history.

You know, he looks funny when he tries to run in his cowboy boots.