Product Description
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TCM Greatest Classic Films: John Wayne Westerns (4FE/DVD)
The Searchers, Fort Apache, Rio Bravo, and The Cowboys.
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The Cowboys
Almost in spite of itself, The Cowboys has taken its place among
John Wayne's most beloved films. It wasn't always that way: When
it was released in January of 1972, the film was widely
criticized for appearing to promote the notion that boys become
men through violence. From a politically correct perspective,
this apparent message is arguably deplorable (and some
interpreted the film's young fighters as a reflection of young
draftees into the Vietnam war), but there's no denying that The
Cowboys remains as invigorating as it ever was, no matter how
dubious its thematic implications. Based on a novel by William
Dale Jennings, and adapted with Jennings by the married
screenwriting team of Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr. (whose
impressive credits include Hud, Hombre, and Norma Rae), the movie
opens with aging ranch owner Wil Anderson (Wayne) desperate for
ranch-hands to herd 1,500 head of cattle across 400 miles of
dangerous territory. With no better options, he reluctantly hires
boys from the local schoolhouse (including Robert Carradine in
his screen debut), and an experienced, worldly-wise cook named
Nightlinger (played to perfection by Roscoe Lee Browne) joins the
cattle drive--the first black man the boys have ever seen.
A Hollywood liberal who initially felt at odds with Wayne's
right-wing politics, Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond) originally
sought George C. Scott for the lead, but studio executives urged
him to convince Wayne to take the role. It was a happy outcome
for both, as Rydell directs Wayne with an enjoyable mixture of
Old West humor and grizzled trail-hardiness, and The Cowboys is a
top-drawer production with gorgeous cinematography (on location
in Mexico and Colorado) by veteran cameraman Robert Surtees.
Colleen Dewhurst appears briefly but memorably as the madam of a
traveling troupe of prostitutes (in a scene often cut from
earlier TV broadcasts and some home-video releases), and the
young A Martinez (who would later star in several TV soap operas
and the indie-hit Powwow Highway) makes a strong impression in a
prominent supporting role. But the real reason for the film's
lasting popularity is the hiss-worthy villainy of Bruce Dern (as
"Long Hair," leader of the rustlers), who earned a dubious place
in movie history for his character's cheating approach to
play. No matter how you interpret its themes of herly
influence and justified vengeance, The Cowboys (later the basis
of a short-lived TV series) is undeniably entertaining, dominated
by Wayne's reliable presence and bolstered by a rousing,
Copland-esque score by John Williams. --Jeff Shannon
Fort Apache
The soldiers at Fort Apache may disagree with the tactics of
their glory-seeking new commander. But to a man, they're
duty-bound to obey - even when it means almost certain disaster.
John Wayne, Henry Fonda and many familiar supporting players from
master director John Ford's "stock company" saddle up for the
first film in the director's famed cavalry trilogy (She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande are the others). Roughhouse
camaraderie, sentimental vignettes of frontier life, massive
action sequences staged in Monument Valley - all are part of Fort
Apache. So is Ford's exploration of the West's darker side.
Themes of justice, heroism and honor that Ford would revisit in
later Westerns are given rein in this moving, thought-provoking
film that, even as it salutes a legend, gives reasons to question
it.
Rio Bravo
When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the
list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: John
Ford's The Searchers, Howard Hawks's Red River, and Hawks's Rio
Bravo. About the only thing they all have in common is that they
all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for
revenge and Red River is a sweeping cattle-drive drama ("Take 'em
to Missouri! Yeeee-hah!"), Rio Bravo is on a much more modest
scale. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T. Chance
(Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the
hot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick
Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail,
drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally,
singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived
by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as
a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for
townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a
consummate professional--he may be getting old and , but he
knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting
mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. This most
entertaining of movies also achieved some notoriety in the '90s
when Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs,
and Jackie Brown) revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for
prospective girlfriends. Oh, and if the configuration of
characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two
more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and
James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and
Christopher Mitchum. -- Jim Emerson
The Searchers
Working together for the 12th time, John Wayne and director John
Ford forged The Searchers into a landmark Western offering an
indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who
challenged it. Wayne plays an ex-Confederate soldier seeking his
niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't
surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in
his five-year search, he encounters something unexpected: his own
humanity. Beautifully by Winton C. Hoch, thrillingly scored
by Max Steiner and memorably acted by a wonderful ensemble
including Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood and Ward Bond,
The Searchers endures as "a great film of enormous and
breathtaking physical beauty" (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film
Fanatic).