John Wayne was in over 160 movies…we give you the best of the best.
Jenn is a Historian, Veteran, and grew up on these movies…Scott hadn’t seen 9 of the 10 until now.
Did we get the list right?
Transcript
Top 10 John Wayne Movies
[00:00:00] Scott: Real quick, before I start this podcast, I need you, if you’re watching, to put in your favorite John Wayne movie in the comments. Just before we start, put your favorite John Wayne movie in the comments, and then feel free to comment all throughout this podcast video.
[00:00:21] McClintock!: If you’re my father, if you love me, you’ll shoot him. Well? I’m your father, They tell me you’re a man with true grit. What do you want? Speak up.
[00:00:31] The Cowboys: Son of a bitch.
[00:00:33] What did you say? You goddamn son of a bitch. Say that again.
[00:00:37] Big Jake: They weren’t afraid of the army, and they weren’t afraid of the Texas Rangers. And they thought his grandfather, Big Jake McCandles, was dead.
[00:00:49] He wasn’t.
[00:00:51] Green Berets: We don’t go back without the General. They’re elite corps commandos, nameless and faceless in a hundred newsreels and dispatches.
[00:01:00] The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: That’s my steak Valance.
[00:01:04] You heard him, dude. Pick it up.
[00:01:13] Scott: Welcome to Talk With History. I’m your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen. Hello. Today’s podcast is part of a series we call Watch with History.
[00:01:24] The Watch with History series will focus on your favorite historical films, where Jen and I will review the Hollywood historic classics we all know and love, while also discussing the history behind these films, along with some interesting facts. We hope you enjoy. Watch with history.
[00:01:41] Three, two, one.
[00:01:46] Scott: John Wayne, the Duke, a legend of the silver screen, synonymous with the American West.
[00:01:57] But with over 160 films to his name, where do you even begin? Today we’re tackling that very question. We’re diving into ten iconic John Wayne movies. From a movie many consider genre defining to some lesser known gems.
[00:02:14] We’ll be analyzing performances, dissecting iconic scenes, and sparking debate. Was True Grit truly John Wayne’s finest hour? We’ve reviewed that one here. Did McClintock strike the right balance between comedy and action? And can one of our movies on this list hold its own against his western classics?
[00:02:35] So saddle up, film fans, and prepare for a critical ride through John Wayne’s filmography. Let’s see which movies truly stand the test of time. Stay tuned for our ranking and review of the top 10 John Wayne movies.
[00:02:49] All right, Jen, we’re here. I was so excited. We have been planning this for, we’ve been wanting to do this for probably
[00:03:01] Jenn: about a year. Yeah, so we visited John Wayne’s birthplace. Yes. And I’m a huge John Wayne fan. And I gave you my list of top 10. Yes. And told you to watch them. Now you had seen some because we’ve seen like I’d seen like one or two.
[00:03:16] We’ve saw the quiet man. And we’ve been to Cong. We’ll talk about that. But I made you watch my top 10. And you didn’t feel they were numbered quite how you
[00:03:26] Scott: felt. I did not. So this is so the order that we’re going is we’re going to go from 10 to one, we’re going to start with Jen’s number 10. And I’m gonna let you guys know kind of where I rank.
[00:03:36] These movies as they go through, but we’re going to go Jen’s from Jen’s number 10 all the way up through through number one. Yes.
[00:03:42] Jenn: And there’s going to be some John Wayne movies that we don’t even talk about. So if, if there’s a top 10 of yours that we don’t mention, please put that in the comments. I will talk a little bit about some John Wayne movies I saw at Turner Classic movies that don’t make the list, but I got to hear.
[00:03:57] certain people talk about making those movies with him. And I do love all John Wayne movies, but these are the top
[00:04:03] Scott: 10. Yeah. Specifically, there will be 159 that do not make this list. So number 10 on your list was
[00:04:11] #10
[00:04:11] Green Berets: Fighting from the sky John Wayne! Fearless men who jump and die Jim Hutton! Men who mean just what they say The brave men of the Green Beret A hundred men, you’ll test today But only three win the Green Beret Patrick Wayne! —. Colonel Mike Kirby, the pro. Beckworth, the doubter. Sergeant Muldoon, the bull. Doc McGee, the dependable. Captain Nim, the hater. Sergeant Peterson, the conman. Sergeant Kowalski, the killer. Sergeant Provo, the humble. You’ll know them all in the Green Berets.
[00:05:19] Scott: The Green Berets came out July 4th, 1968.
[00:05:23] So the movie is about a cynical reporter played by David . Jansen, who is opposed to the Vietnam Wars, sent to cover the conflict and assigned to tag along with a group of Green Berets. Led by the tough as nails Colonel Mike Kirby, played by our very own John Wayne, the team is given a top secret mission to sneak behind enemy lines and kidnap an important Viet Cong commander.
[00:05:46] Along the way, the reporter learns to respect why America is involved in the war and helps to save the life of a war orphan. whose life has been destroyed by the conflict. So, Jen, why did this kind of make it past all the other ones and, and This is one of the few, I think it might be the only non Western one on this list.
[00:06:05] Jenn: Yeah, I think it is my only non Western one. Because this was a really, I think this was like, to me, John Wayne’s a little old to be playing this role, but to me it was his love letter to America and to the war effort. And it’s very pro military because of the kind of criticism America was getting at Vietnam at the time.
[00:06:25] And so John Wayne made this movie to show there really is no winner in war. And as much as people are criticizing the American soldier out there, they are really trying to do good. something good. And they are trying to do something for the people of Vietnam. And so that was kind of what he was doing here.
[00:06:43] Now it is based on a book, a 1965 book. You’ll find John Wayne makes movies pretty quickly after books come out. It seems to be his M. O. that if a book comes out that’s really good, he tries to grab those book rights and then play the lead in it pretty
[00:06:57] Scott: quickly. And I think that if I I think I remember reading that was the case for this book.
[00:07:00] He had purchased the book rights for this book specifically, and I actually even found an interesting fact. So he had actually reached out to the president of the United States for permission to use the name Green Beret. Yeah. And
[00:07:11] Jenn: he got a lot of pro military permission. They filmed at Fort Benning in Georgia.
[00:07:17] They got use of all these military aircraft. There’s a C 130 in there. There’s a A 1 Skyraider, a Huey. And so they’re using military aircraft. So it’s one of those, the military does that even today, if it’s kind of pro military, they will allow the use of their
[00:07:33] Scott: aircraft in a movie. Sure. I mean, think Top Gun.
[00:07:34] Yeah.
[00:07:35] Jenn: And or True Lies. But so that is, I really like this movie because of what John Wayne is trying to do, what he’s trying to say. And I appreciate even though he’s in his sixties, he’s playing this part, but to me, it just, it holds a special place in my heart. I think of green berets. I think of John Wayne.
[00:07:54] Scott: Yeah. So now for me, for this one, I watched this one and it was a little bit of an eye roller for me, but I kind of got into it after a little while because it was, I took notes, you know, during my watching these movies. And so I noticed a couple. Famous actors before they were truly famous. So George Takai was in it, right?
[00:08:11] And other folks might know him as a from Star Trek. Yeah. So I, I kind of jotted down a couple of things. There was a nice little helicopter crash in there. And I said, my notes, the notes when I took this said as a decent movie that shows that John Wayne can still command a screen, even in a dynamic war movie with constant action.
[00:08:29] Even as old as he is in this movie, he really could just command. That, that scene, whatever scene he was in. And I actually looked up kind of some of the box office numbers and it did pretty decently for 1968. I, it capped out I think at number 11 with about 21 million dollars in box office gross revenue.
[00:08:50] Some of the other movies that came out that year that beat it out in the box office. Number one was Funny Girl. I’m not familiar with that one. Barbra Streisand. Okay, Barbra Streisand. 2001 A Space Odyssey. No. Space Odyssey. That was number two. The Odd Couple. Romeo and Juliet, Oliver, Planet of the Apes.
[00:09:06] So it was going up against some big movies. Rosemary’s Baby. Oh, wow. Yeah, and Rosemary’s Baby was number eight. So it wasn’t that far behind. So there were some big movies that
[00:09:16] Jenn: came out that year. Yeah, I mean, on a budget of seven million, it made 32. So it was a success. When you really think of it for the production company and the box office, it’s a success.
[00:09:27] Scott: And so for me, this actually wasn’t my number ten. This was my number nine. So, from there, we can move on to, to your number nine, if you like.
[00:09:37]
[00:09:37] #9
[00:09:37] Big Jake: A story that glows with life and warms the heart. A story without time, about people. Fane and his gang raided the McCandles ranch and kidnapped little Jake McCandles. They held him for one million dollars in ransom.
[00:09:52] They weren’t afraid of the army, and they weren’t afraid of the Texas Rangers. And they thought his grandfather, Big Jake McCandles, was dead.
[00:10:03] He wasn’t.
[00:10:08] Jenn: My number nine was Big Jake. And I kind of like put Big Jake slash The Shootist, and I know you didn’t watch The Shootist, and I’ll talk about why. So for me, Big Jake is kind of like a, last love letter because it’s the last movie of John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, and it’s filmed in 1971.
[00:10:30] John Wayne is older in this he and he plays with his son and his, his two sons, he has his oldest son and his younger son. Now his younger son plays his grandson, right in the movie, in the movie, which I think is almost like a poke at himself to say look at me I have My older son who’s playing my son in the movie and then my younger son who’s actually playing my grandson in the movie.
[00:10:51] And his grandson, his son who’s playing his grandson is named Ethan in real life, named after his character, which we’ll talk about later in another movie. But it was to me, it was that nice moment of him and Maureen O’Hara sharing the screen together for the last time. If you see them, we’ll talk about other movies that they were in together.
[00:11:11] This is almost like watching them age as a couple in a movie. So I really did like it for that. The storyline’s fine. It’s the same old, someone’s taking the grandson. He’s the old gunslinger comes in and gets him back. So it is that same old John Wayne hero story. Now The Shootist is John Wayne’s last movie filmed in 1976 with him and Jimmy Stewart, Jimmy Stewart, and it is Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard.
[00:11:40] And I just like that because it’s his last. movie, and it’s a Western, and again, it’s the story of an old gunslinger who’s dying of cancer and wants to go out, like, with
[00:11:52] Scott: his guns. Yeah. One of the things, now, I will say, so this was my number 10. I, this is, I’m sorry, I just, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as any of the other movies on this, on this particular list.
[00:12:03] I didn’t watch The Shootist. Yeah. Haven’t watched that yet. But there, I did notice I jotted down kind of some of the themes that I saw throughout these movies and I noticed a similar theme across a couple of his movies and I think this is probably It’s somewhat typical of Westerns, but it’s that old versus new.
[00:12:21] And it was, I, I noticed that it was, it was pretty clear in this one and I jotted it down because I, I kind of watched these in reverse order. So I watched these in the order that we’re, we’re going through. But it was kind of just continuing contrasting comparisons throughout the movie, right? Horses versus cars and motorcycles, right?
[00:12:37] Cause he’s coming back to his estranged family and we’re, I think this is the one where he’s working with his, his sons, right? And one son’s like trying to ride a motorcycle, but can’t, can’t do things right. And here’s, he’s the old man coming in and he’s able to, you know, be John Wayne. He’s, he’s doing everything right.
[00:12:54] But it, his character is a little bit of a jerk, right? He’s a little bit of that antagonist in there. But obviously he’ll kind of ultimately does what John Wayne does. Yeah. you know, wins in the end. Yeah,
[00:13:07] Jenn: and it’s so it’s just again, it’s one of those. That’s why it’s kind of the end of the list because it’s like a bookend.
[00:13:12] Scott: Yeah, now I coming down to box office didn’t do well in the box office. This one was a lot lower on the list in some of his earlier movies. There actually wasn’t really good data in this. But since this is the 70s, there’s there’s plenty of information. This was number 21 that year. I think it made a right around Yeah, seven and a half million dollars.
[00:13:33] But some of the top movies that year was let’s see. Billy Jack, Phil Fiddler on the roof. Diamonds are forever. So some James Bond. So there’s, there’s some good movies that came out. Dirty Harry at Clockwork Orange, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. If you get into the Disney realm. So there’s some big ones that came out and, again, for me, this was, this is number 10 on, on my list compared to, to Jen’s number
[00:13:55] Jenn: nine. Yeah, we’re getting into the end of John Wayne’s career here.
[00:13:58] #8
[00:13:58] Scott: So number eight on your list
[00:14:01] Sons of Katie Elder: Yah! Yah! Yah!
[00:14:34] Scott: this is the Sons of Katie Elder. Made in 1965, four ne’er do well sons reunite in their Texas hometown to attend their mother’s funeral.
[00:14:44] Led by older brothers, John, this is John Wayne, a gunfighter, and Tom, played by Dean Martin, a gambler, the four soon learn that their father gambled away the family ranch, which was the cause of his murder. The brothers decide to avenge their father’s death and win back the ranch, a situation that quickly leads to trouble with the local sheriff and violent conflict with the rival Hastings clan.
[00:15:08] This one was, this one was fun. So I was starting to get into it with this one because Dean Martin was great. Yeah. And some of the scenes were great. So talk to me about why this was your number eight. I
[00:15:17] love
[00:15:18] Jenn: watching The Sons of Katie Elder. I will watch this anytime it’s on TV. I love, first of all, I love the title, right?
[00:15:24] So Katie Elder, that name comes from Big Nose Kate, who would hang out with Doc Holliday. Oh, okay. That’s her name.
[00:15:33] Scott: It’s a little, little historical tie there.
[00:15:34] Jenn: A little historical tie, plus it’s kind of based off of these brothers a 1888 true story of the Marlowe brothers. In Texas, same kind of thing happened to them.
[00:15:45] Okay? They fought back. They were kind of put up into like a circumstantial thing, killing a sheriff, and the town came after them and they held back the town, just the brothers themselves, and were exonerated in the end. So it’s kind of the same premise, but I really love this because John Wayne is again.
[00:16:03] off character. He’s a gunslinger, so much so he doesn’t go to the funeral. He stands off in the back.
[00:16:09] Scott: Yeah, he’s
[00:16:11] Jenn: not a good person. He’s not a good person. He’s wanted. Yeah. And then Dean Martin’s a gambler. So he’s not playing a great guy either. And then another brother is kind of like a dealer, like a furniture dealer.
[00:16:21] And then they have a young brother who is going to college. Now that brother was supposed to be Tommy Kirk from Swiss Family Robinson, right? Of Disney fame. And I think to see him in it probably would have been different. But he had gotten recently arrested for marijuana and it didn’t look very good. So he was written out of it.
[00:16:42] So basically these three brothers who haven’t done Well, in their lives and lost their mother, who was a really good woman and the town loved her are trying to do right by their mother and make sure their younger brother does something
[00:16:56] Scott: with his life. He keeps doing what younger brothers do, and he wants to be like his
[00:17:00] Jenn: older brothers who are not good guys, but they’re But they’re cool.
[00:17:03] But they’re fun. And so John Wayne plays the oldest of them all. And again, they figure out that their family farm was taken away by, you know, basically a swindler. And so they’re trying to get the farm back. And Dennis Hopper is in this again. Yep. So it’s very interesting. You’re gonna see Dennis Hopper in a couple movies here.
[00:17:25] He plays a good role. And what’s interesting about this movie is John Wayne had just been diagnosed with cancer before this role. And he had one of his lungs and two ribs removed. Yeah, you were telling me about this. And but he wanted to do his own stunts. John Wayne was always big on like, he wanted to you.
[00:17:43] please fans, right? He really was like his fans wanted to see him do these things on the horses. And at one point, you see him dragged through a river, because he’s being taken by the guys, and they drag him through the river. And he actually got pneumonia during that, because he really he did that stunt.
[00:17:58] And it was pretty dangerous for him. So you see john Wayne trying to keep holding his own here. This was made in 1965. So john Wayne is, is entering the end of his 50s here. So but I love John Wayne DeMartin. This will be the second time they team up together. And it is just another quintessential Western.
[00:18:19] Anytime it’s on, I will watch it. Yeah, I
[00:18:21] Scott: actually had this one a little bit higher because I enjoyed it. So you had it, you were number eight. I had this one as my number seven. Oh, wow. So I had this one as my number seven because I, I did enjoy this. I enjoyed the brothers aspect of it, right? You know, I, I grew up, I had a brother and That, that dynamic was good and Dean Martin, I think, did a pretty good job as far as the box office goes the Sons of Katie Elder did pretty decently. There’s number 14 in the box office. It was competing against the likes of The Sound of Music. Dr. Chivago, Thunderball The Great Race, you know, there’s, there was some pretty big ones that were coming out that, that, that year, but it it made about 13 million at the box office.
[00:18:59] And you know, we’re talking, we’re still talking about it today. Yeah. I
[00:19:02] Jenn: love the way this movie ends. If you’ve ever seen it where they keep talking about Katie would sit in this rocking chair and rock and rock and rock. And at the very end, the brothers have gotten back the family farm. They’re, the younger brother has been shot, but he’s going to be okay.
[00:19:17] He’s going to make it. And John Wayne walks past the rocking chair and hits it and it starts rocking.
[00:19:22] Scott: That was the one once I finally got there, I was like, okay, now I’m starting to get into the John Wayne movies. I can tell I’m going to enjoy a little bit more.
[00:19:29] Jenn: See, it makes me cry because it’s so good.
[00:19:31] #7
[00:19:31] Scott: All right. So we’re going to move on to your number seven.
[00:19:34] The Cowboys: In the summer of 78, Will Anderson lost all his cow hands just at the time he was to start his cattle drive. Miserable.
[00:19:52] Did you ever think of hiring boys? What boys? School boys. Oh, sure, and women. How about my mom in Cedar City? She’s only 92. Well, you ain’t got a lot of choices. Who’s first? I’ll go first.
[00:20:16] Scott: And your number seven is The Cowboys. Oh, so good. So The Cowboys was made in 1972, and it’s about a grizzled veteran rancher, Will Anderson, played by John Wayne. It’s almost, he’s almost ready to embark on a big cow drive when his crew abruptly quits to join in a gold rush.
[00:20:35] Left with no alternative, Anderson enlists the help of a group of local schoolboys. Training the youngsters to be cowboys, Anderson manages to get the drive underway, but their long journey is placed in jeopardy when the devious bandit Longhair, played by Bruce Dern, being very famous in this movie, sets his sights on stealing the herd.
[00:20:57] So this movie was, was one of my favorites. I love
[00:21:01] Jenn: it, and we watched it with our boys, and our boys loved it. I saw this at Turner Classic Movies. Robert Carradine, it’s his first movie. We think about, Revenge of the Nerds. Yeah. It was his first movie.
[00:21:12] Scott: One of the things I appreciated about this movie was Again, we focus on a lot of history stuff, kind of everything that goes into like herding cattle from one state, one ranch down to another, and, and kind of everything that it took and the men who had to know what they were doing.
[00:21:29] And so you kind of saw a little peek behind that curtain of what it used to be like back then to teach someone how to do all of this stuff. Yeah. It’s
[00:21:37] Jenn: supposed to be a 400 mile. Cattle drive. Yeah, it’s supposed to be from Bozeman, Montana down to South Dakota and The men who normally are his ranch hands have left for the gold rush So that’s kind of giving you like a time frame of what’s happening.
[00:21:50] And again, this is a 1971 novel movies made in 1972 So again, John Wayne is getting this novel It’s by William Dale Jennings and buying the rights early and then wanting to play the part It’s one of the very few movies with John Wayne dies. Yes Spoiler alert. So,
[00:22:06] Scott: so, I, I, I sure hope you’ve seen that. So that’s what Bruce Dern, I remember, I mean, in interviews and he said soon after, he became known as the man who killed John
[00:22:17] Jenn: Wayne.
[00:22:17] Yeah. And cause he does it in a horrible way. He, he shoots him in the back. He beats him up beforehand. And so, and this is like, he’s a new actor, Bruce Dern, he’s younger. So he said it’s like, it followed his career around for years. because everyone loves John Wayne. And John Wayne in this movie, he’s taking these young boys on this cattle drive because all the men have left for the gold rush.
[00:22:41] So he’s almost like a big father figure to them. He’s teaching them how to overcome fears. He’s teaching them how to work hard. And he, he hires an African American chuck wagon. Yeah, Runner, and in real life Roscoe Lee Brown was a strong Democrat where John Wayne’s a strong Republican, but he said he got along very well with John Wayne.
[00:23:03] Oh, interesting. They, he, John Wayne would, they would talk poetry together. He was
[00:23:07] Scott: incredibly eloquent, very well spoken as far as his character went on the movie. And he played, I actually really enjoyed his role. With the boys and with John like I really enjoyed his role. I
[00:23:20] Jenn: thought it was so authentic with race Because the boys being questioning race and questioning what it’s like to be an African American man and Roscoe really answering or his, his character really answering their questions are really like digging into their stereotypes.
[00:23:34] So, he plays Jebediah Nightlinger, but he runs the truck wagon, but really between him and John Wayne’s character, Will Anderson, they’re like the two father figures for these boys. They really do raise these boys. And so then when John Wayne’s killed, it’s Roscoe, it’s it’s It’s Jebediah Nightlinger who helps the boys seek revenge.
[00:23:53] Scott: I’m glad you brought up kind of like the raising of the boys because one of the things I noted down was not only like how well those the two adult actors played off of each other. But that they they identified all these firsts with the boys, right? So the first time that they are drinking the first time they’re seeing, you know, ladies of the night, right?
[00:24:14] Soil doves. So you see these, you see these first and as a. grown man, it kind of, it’s very nostalgic. It was very nostalgic for me, just kind of seeing young boys in their childhood, you know, growing up before your eyes. And then by the end of the movie, there’s so much more adult like in how they’re handling situations.
[00:24:36] Jenn: And I think it’s great that John Wayne’s character tells them not to fight back. Even he preempts that I might. Get killed. Yeah, don’t fight back because they see you as boys But if you fight back they won’t and I think he gives a great lesson there in the end And so then after they bring the cattle in they get all the money They make that tombstone and they have it your beloved husband and father And then when they can’t find his body on the way back and they just leave it because he’s part of the land I just really love that I wanted Shout out that Colleen Dewhurst is also in this.
[00:25:11] Slim Pickings is in this as well. Colleen Dewhurst plays the madam of the soil devs.
[00:25:15] Scott: As the box office goes, the Cowboys didn’t kind of raise too high. It was actually kind of number 20 in the box office that year, making around seven and a half million dollars, but it was, it. The Godfather came out that year.
[00:25:26] The Poseidon adventure. Oh, that’s good. Yeah. There’s some other movies that folks would recognize on here. This one right here, I’m actually not going to say on film because that is not an appropriate movie, but it’s very famous. But
[00:25:37] Jenn: I think that Cowboys is one of those movies that maybe didn’t do well when it first came out, but has since really grown in the love of John Wayne fans.
[00:25:46] Scott: Yeah. I, I would agree with that. So for me, this was actually my number five, so this was number seven for you. This was number five for me. So this was in the, in the top five for me because I really enjoyed the watching these young boys having their first growing up and really seeing that. So that to me, I just really touched me.
[00:26:05] It’s a lot of fun.
[00:26:06] #6
[00:26:06] Scott: So number six on your list, which I was surprised this was number six,
[00:26:12] True Grit: Says Life Magazine. True Grit is good enough for me. It’s good enough for you. And if it isn’t good enough for some movie company, then the free enterprise system is really going to hell. Move along!
[00:26:34] They tell me you’re a man with true grit. What do you want? Speak up. Says the New York Times. As touching as it is irreverently amusing. Marshall Rooster Cogburn and I are going after the murderer, Tom Chaney. How did you light on that greasy vagabond? And now, Paramount Pictures presents The Hal Wallis Production True Grit Starring John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn The most colorful character he’s ever played If I smelled as bad as you, I wouldn’t live near people. Kim Darby as Matty Ross Hey!
[00:27:13] Get out of here! My God! She reminds me of me. Glenn Campbell, in his first big screen role. A little earlier I gave some thought to stealing a kiss from you. Although you are very young. And you’re unattractive to boot. But now I’m of a mind to give you five or six good licks with my belt.
[00:27:37] Scott: was True Grit. Now if you have watched our channel before, you may be watching this because you watched our True Grit review comparing the 1969 version to the 2010 version. If you haven’t seen True
[00:27:50] Jenn: Grit Yeah, stop watching right now and go watch it because There’s so much we cover in that.
[00:27:55] There’s,
[00:27:55] Scott: there’s a lot we, we cover in that. And it’s a very, one of our more popular videos. So True Grit came out in 1969 and it’s about a hired hand, Tom Chaney, who murders the father of 14 year old Maddie Ross played by Kim Darby. She seeks vengeance and hires U. S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn, John Wayne, a man of quote unquote, true grit to track Chaney into Indian territory as to begin their pursuit to Texas Ranger.
[00:28:23] who goes by the played by Glenn Campbell, joins the manhunt in hopes of capturing Cheney for the murder of a Texas senator and collecting a substantial reward. The three clash on their quest of bringing justice to the same man. So this, this one was pretty fun. Now tell me why it was number six.
[00:28:44] on your list.
[00:28:45] Jenn: Well, I love true grit, but it just doesn’t hit the other five for me. Yeah, we’re getting
[00:28:49] Scott: we’re getting into like the ultra classics here.
[00:28:52] Jenn: There’s like I tell people like there are movie moments that get ingrained on your brain. And for me true grit will always be John Wayne is Rooster Cogburn, on the horse, swinging the Winchester with one hand as he cocks it and fires.
[00:29:08] True Grit: Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!
[00:29:12] Jenn: puts the reins in his mouth. He has a revolver in one hand, a rifle in the other. I will say Jeff Bridges only has two revolvers and then he swings like to do that.
[00:29:22] I was trying to practice that the other day in Bass Pro Shop. Oh, really? Yeah, to swing a rifle and cock it as you swing it like you’ve got to be pretty strong and have good awareness of where you’re where the rifle is. On a horse with reins in your mouth and one eye like to me, that’s true grit. Like that
[00:29:43] Scott: was definitely this, this movie was definitely much higher on my list.
[00:29:46] And one of the, we actually learned quite a bit from all of our viewers of our true grit video, lots of stuff in the comments about, you know, reading the book and this, that, and the other. So again, another book. That came out, he made the movie very quickly
[00:30:00] Jenn: thereafter. Bought the rights, so the novel came out in 1968.
[00:30:02] And Wayne liked it so much he bought the movie rights right away. And then he went about filling the roles. And remember we talked about trying to get Elvis Presley. And then him and his daughter actually approached Glen Campbell. We make the mistake. of not knowing who Glenn Campbell was in the original comparison.
[00:30:19] In our first video. Oh, we heard it, you guys. And you know what, Sensei? We have listened to Glenn Campbell. We’ve listened to Glenn Campbell. We like Glenn Campbell.
[00:30:27] Scott: I actually recognize in, in our audience, if you’re watching this, you may, may laugh at this and understand my, my age. I knew one of his songs from being on one of the soundtracks of one of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
[00:30:39] So that’s how I, that’s how I knew some, some of his, but, you know, apparently he was a, Very, very well known. Very good
[00:30:45] Jenn: musician. He reminds me a lot of like Johnny Cash. He’s telling like stories. He’s doing like country stories He does Wichita linemen, which I really like but he plays that part and again All three of them are showing true grit You know the girl the beef and Mr.
[00:31:05] Cogburn all showing true grit. This is John Wayne’s Oscar. So this is the movie. John Wayne is going to win an Oscar for he’s going to receive it from Barbra Streisand. He’s going to whisper in her ear beginners luck, which I think is the cutest thing. And then he gets a tear in his eyes. He accepts it like it to me.
[00:31:22] This is just a really great part for John Wayne to play. He is. acting in this. It’s a little more of a comical kind
[00:31:30] Scott: of. Yeah, he has, he has more of a comedic take to the part. Comedic
[00:31:33] Jenn: take. And then, but he has some really great scenes with Matty talking about his life before he becomes a U. S. Marshal. This is supposed to be based in the 1880s, Fort Smith, Arkansas.
[00:31:45] They’re going to be going into American Indian territory. LaBeef is a Texas Ranger and Robert Duvall plays Ned Pepper and you got Dennis Hopper again who plays one of the bad guys running with Ned Pepper, Dennis Duvall’s Bad guys. Yeah,
[00:32:01] Scott: so one, one interesting fact that I actually noticed at the very end of the movie, you, in the 1969 version, you finally get to see and hear from Lawyer Daggett.
[00:32:11] Yeah. Because Maddie Ross is talking about Laurel Daggett all, all throughout. She’s kind of threatening, she’s kind of, you know, the horse trader.
[00:32:17] True Grit: I’ll take it up with my attorney. I will take it up with mine, Lawyer Daggett. And he will make money, and I will make money, and your lawyer will make money. And you, Mr. licensed auctioneer, you will foot the bill.
[00:32:29] You are a damn nuisance.
[00:32:30] Jenn: Strother Martin is the horse trader who he’s in a couple of other movies too, right?
[00:32:34] People
[00:32:35] Scott: love him. And so lawyer Daggett at the very end of the movie was actually the voice of piglet from Winnie the Pooh. And he was the train conductor. in the movie, The White Christmas, one of my all time favorite movies and probably my favorite Christmas movie.
[00:32:49] Jenn: Well, and I have people who will argue with me about this, but I am 100 percent correct.
[00:32:54] John Wayne does the jump at the end of that movie and the stunt man will say that John Wayne does it again. John Wayne trying to prove to his fans that he still has it. I want you to know that it wasn’t as high as it looks in the movie, but it, he does do it. For
[00:33:16] Scott: me, again, this was your number six. Yes.
[00:33:19] For me, this was my number four. Oh, you really liked it. I really, really enjoyed true grit. Just the, the characters interacting and the dialogue
[00:33:29] Jenn: is great. Yeah. And I love the names. Rooster Cogburn, like how can you beat that name? And then, just the way he looks.
[00:33:37] If you look at the movie poster for True Grit, just how gruff and gritty he looks. I don’t know, if I was going after somebody. I think I’d want Rooster Cogburn with me
[00:33:47] #5
[00:33:47] Scott: as well. And he, he was probably the right man for the job. Alright, so moving on from there is your number five.
[00:33:54] –!
[00:34:05] ……
[00:34:05] Rio Bravo: be another like Rio Bravo, with its thundering story of raw courage against overwhelming odds, and its once in a lifetime combination of today’s hottest star names. You’ve seen nothing like them together, and here at Rio Bravo, nothing can tear them apart. Where are you going? Get your hands off me. I said, where are you going?
[00:34:39] You got no use for a man you can’t depend on. One bad night and I’m done for. So Rio Bravo, so Rio Bravo for you is number five. For me it’s number eight. Oh, Scotty. Yeah, this is I did not enjoy this one nearly as
[00:34:54] Jenn: much as I did And you know, it’s so funny about that is so many people compare you to Ricky Nelson I hear it you walk up to people like you look like Ricky Nelson and you even know who that is and you’re like I know who that is because people tell me all the time.
[00:35:08] I
[00:35:08] Scott: so throughout my life. I’ve had just random strangers, you know cashiers You know, and people who would know who Ricky Nelson is say, like, you look just like Ricky Nelson. And as a kid, I figured out who that was really fast because people kept saying it
[00:35:21] Jenn: to me. So this is number five for me for a lot of reasons.
[00:35:24] One, it’s directed by Howard Hawks, who’s considered one of the greatest directors of all time. Quentin Tarantino is very influenced by
[00:35:31] Scott: Howard Hawks. Yeah. And I think Quentin Tarantino thinks this is like one of the best movies. Yes.
[00:35:36] Jenn: It has a full long opening dialogue, opening sequence of the movie with no dialogue.
[00:35:42] And that to me is, is artistic.
[00:35:44] Scott: So, so I, so I actually, that’s one of the big notes that I, things that I noted right along with kind of, you know, if, if you’re not familiar with the movie, you know, definitely go look kind of in our show notes. But this movie came out in 1959. And. Basically, there’s a gunslinger, Joe Burdett, played by Claude Atkins, who kills a man in a saloon.
[00:36:05] And the sheriff, who’s played by John Wayne, arrests him with the aid of the town drunk, played by Dean Martin. Alright, so there’s Dean Martin again. This is their first movie together. This is their first time. And before long, Burdett’s brother, who’s played by John Russell, comes around, indicating he’s prepared to get his brother out of jail if necessary.
[00:36:21] And it kind of goes on from there. So again, I enjoyed. Dean Martin in his role and seeing Ricky Nelson just kind of made me, made me laugh because people have told me that I look like him. Well, they’re
[00:36:32] Jenn: capitalizing on, on Ricky Nelson’s, I think, popularity at the time, right? This is 1959. This is like, Ozzie and Harriet is like, hitting it big.
[00:36:41] Ricky Nelson is also putting out a lot of hits, right? So him and Dean Martin actually sing together in this. So John Wayne is the sheriff of the town. He’s arresting this brother of this big rancher. And this rancher is kind of a bad guy and he has a full posse. And so he knows to arrest this brother and to keep him in jail is going to be difficult because his brother is going to come after him.
[00:37:04] And so he He has kind of like an elderly deputy that works with him. He has this drunk old deputy who’s trying to get sober. So he asks for the help of this young gunslinger who’s Ricky Nelson. And so it’s really like the hodgepodge group of the four of them who stand off this. gang coming to get this brother.
[00:37:24] And so that’s the whole kind of premise of the movie. And what I appreciate about Howard Hawks is he has like this called Huck Huck say it Huck saying women, where he makes these strong, tough women. So Angie Dickinson, in this movie, she almost makes me blush. Like she’s very forward with John Wayne, and she’s very like demanding and she’s wearing like these cute little bits and stuff and I was like, Whoa.
[00:37:55] Now, Angie Dickinson is also a big actress at the time, but how would Hawks like to give women these strong, powerful roles? And and even to the point, like In the credits it says story created by B. H. McCampbell and that is Howard Hawks’s daughter. Oh, interesting. McCampbell is her married name and it’s because she comes up with the idea to use dynamite in the last sequence of the movie.
[00:38:26] Scott: Yeah, there was some things I can see, like the notes that I took, I can see why this was higher on your list, why it’s a favorite of someone like Quentin Tarantino, because some of the things that you already noted, right? No dialogue in that opening scene. That is a very artistic, very specific choice, and it was incredibly noticeable, hard to pull off, right?
[00:38:45] And from a filmmaking perspective I felt, I wrote down that I felt like music played a very specific role. Whenever certain music started, there was like some, some, like this ominous Mexican song, or it was very clear that music played a very, like it was almost its own character, you know, kind of leading you into that, which is normal of a movie, but it was much more noticeable here in this
[00:39:10] Jenn: Well, and it’s based on a short story That was written as well.
[00:39:14] But what’s this song that Dean Martin sings in it something my pony and me my yeah I’m not I don’t but he sings out with Ricky Nelson and he sings and John Wayne gets to like watch and smile Yeah, cuz it’s kind of like here are these two big stars at the time singing together In 2014, actually, the Library of Congress deemed this movie culturally and historically significant.
[00:39:38] Really? Yep. That’s interesting. So it’s, it’s saved now in the archives.
[00:39:43] Scott: Everybody’s kind of got their own taste, but this, for me specifically, this was number eight on my list, even though it was number five on yours, as far as the box office goes, this, it did decently.
[00:39:52] You know, actually I think true grit was one of his most successful box office movies. This one, this came out again in 1959, kind of came in at number 13, about five and a half, almost 6 million other movies that year, Ben, Hur. Some like it hot. So some pretty, pretty big movies. It was going up, going up
[00:40:11] Jenn: against.
[00:40:11] Yeah. And so that song was my rifle, my pony and me. Okay. And they also sing a brief version of get along Cindy, but there’s kind of a debate around this movie that it was made in response to high noon, which. was sometimes thought to be an allegory for blacklisting in Hollywood as well as McCarthyism. So Wayne used to always call High Noon Un American.
[00:40:35] Oh, interesting. And if you know, that’s Gary Cooper meeting in the town square. And so this was kind of like his response to that movie. Yeah.
[00:40:44] Scott: Interesting. It was, it was good, but not, not high on my list, but I can see why it was high, high on others.
[00:40:50] #4
[00:40:50] Scott: So your number four,
[00:40:52] The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: That’s my steak Valance You heard him, dude. Pick it up. No. Pilgrim, hold it. I said you, Valance. You pick it up. Three against one, Donovan.
[00:41:25] Scott: and you have already mentioned it, I think, briefly before, is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
[00:41:30] I love this movie. Now, if you don’t know this movie this came out in 1962 as a Western film starring John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. So this movie’s about a senator who returns to a small town in the Old West to attend the funeral of an old friend. He begins to recount the story of his arrival in the town when he was a young lawyer who stood up to a notorious outlaw named Liberty Valance.
[00:41:54] The movie explores the themes of law and order, justice, and the power of myth making. The film is considered a classic of the Western genre and is known for its memorable lines such as,
[00:42:04] The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
[00:42:11] Scott: When the legend becomes fact. Print the legend. So for you, this is number four. For me, this is number six. I enjoyed this.
[00:42:19] Didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the Cowboys. The Cowboys kind of edged this one out for me, but this was, this is a great one. I
[00:42:25] Jenn: love this movie because of what it means. in the bigger picture. Yeah. That the West is settled, that even law is settled. Disputes are settled with a mixture of both old versus new, that you need to have a toughness.
[00:42:41] You need to have grit. You need to be physical and mental, that you do have to be smart. But there are some times when It’s being smart is not enough. Sometimes, you know, got to know when to fight. And I appreciated that so much because John Wayne’s character recognizes that he recognizes that in Jimmy Stewart, that that is what’s going to really progress the state forward.
[00:43:07] But someone needs to stop liberty balance. Again,
[00:43:10] Scott: it’s that theme of John Wayne’s character. Not not welcoming in the new but recognizing the new and that it’s kind of inevitable. Yeah, right and that change Can be for the better Even though his characters typically fall on the the old side of of getting things done, right?
[00:43:30] Yeah John Wayne always winning the fight and always doing
[00:43:32] Jenn: all that stuff and I like that he’s teamed up with Jimmy Stewart here That they’re kind of at these two sides of the coin. It’s shot in black and white. It’s done by John Ford, who I love. We’re going to do a couple more John Fords after this.
[00:43:46] It’s done in black and white to really show this grittiness and this kind of old, the, the mythic old west. And it also helps that the fact that John Wayne’s 54 and Jimmy Stewart’s 53 when they felt so it makes them look a little younger. in it. And so the black and white is helping with that. But I always say, Lee Marvin really holds his own as a bad guy in this.
[00:44:16] And we, we visit Lee Marvin’s grave in Arlington. Lee Marvin was always proud to be a Marine. There’s very few people who can hold their own against John Wayne as a bad
[00:44:25] Scott: guy. And he’s, he’s amazing, right? That, that scene. Where it’s the three of them right in, in the restaurant bar. That
[00:44:33] Jenn: is my favorite line.
[00:44:34] When he, John Wayne fills the screen, turns towards him and says,
[00:44:38] The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: That’s my steak Valance
[00:44:45] Jenn: I’ve never seen John Wayne look more John Wayne like, and that’s, I think when, Lee Marvin’s character is like, Oh, crap. That’s his like, that’s his stake that I and and then he tells someone else to pick it up. And John Wayne says, you pick it up balance.
[00:45:00] And that’s when Jimmy Stewart even knows this is it, something’s going to happen. So Jimmy Stewart tries to stop the whole thing. But that to me, was John Wayne being so John Wayne and I love that line I also love when he tells him the story at the end
[00:45:17] The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: Valance couldn’t make you run away. What is it now, Pilgrim? Your conscience? Isn’t it enough to kill a man without without trying to build a life on it? You talk too much. Think too much. Besides, you didn’t kill Liberty Valance.
[00:45:44] What? Think back, Pilgrim.
[00:45:48] Jenn: Like you didn’t shoot him, right and then you
[00:45:50] Scott: know, and he didn’t even realize it till then he didn’t realize
[00:45:53] Jenn: his character because Liberty Valance has shot, you know, Jimmy Stewart’s character twice and in the wrist and he really like what is he going to do and now he says right between the eyes like, you know, he’s going to kill him and then he just gets shot and at the same time that Jimmy Stewart fires a gun and this is where this whole legend becomes and in the West, this legend drives so much of people to follow into statehood to elect him to become a senator to represent them that even at the end of the movie, he says anything for the man who shot Liberty Valance.
[00:46:26] Remember? And so it’s like, no matter who he is politically, he will always be that legend. And that holds more weight with the people than your office.
[00:46:40] Scott: Yeah, this, this was definitely a good movie and having those three actors, those three actors were just, were kind of, it’s that movie magic. It really was.
[00:46:49] One of the things, the little notes that I wrote down, the town marshal, who’s like, plays this coward, keeps running away. He’s also the voice of Friar Tuck in the original Disney cartoon Robin Hood. I’ve got For some reason, I’ve got an ear for those voices. If I hear a voice, I can be like, okay, I know where that voice from my childhood comes from.
[00:47:08] So, so I noticed that and I just thought that was kind of a fun little fact. In the box office, it did pretty decently. 15, number 15 that year, about 8 million. Some other movies that were competing against that year is Lawrence of Arabia. That’s a pretty well known movie. That’s a pretty well known movie.
[00:47:23] The Longest Day. The Music Man. One of my favorites. To Kill a Mockingbird. So there’s some pretty big movies that, that came out that year.
[00:47:30] Jenn: Yeah. Its budget was only 3. 2 million. And Vera Miles, who plays the love interest in this, we’ll, we’ll revisit her in another movie. But she’s kind of known for this as well.
[00:47:41] And then. So, Strother Martin is also in this again. He’s the lawyer from True Grit, or he’s the horse salesman from True Grit. He’s in
[00:47:50] Scott: this again. And you see this with modern day films too. You know, you get directors, you get big name actors, and they tend to hire the same actors because they work well together.
[00:48:00] And so I noticed that all throughout these films, like the sheriff in one was the priest in another. Yes. So you, I noticed that pretty often. Yes. Yes.
[00:48:09] Jenn: Yes. And this movie in 2007. It was put on the National Registry by the Library of Congress as culturally, historically, and aesthetically
[00:48:17] Scott: significant. Oh, wow.
[00:48:19] #3
[00:48:19] Scott: Well, there you go. So we’ll move on from the man who shot Liberty Valance, the Western legend, to your number three.
[00:48:27] McClintock!: Are you longing to see a movie with good, clean fun?
[00:48:37] Does a tender story of family devotion get you right here? If you’re my father, if you love me, you’ll shoot him. Well? I’m your father, and I sure love ya. So Oh! Oh, you shot him! like a story of inspiring restraint and self control? Now, we’ll all calm down. Boss, he’s just a little excited. I know, I know. I’m gonna use good judgment. I haven’t lost my temper in 40 years. But Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble this morning.
[00:49:10] Might have got somebody killed. And somebody ought to belt you in the mouth. But I won’t. I won’t. The hell I won’t!
[00:49:19] Scott: Your number one. This is my number one. And you’ll, you’ll, you’ll start understanding why. My top three are where they are. And this is McClintock. McClintock. I love McClintock. So, so McClintock came out in 1963.
[00:49:32] It’s a film about a wealthy rancher, G. W. McClintock. He juggles personal and professional chaos. His strange wife, Catherine, who’s. Played by Maureen O’Hara, one of our favorites, returns seeking their daughter’s custody. Tensions rise with corrupt officials and land grabbers and Comanche tribes demanding justice.
[00:49:50] As McClintock navigates these conflicts, he rediscovers love, faces past mistakes, and uses his influence to maintain peace in this frontier town, all with a healthy dose of humor and trademark John Wayne charm.
[00:50:04] Jenn: So this is an off John Wayne because it’s so much
[00:50:07] Scott: comedy. Yes. And that’s honestly, that’s why it kind of rose up to number one for me.
[00:50:12] Jenn: And John Wayne is pretty good with comedy. Yeah. He does well. I love this movie. It reminds me a lot of my father. So the dynamic of him and his daughter, it reminds me with me and my dad. John Wayne’s character is George Washington McClintock, GW. And of course me and O’Hara, he’s estranged from her. But Stephanie Powers plays his daughter, Becky.
[00:50:32] And then his real life son. Patrick Wayne plays like a homesteader son, Devlin, and there’s a couple of like themes through this. One of them is spanking. Absolutely. So Becky gets upset with something that Devlin has said to her and tells her dad to shoot him and she tells her dad, if you love me, you’ll shoot him.
[00:50:57] So he doesn’t even know John Wayne’s character what happened, but he says, well, I love you and you’re my daughter. So he shoots him with a blank. She’s like, you really shot him. I can’t believe you did that. So Devlin gets upset and spanks her for, for acting that way. And so you’re kind of going to see this with Marina O’Hara is she’s kind of been upset with John Wayne’s character.
[00:51:21] George W. McClintock for the way he’s acted for these past two years, and he will spank her for the way she has acted towards him. That’s a big scene at the end of the movie. Big scene. And it’s kind of, all of this is kind of based on the taming of the shrew. Oh, okay. So that’s kind of where you’re getting this.
[00:51:36] Yeah,
[00:51:36] Scott: I definitely wrote down in my notes, right? It starts with a lighter tone. One of the things that I noticed very early on, very early on, they kept referring to the hats that he throws on the roof. Yeah, he does on the weathervane. And the indication of his mood. And I wrote down that they, you don’t really.
[00:51:50] get an example of kind of what that really means. But I just, I, I noted that. Yeah, it’s
[00:51:57] Jenn: like if he’s coming in and he swings his hat and it hits the weather vane on the top of the house, he’s going to have a good, have a good day. Good day. But how What kind of arm strength would you need to throw
[00:52:08] Scott: a hat?
[00:52:08] I think he said it was like, however many
[00:52:10] Jenn: Stetsons, like on the top of a weathervane of a house. Yeah.
[00:52:16] Scott: And there was, there was just some, some great one liners throughout this movie that I fully enjoyed. One of them I wrote down was Maureen O’Hara, who kind of plays that, that conflicted wife, very well.
[00:52:27] Somebody asked John Wayne that. He’s they said what does this word mean that kind of came up a couple times and one of them she had called somebody on Unprepossessing. Yeah, unprepossessing. I said, what does unprepossessing mean? John Wayne says, I looked that up in a dictionary once. It’s best you don’t know it.
[00:52:44] And then a guy just says, yes, sir. And he just keeps walking on. So it, I think the comedy in this was just so good that that’s why it was, it was my number one. Well, and
[00:52:53] Jenn: it has a lot of good messages in it. And that’s what John Wayne really wanted. He, he said, I don’t give jobs. I hire men. Yeah, and he also really wanted to positively represent the American Indian.
[00:53:05] And that was something important to him to do in this movie as well. One of the things in this movie that people will talk about, though, is is red face in this movie. So there are white people who are playing American Indians and they’re painting their faces red for the camera. It has something that has to be addressed because it does happen in this movie.
[00:53:23] The big scene. is when they all slide down into the mud pit. And that is a famous line. It’s like, you know, you made me almost lose my temper today, you know, and I haven’t lost my temper in 40 years. And he goes, and someone should belch in the face. I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna, and the hell I won’t. And he punches him in the face.
[00:53:43] And so then everyone’s like sliding down. But that’s another famous line from this.
[00:53:49] Scott: One of the things that, one of the last things that I kind of jotted down that I really enjoyed, partly because I have a daughter, was the father daughter scene by the river. It was just so touching, and I really so appreciated that in this kind of comedic movie, to show that he wasn’t there just to kind of give his wife a hard time, or he wasn’t doing things just to kind of be antagonistic towards Maureen O’Hara, but he really was trying to like, Help, help his daughter, right?
[00:54:17] And truly help her grow and really give her some real life advice. And I wrote that down because to me that that scene was so impactful. Yes. For this movie. It was I wouldn’t call it out of place in the movie. I would say it was just the right amount of kind of Kind of character
[00:54:33] Jenn: building. Yeah. No, it really was a good representation of family And like and you know, patrick wayne is really in it.
[00:54:41] So it’s another one of the movies where John, wayne has his real son in the movie with him. You also see the Housekeeper is from the Munsters. She’s the, the wife on the Munsters. Her husband had just been injured in How the West was Won. So John Wayne made sure to hire her for this movie. So they had some money.
[00:55:04] Oh, that’s cool. So he always was doing stuff like that. And I appreciate that
[00:55:07] Scott: about John Wayne. Yeah. No, it was, it’s a very, very fun movie.
[00:55:12] #2
[00:55:12] Scott: All right. So we’re on to our number two here. And our number two, we actually tied, this is number two for both of us,
[00:55:19]
[00:55:19] The Quiet Man: It’s the story of Sean Thornton, a right intended man who came from America to forget his past in Innisfree. There he met a fiery red headed lass, and the village marriage broker went to work. Have the good manners not to hit the man until he’s your husband, and until he’ll hit you back. Then her bully of a brother, Red Will Danaher, refused to pay her rightful dowry.
[00:55:41] There’ll be no locks or bolts between us, Mary Kate. Except those in your own mercenary little heart.
[00:55:49] Scott: and that is The Quiet Man. Such a great movie. So The Quiet Man comes out in, came out in 1952.
[00:55:55] This is one of those few movies I’ve probably watched. a dozen times at least. We’ve, we’ve watched it quite a few times over the years. So it’s about a retired American boxer, Sean Thornton, returning to his Irish homeland, seeking, seeking peace in his family’s farm. He falls for the fiery Mary Kate.
[00:56:13] Played again by Maureen O’Hara, but her brother Will despises Sean and withholds her dowry, refusing to acknowledge their marriage. Driven by tradition and pride, Mary Kate refuses to consummate the marriage until Sean retrieves the money. Despite his vow to avoid fighting, Sean must navigate comical brawls, clashes with Will, and cultural misunderstandings to win Mary Kate’s heart and find peace in the land that he calls home.
[00:56:39] This is One of my absolute favorites. We
[00:56:42] Jenn: usually watch this every St. Patrick’s Day because it is so Irish and filmed in Ireland. And we have actually been there. And this is
[00:56:49] Scott: one of the earliest movies. Is this the earliest movie that I think we have on the list? Yeah,
[00:56:53] Jenn: 1952. John Wayne’s 45 in this. So he looks really good.
[00:56:56] Yeah. He looks young. He’s young. Young buck. And so we’ve been to Kong. We went in 2006. We stayed in Ashford Castle. That’s where everybody stayed while filming John Ford, John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara. Marina Harris just had a baby John Wayne’s family was there, Ward Bond is in this, Ward Bond is in a couple movies with John Wayne.
[00:57:13] He’s also plays the cop in It’s a Wonderful Life. So everyone’s kind of staying in this castle and then filming in this little Irish town, Kong, Ireland. It’s a family affair. John Wayne’s kids are in this movie. The old man who gets out of the bed and watches the fight. That’s John Ford’s brother. Oh, I didn’t know that.
[00:57:32] Scott: Oh, well, Maureen O’Hara, the old man who’s like, yeah, that’s
[00:57:35] Jenn: John Ford’s older brother. There’s two Marueen O’Hara’s brothers are in this as well. So it’s a real family
[00:57:42] Scott: feeling. Well, and I even again, the top two movies for me on this list are kind of More have a more comedic tone to them, but from the very beginning right?
[00:57:51] I wrote down the line You see that road over there? Yes Don’t take that. That’s starting right off in the beginning of the movie, you know, with them trying to give him directions from the train station to the town. It starts right off. It was just, it’s classic. And again, it’s John
[00:58:08] Jenn: Ford. It’s John Ford.
[00:58:09] And he won best director for this movie. Oh, I didn’t know that. Yes. It also won best cinematography. Yeah. So when the Oscar for both and it’s based on a 1933 Saturday evening post short story. From an Irish author and it tells this story of someone who has, was born in Ireland, came to America. He’s from Pittsburgh, which I also love, and then he’s coming back to his family roots to buy his home and to settle back to where he was born.
[00:58:39] And like you said, there’s a lot of cultural differences and the big one is the dowry and Maureen O’Hara is really. Her character, Mary Kate Danaher, is really tied to this dowry. It means a lot to her. She is proud of it. She’s proud to bring that into her marriage. And he doesn’t care about it. He doesn’t need it.
[00:58:59] And because the brother is holding it back, thinking that’s going to be the big thing and he doesn’t care she feels insecure and she feels kind of like she shouldn’t. be in this marriage. And that’s, that’s what he tries to learn. If it’s important to her, it’s important to him. And there’s some things in here where he’s dragging her through the field.
[00:59:21] He really did drag her in real life. I also want to say he really did spank her in McClintock. She said she was black and blue. I’m like, he should, she said he pulled no punches. And so he really is dragging her through like, The sheep poop, and in the end, the very last line, when she whispers something in his ear and he looks at her, to this day, no one knows what she said.
[00:59:41] She took it to her grave. Oh, wow. No one knows. John Ford said, say something to him that’s going to make him like, look at you. And no one knows. What she said, but her and John,
[00:59:51] Scott: that’s crazy. So, so there’s a couple of things that I noted down, right? There’s that classic first kiss scene when they’re in the house, when it’s still kind of a little more rundown with the wind blowing and the, and the door kind of blows up with the wind and kind of cleaned it up for him.
[01:00:04] She’s kind of cleaned it up for him. Like it’s, and I think it’s actually kind of what they based one of those, the movie posters off of. It’s just this ultra classic scene. Like. That is, that is a classic Hollywood big movie star first kind of kiss scene. I just noted that because cinematically and, and just for the movie and just Hollywood in general, that’s one of those scenes that you kind of see in your head when you’re thinking of, you know, the leading characters, you know, first connecting you know, and then obviously all the cultural differences, like the whole town watching when they’re, they’re having their first date, the
[01:00:39] Jenn: matchmaker having to be with them, right?
[01:00:42] They’re not allowed. No patty fingers, please. Not allowed to touch each other.
[01:00:46] Scott: Yeah, but this is, this is one of those ones. It actually did pretty well the year that it came out. So, and, and as far as kind of box office, you know, and again, this is 1952, so it’s actually really hard. It’s getting harder.
[01:00:57] They didn’t have as much data. For, for this, the website, I tried to use one single website when I was pulling all this, this box office information from the seventies on, it’s pretty good when you start getting back in the fifties and sixties, a little bit tougher. But according to, to the website that I was using this came in at number four that year.
[01:01:13] So seven and a half million dollars, but that’s 1952 other shows that came out was the greatest show on earth. That was number one. We have the script. We have a little family tie here. The snows of Kilimanjaro high noon. Ah, we just talked about that. High Noon came out in 1952. And this one actually beat out Singing in the Rain.
[01:01:31] So that’s very interesting. And Snow White and the Seven
[01:01:33] Jenn: Dwarfs. I mean, it’s a beautiful movie. It’s gorgeous. Even when we stayed in Ashford Castle, they play it. Like you can, you can play it on demand nonstop. And when you walk around Cong, Ireland, you’re walking through the scenes of the movie. You’re walking by
[01:01:47] Scott: the church.
[01:01:48] We went to those bars and we went down cause they had, they had kind of redone a lot of the stuff down
[01:01:52] Jenn: there. Yeah. We walked by the cottage. We walked by the pub where they go in and have their break while they’re fighting and drink a. drink a pint of beer. We walk by the church where he meets Mary Kate outside of the church.
[01:02:04] It’s right by Ashford Castle, and it still looks just as picturesque and just as beautiful. Maureen O’Hara is just the epitome of Irish
[01:02:13] Scott: beauty in this. Well, and she’s even speaking she speaks in the Irish, yeah, in the Gaelic, in Gaelic, and I don’t know what she says. If you know what she says in Gaelic, please put that in the comments.
[01:02:22] Yeah, and she
[01:02:23] Jenn: talks to Ward Bond. So there is a big religion component here because he’s catholic and the protestant pastor is in town and no one’s going to the protestant services right so they don’t know if they want to keep them but they’re
[01:02:34] Scott: trying to help them out
[01:02:37] Jenn: and so that was really cool too so you’re getting a lot of this irish influence it’s a little bit of the irish state they have a couple of toasts to being a free republic and there’s a couple of little nuances about the Irish state and the political climate of Ireland at the time.
[01:02:56] But other than that, it really is just a old school Irish story with an American coming in and figuring it
[01:03:05] Scott: out, fantastic characters. And I don’t know, I can’t remember the character’s name, the one who’s kind of. the chaperone of the town drunk or whatever like that, but he’s hilarious.
[01:03:15] Jenn: It really is a great movie to watch with St.
[01:03:17] Patrick’s Day. So
[01:03:18] Scott: that, that was my, my very close. And honestly, for me, it was a, that practically tied at number one and number two for between McClintock and the Quiet Man for me. So you like comedy? Yeah, I do. Those, those kind of tend to rise to my favorites.
[01:03:30] #1
[01:03:30] Scott: Now for your number one,
[01:03:32] The Searchers: Welcome home, Ethan.
[01:03:47] When’d you get back? I ain’t seen you since the surrender. Don’t believe in surrenders. Figure a man’s only good for one oath at a time. I took mine to the Confederate States of America. Don’t call me uncle. I ain’t your uncle. Yes, sir. No need to call me sir, either. What do you want me to call you? Name’s Ethan.
[01:04:12] Scott: and we are going to do a whole separate video.
[01:04:16] about this movie specifically. So if you want to hear us kind of go more in depth on more of the history, we’re going to talk a lot more about the history on a separate video about Jen’s number one, and that is the searchers. It
[01:04:27] Jenn: is the best Western of all time. In my opinion, it is John Wayne’s. Best movie of all time, in my opinion.
[01:04:35] Scott: Yeah, and for me this came in at number three on this list. But again, you kind of saw that I favor the comedies a little bit more. But it was, it was number three and it’s very close to the other two because This was, you know, in my intro I talked about a genre defining movie. Mm-Hmm. . This is one of those movies.
[01:04:53] Yeah.
[01:04:53] Jenn: I mean, this is 1956. John Wayne is 49 years old, but it is to me his best acting, and it is the true arc of a character who’s going through. A huge change and that it is John Ford again as director and that is the story John Ford loved to tell. Another thing about this movie is cinema, cinemagraphically it’s filmed in Monument Valley, Utah, and it’s just
[01:05:21] Scott: beautiful.
[01:05:21] Yeah. So it’s funny because I hadn’t seen this movie really until, you know, I don’t know, it’s like maybe four months ago, six months ago that I, that I’d seen it. But I, I was a climber. Yeah. And I’ve grown up in my 20s and 30s and I had watched, you know, just like, you know, if you’ve ever heard of people watching surfing movies, they have climbing movies out there.
[01:05:39] And I was in kind of the early era of that. And I had seen. Monument Valley, where there was lots of climbing out there. So I’ve wanted to go there for other reasons for quite some time. We almost made a trip out there about
[01:05:51] Jenn: six months ago. We’re going to do it. The walk with history. We’ll do a searchers video.
[01:05:55] Yeah, we’ll,
[01:05:56] Scott: we’ll, we’ll get out there. But this movie came out in 1956 and as many of, if you’re watching. this video and you got this far, then you probably know The Searchers. It’s about Ethan Edwards, a Civil War veteran scarred by both battle and personal loss, returns home to find his brother’s family massacred by Comanche and his niece Debbie abducted.
[01:06:15] Driven by vengeance and prejudice, Ethan embarks on a years long quest to find Debbie, blurring the lines between rescue and revenge. His journey forces him to confront the darkness within himself, grapple with changing landscapes and values, and ultimately choose between hatred and a fragile hope for redemption.
[01:06:35] So some of the things I wrote down, obviously you mentioned the cinematic, the cinematography. It’s, it’s, it’s another level, right? That’s a bar that’s been set so high. There’s, there’s lots of films that try to, to reach that bar. That’s what John Ford and John Wayne did. Yes. In this, in this movie. You know, he, he plays not a typical John Wayne
[01:06:57] Jenn: character.
[01:06:58] That’s why I think his acting is the best in this. He is, I think, the quintessential anti hero. Yeah. Now, in the book, his name is Amos. It’s Ethan Edwards in the movie, he names his, in real life, he’ll name his son Ethan. And that’s what we talked about in Big Jake. But Ethan Edwards character is a confederate.
[01:07:18] And this is supposed to be 1868. So it’s three years after the end of the Civil War, and they haven’t seen him in eight years. So he gets back to his family, but you can tell how much he is beloved by his family. Everyone’s walking in with open arms. He gives a medal to Debbie. His his sister in law takes care of his jacket for him.
[01:07:39] Like he is a beloved member and you can tell him and his brother have a very strong connection. So when he’s away, the Comanche have basically stolen cattle, killed cattle far enough away so they can raid the homestead, Ethan’s brother’s homestead, and they can’t get back to them in time. When he’s away and he finally makes it back and he’s the first one to encounter this, the book is much more graphic about what he’s encountering.
[01:08:07] And so then they’re burying the family. And then it’s this revenge. This, this to get Debbie back. It’s, and it’s Lucy and Debbie at first, and then Lucy will die. And so it’s really Debbie and what it takes for him to search. And I know people come sometimes think this movie is boring because it’s just like, Oh, well, and that’s the point is that he doesn’t stop.
[01:08:33] He just keeps going. He keeps going. It’s not easy. He doesn’t find her right away. He loses the trail. And he gets right back on it. He takes any clue he can get and he keeps going. He doesn’t stop. He’s relentless in his search. And so it’s like. You love him and you hate him because he is very racist and he’s supposed to be this is the one thing I get mad about Turner classic movies who Really don’t want to culturally touch this movie because of the racism, but he’s supposed to be that’s the point of the movie It’s the point of the movie is he is a terrible racist person he is so mad at what has happened to his family that he’s stereotyping them and Making them a group of people to hate them so he can keep motivation and
[01:09:23] Scott: so much so that Spoiler alert so much so that by the end of the movie.
[01:09:27] I mean he almost doesn’t bring he wants to kill Debbie
[01:09:29] Jenn: So he’s encountering real life situations. I mean this novel written by Alan LeMay was based on real life. He had, he had searched like 25 different cases. The biggest one was a man named Britton Johnson, who was an African American teamster who ransomed his captured wife and children from the Comanches in 1865.
[01:09:50] Then he went back out to search for a girl, Millie Duncan who He never found cause he was killed in 1871, but there was 25 cases of young girls being abducted by the Comanches. Now this is a time in Texas. This is supposed to be Texas filmed in Utah. It’s supposed to be Texas. It’s called the Texas Comanche Wars.
[01:10:11] Sometimes you’ll hear the Texas Native American wars. They happened between 1820 and 1875 and this was really wars. Think of Mexico, Texas, the U S on one side. And then the Comanche tribe on another side. And it really was fight over the land. And I want to stress, people were massacring each other. It wasn’t just the Comanche massacring homesteads.
[01:10:36] It was both. You’ll see depictions in the searchers of the Calvary soldiers massacring whole Indian villages. And so that was, that was this back and forth that was happening at this time. It’s not made, John Ford made a point, it’s not made to make anybody look good. It’s not made to make anyone look bad.
[01:10:58] It’s made to look like the truth of what
[01:11:00] Scott: happened. Yeah. And I think that’s, you know, when I was doing my little bit of research, and again, we’ve done a lot more research that we’ll do in a separate video here, but that was one of the things that a lot of even the critics and even today people will call out that how close it is when the movie is to the book and the book is right based on historical
[01:11:18] Jenn: research.
[01:11:19] Yes, but you’re going to get like big characters. Word bond is in this again. Vera Miles, the same love interest in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance will play the love interest to Jeffrey Hunter’s character, who is a. Fourth or an eighth Comanche, but he’s the one who searches with John Wayne Yeah And so the premise is there were these three families who homesteaded in Texas and one of them was John Wayne’s brother’s family One family was massacred years ago and their only son survived And that was the family the son that they took in and that’s the one who searches with John Wayne He thinks of Debbie as his sister.
[01:11:57] He tries to call him uncle Ethan You think it’s mad. I’m not your uncle, but he’s been raised by this family because their family was massacred. And then the other family, which is Vera Miles’s family, who’s who they eventually bring Debbie back to is the third family. So it’s basically these three families who tried to homestead together.
[01:12:16] Basically only one makes it. And you see the arc where the Calvary have. basically massacred an Indian village and taken back some of the white women who were kidnapped, but have been Integrated into the Comanche way of life. You see Ethan encounter these women and they’re very much now Brainwashed into being a Comanche squaw
[01:12:41] Scott: Yeah What one thing that I noted down was the scene where Debbie is the one to show them the scalps?
[01:12:46] Yeah, the first time I see I, I, I like, I, I literally put in my notes, I put OMG, like the scene where she shows him the scalps. I was like, oh, I, I was so. Caught off
[01:12:57] Jenn: guard. So they look at her. Yeah, so it’s been about six years. She’s kidnapped at age. She’s about 14 now She’s a wife of the chief scar scar is wearing the medal that Ethan gave Debbie gave to her It’s Ethan’s
[01:13:11] Scott: metal.
[01:13:11] Yeah the tension. Yeah, so,
[01:13:14] Jenn: you know, Ethan knows so now Ethan Wants to know how much is Debbie still left in there, right? and so that’s where you see him get more and more aggressive and just bitter and Scar is also the actor is in red face. So it’s a white actor Australian actor who’s pretending to be American Indian.
[01:13:36] So that is something that Turner Classic Movies hits on as well. But again, something that happened at the time. Now you’re going to see a lot of American Indian actors. I saw the same actors from McClintock who are actually in
[01:13:48] Scott: this as well. I noted that, right? The, I think the sheriff or something like that or what the marshal, he played, he was the priest.
[01:13:55] Oh yeah, Ward
[01:13:57] Jenn: Bond is in it again too, but I, some of the American Indians who are in McClintock are also the American Indians. Yep. I
[01:14:01] Scott: noted that across a couple of movies. As far as the box office went, it, this one did okay. So in the box office, it said it did about four and a half million dollars, which would have tied it for around number 13, number 12 that year. Yeah. Other movies that came out that year, the 10 commandments, pretty big movie around the world in 80 days, the king and I.
[01:14:20] Those are some of the big ones, Moby Dick,
[01:14:22] Jenn: well, this movie, in 1989, it was picked to be culturally significant by the Library of Congress. This movie is also a huge influence, there’s some amazing directors, Scorsese says this movie is It just inspired him to be a director.
[01:14:36] Yeah. Spielberg will say this movie, it has inspired him so much in the scenes and what he likes to do. Like, it’s so much of this movie has influenced culture. Ethan Edwards likes to say, That’ll be the day. When somebody like challenges him, he says, That’ll be the day. Buddy Holly wrote a whole song about that one line.
[01:14:55] Oh, yeah, that’s right. So this movie was such an influence culturally at the time for a lot of people. But for me, it’s that final scene. So you got Natalie Wood, young actress at the time, her sister plays her at eight. She plays herself at 14. And you think he’s chasing her at the very end of the movie.
[01:15:17] This is an exhausting movie. It’s two hours long. You’re like, finally, he gets her. Is he going to kill her? because he’s pretty much said he’s going to, he gets her, he grabs her and he says, let’s go home, Debbie. And in that moment, she wants to go home. She, it’s her again. And to me, it’s the perfect arc of a character.
[01:15:37] And that to me is. John Dwayne’s greatest performance. You see him that that’s the climax. He’ll bring her back to the other family. And then he slowly walks away very lonely and
[01:15:48] Scott: isolated. Even that final scene again for, for movie makers cinematically is incredibly iconic, right? Him being framed by that doorway as he walks away and the rest of the family goes into the house and he’s standing there in this very vulnerable, very vulnerable pose and turns around and walks away.
[01:16:06] I mean, that is. That is an incredibly iconic shot right there. So quintessential Western quintessential Western. This is again, genre defining movie.
[01:16:16] Jenn: And that is my favorite John Wayne movie.
[01:16:18] Scott: So we want to hear if you guys agree with our list. And I’ll put the, I’ll put our top, our top 10 and I’ll compare them.
[01:16:26] I’ll put them up on the screen. So you guys can see what Jen’s top 10 are in my version of Jen’s top 10 for, for me specifically. So I want to hear from you guys. If you made it this far in the video, please let us know what you’re, if you agree with us, if you disagree with us and what’s your favorite John Wayne movie is.
[01:16:42] Well, partners, we’ve wrangled our way through the top ten John Wayne movies and hopefully sparked some lively discussions along the way. Remember, this list is just our take and the beauty of film is its subjectivity. So head out there, watch these classics or rediscover them. And form your own opinions.
[01:17:08] Scott: Share your thoughts with us in the comments and who knows, maybe we’ll have another western showdown in the future. And a huge thank you to all of you who joined us on this cinematic adventure through some John Wayne classics We’ll talk to you next time.
[01:17:21] Thank
[01:17:21] Jenn: you. I love John Wayne
[01:17:26]