Duke

Over the past six weeks the wife and I have been DVRing, of all things, a lot of John Wayne movies. Neither one of us have seen many of his westerns; I think the only ones I’ve seen are The Shootist, Hondo, The Seekers, and Stagecoach. Maybe one or two others that escape memory. But since TCM has been playing him so much over the past couple of weeks, we DVR ’em, and watch ’em when there’s nothing else on and we have a whole evening in front of us.

You know what? I like them. Even the wife does, and westerns are even less her cup of tea than mine. There’s something friendly and wholesome about a John Wayne western, even the ones that are not necessarily trying to be friendly and wholeseome. Perhaps “friendly” and “wholesome” are not the best words to convey what I’m trying to say. Even when playing a grumpy curmudgeon, Wayne has a warmth to him. You know where you stand with him. He’s plays by the unwritten rules of the west, and expects you to play by them too. Else suffer the consequences.

Like most examples of pure originality in art, John Wayne has become a cliché, but a comfortable one. Yeah, we do bad Duke imitations as we watch him on the screen. Yeah, we good-naturedly make fun of his swagger, his ballooning weight, his delivery as if he’s repeating his lines for the very first time. But you know what? He’s fun to watch and always a magnetic presence on the screen.

Anyway, here’s what we’ve seen the past month or so, and the grade I humbly give them, based solely on my enjoyment of the film, since I consider myself unqualified in the art of the western film to critique them properly:

El Dorado A
True Grit A
Fort Apache B+
The Undefeated B–

Very much interested in renting the True Grit remake when it comes out in a few months. I sense a possible compare-and-contrast post on The Hopper this spring.

Of the four films mentioned in the first paragraph, I like The Shootist a lot, primarily, I guess, because of its stoic heroic meditation on mortality. The Seekers I thought to be somewhat overrated critically, though perhaps I just need to see it again with a discerning eye. The other two I plan to DVR again the next time I see them on TMC. Pilgrim.