John Wayne

[ColtsLax]

anyone put there die hard Duke fans? He has like 180 movies, so you have to like one. I like Snad of Iwo Jima best, but she wore a yellow ribbon is pretty good too.

[laxrat22]

i like chism and the one where he is in ireland and he gets in a fight with some guy and they go all over the village fighting that whole seen was pure comedy

[scooterstyx]

I think your talkin about "The Quiet Man" with Maureen O'Hara. He's a retired boxer in that one. Also, "True Grit" is amazing. Its a shame that there are no more good westerns bein made. I know The Duke has passed on, but Clint Eastwood also made some really great ones

[shiftylax]

Uhm...his first name was Marion...

But he was still pretty cool - for his time.

[ColtsLax]

Uhm...his first name was Marion...

But he was still pretty cool - for his time.
what are you talkig about, how is that relevant

[roycegracie47]

It's relevant because this is a thread about John Wayne and that is a fact about John Wayne.

Personally I liked True Grit, The Man Who Sho Liberty Valance, and Gung Ho...but I'm more of and Eastwood man when it comes to Westerns overall.

[Frndlefire]

John Wayne is classic. I have to recommend you go pick up a non-John Wayne movie called The Wild Bunch direct by Sam Pickinpah. Masterfully made film, in my opinion one of, if not the, best made westerns of all time.

[roycegracie47]

Wild Bunch is a GREAT western. One of the best closing shootouts. My roommate frshman year of college owned a copy and we watched it dozens of times throughout school.

[HdGLaxWarrior]

I love all of his Westerns. His WWII's werent so good.

[goalieskcickay]

Unforgiven is the only movie by him I've ever seen I liked it alot.

[laxattack8888]

I like him, he's great, but I do like some actors better, but in his style of work, he's probably the all-time best.

[HdGLaxWarrior]

And everybody knows "Blazing Saddles" is the best wester ever made. :thumbsup: :laugh:

Quoted for emphasis!

I love that movie. I cant get enough of it. I memorized most of the script.

[laxrat22]

just an interesting fact about the duke for you guys. i'm sure most of you know he died from cancer, the cause of the cancer came from the nuclear fall out that he was exposed to while filming movies near areas where the government used to test nuclear bombs

[twin58]

I ... recommend ... The Wild Bunch ... by Sam Peckinpah. Masterfully made film, in my opinion one of, if not the, best made westerns of all time.
Wild Bunch is a GREAT western.
Perennially checked out of the library. I've been trying to get it for months.

I'm not much for westerns. Recently though, I watched again (for the first time on DVD) a film that I am beginning to think is the best film I have ever seen. Due to the length, it rarely shows up on TV. Well, maybe one of those cable channels; I wouldn't know.* The film is Once Upon a Time in the West (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064116/) (or, if you prefer, C'era una volta il West). I've got the soundtrack running in my head right now. Almost incredibly, it stars Charles Bronson, and it's easily the best film he was ever in.

Here are excerpts from one review at IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064116/usercomments):

Author: daniken (rcp@planet.nl) from Leiden, Netherlands

I can't quite find the words to even come close to describing the pure brilliance of this movie.
....

The title, 'Once Upon A Time In The West' must have seemed to mean nothing more than 'just another western' to the unexpecting viewers at the time. Oh boy were they wrong. With this movie, Sergio Leone singlehandedly redefined the western genre and no American western would ever match the brilliant spirit in which it was made.
....

I cannot adequately convey in words the way in which Sergio Leone deepens and defines the characters by pure means of visual persuasion.
....

It's unlike any other western I've ever seen. From the very first frame, you are pressed back into your seat. If you haven't seen it, you can't begin to imagine what an astonishing film this is.

I've read the movie was a flop in the States when it came out, but apparently there was one cinema in Paris where it ran for something like seventy weeks.**

Henry Fonda, when asked what was his favorite movie of all the films he had been in, answered that it was Once Upon a Time in the West.

* Turner Classic Movies shows it. (http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,,1025%7C1068%7C12473,00.html)

** Try four years. (http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/infocus/spaghetti4.htm)

[Petem0ss]

Rio Bravo is a great Duke movie. Played football at USC as well (Marion Morrison).

[twin58]

... filming movies near areas where the government used to test nuclear bombs
Since I just bought the book secondhand at a library book sale, I will add this, from The Straight Dope (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_016.html):

Did John Wayne die of cancer caused by a radioactive movie set?
26-Oct-1984

Dear Cecil:

My girlfriend says that half of the film crew and eight of the cast of the movie The Conqueror starring John Wayne died of cancer after an A-bomb test in Nevada. It can't be the truth--that many people--can it? Please, Cecil, give us the Straight Dope. --John L., Santa Monica, California

Cecil replies:

I'm horrified to have to report this, John, but your girlfriend's claim is only slightly exaggerated. Of the 220 persons who worked on The Conqueror on location in Utah in 1955, 91 had contracted cancer as of the early 1980s and 46 died of it, including stars John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead, and director D ick Powell. Experts say under ordinary circumstances only 30 people out of a group of that size should have gotten cancer. The cause? No one can say for sure, but many attribute the cancers to radioactive fallout from U.S. atom bomb tests in nearby Nevada. The whole ghastly story is told in The Hollywood Hall of Shame by Harry and Michael Medved. But let's start at the beginning.
....