John Wayne Movie Poll

[Bob Green]

I'm listing 10 of my favorite John Wayne movies and am interested in which one you guys vote as his best. I voted for the comedy "Donovan's Reef" which costarred Lee Marvin.

[knights68]

Here are my favorites of 'ol Duke!

#1: Sands of Iwo Jima
#2: The Fighting SeeBees
#3: The flying leathernecks
#4: The Longest Day
#5: (a tie only 'cuz I can't decide which was better) Rio Bravo & Fort Apache
#6: The Shootist
#7: The Alamo

[TNTDevil]

Any John Wayne poll without The Cowboys... just ain't right.

So I'll submit this as a write-in, followed by In Harm's Way.

[EarlJam]

WHAT? No Flying Leathernecks???

By the way, I'm working on a screenplay that will star Billy Bob Thorton and Jeff Foxworthy. It is about a couple of good 'ol southern boys that decide to join the Marines as flyers to expand their horizons and help earn some additional money for thier families on the farm. Little do they know they will soon find themselves in a war-time situation.

It will be called: FLYING REDNECKS

-EarlJam

P.S. I'm a good 'ol southern boy who has family that owns farmland, so please, take no offense.

[Olympic Fan]

I agree with former Time Magazine critic Richard Shickel that Wayne starred in the greatest war movie ever made -- but he was only second-billed to Robert Montgomery in John Ford's magnificent "They Were Expendable"

On the other hand, Wayne was clearly the star -- and gave his greatest acting performance -- as the racist Ethan in Ford's western, "The Searchers" That film is almost always the highest-rated Wayne film in professional film surveys -- the Belgium film magazine that conducts the most widely respected film ranking once every decade has included "The Searchers" in its international top 10 for the last 30 years. It was one of the major influences on young George Lucas and even inspired a hit song by Buddy Holly.

And, Bob, while "Donovan's Reef" is a fun romp, don't you think it's a pale imitation of "The Quiet Man"? Even Ford admitted he failed to recapture the magic of the earlier film. And remember the hommage that Spielberg paid to this film in "E.T."?

Outside of the John Ford films which sort of form the spine of the Duke's career (stretching from his star-making role in "Stagecoach" to the elegiac "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence"), Wayne's greatest role had to be opposite Montgomery Clift in "Red River" ... Gary Wills (whose book, "John Wayne's America" is a must-read for fans of the Duke) claimed that that was the film that actually convinced Ford that Wayne could act ...

My top 10 Wayne films (and keep in mind, I'm primarily a John Ford fan) would be:

1. The Searchers
2. They Were Expendable
3. The Quiet Man
4. Red River
5. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
6. Stagecoach
7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
8. Ford Apache
9. Rio Grande
10. Wagon Train

Wow, and I left out The Cowboys, Sands of Iwo Jima, Big Jake, Donovan's Reef, Flying Leathernecks, North to Alaska, The Big Trail, Big Jake (my favorite of the "late" Wayne movies), McClintock, The Alamo, The Shootist, In Harm's Way, Angel and the Bad Man, the Fighting Seebees ... and we didn't even mention his fun "Three Mesqueteer" series he made before he became a star with Stagecoach ... wow, what a body of work!

[TNTDevil]

WHAT? No Flying Leathernecks???

By the way, I'm working on a screenplay that will star Billy Bob Thorton and Jeff Foxworthy. It is about a couple of good 'ol southern boys that decide to join the Marines as flyers to expand their horizons and help earn some additional money for thier families on the farm. Little do they know they will soon find themselves in a war-time situation.

It will be called: FLYING REDNECKS

-EarlJam

P.S. I'm a good 'ol southern boy who has family that owns farmland, so please, take no offense.

Larry the Cable Guy? Any film by that name, well...

[captmojo]

Isn't True Grit his only character to inspire a reprise?

[Tommac]

I own about 60 of Wayne's films on DVD and several others (older) on VHS. My top favorites would be (in no order):

1. The Shootist
2. True Grit
3. Stagecoach
4. Searchers
5. Cowboys
6. Rooster Gogburn
7. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
8. Flying Tigers
9. Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
10. Son's of Katie Elder

I like almost all of Wayne's films, so it's hard to narrow it down to just 10. Personally, he's my favorite actor of the 20th century. I also highly endorse the book mentioned in a previous post.

[TNTDevil]

Isn't True Grit his only character to inspire a reprise?

Also of note, no one has even remotely mentioned The Green Berets or The Hellfighters (both of which I viewed at a drive-in as a young boy).

The Green Berets hmmm... what would The Duke make now with the "Mess in Mesopotamia"?

The Hellfighters... entertaining yet, terribly formulaic.

[YmoBeThere]

Another vote for The Cowboys...saw it as a kid, was ready to head west to rope some cattle.

[colchar]

Am I the only one who thought John Wayne sucked? Listening to him speak in any movie had the same effect on me as hearing to fingernails on a blackboard.

[aimo]

I vote for The Cowboys, too. One of my all-time favorite movies.

[EarlJam]

Am I the only one who thought John Wayne sucked? Listening to him speak in any movie had the same effect on me as hearing to fingernails on a blackboard.

I liked John Wayne because he's, well, John Wayne but as an actor, yeah, I think he basically sucked.

[DevilAlumna]

Am I the only one who thought John Wayne sucked? Listening to him speak in any movie had the same effect on me as hearing to fingernails on a blackboard.

Apparently, I'm the only one who's never seen any of his movies (at least not from from start to end...)

[Windsor]

Am I the only one who thought John Wayne sucked? Listening to him speak in any movie had the same effect on me as hearing to fingernails on a blackboard.

You are not the only one. I never understood the popularity of John Wayne...he played the same character (probably himself) in every single movie...his voice was annoying...not much of an actor...not good looking enough to be 'eye candy'...

[EarlJam]

I was with my friend once one late night in Burlington at the Blue Ribbon Diner. It was years ago and we had had a substantial amount of refreshing adult beverages. Anyway, the diner had life-sized cardboard cut-outs of movie stars all about.

On the way out, my friend, Jimmy, proceeded to snag John Wayne and run out the door. When we got to the car, both laughing our arses off, Jimmy opened the trunk and put the cut-out of John Wayne in there.

Suddenly we heard screaming behind us. "Hey! You! Stop! Hey!"

It was the restaurant manager. He got to the car all huffing and puffing.

"What?!"...we asked him.

His reply:

"I KNOW YOU HAVE JOHN WAYNE IN YOUR TRUNK!!!!"

That was it. He totally disarmed us. We busted out laughing then tried to contain our laugher as we opened up the trunk to return John Wayne to the manager. Just sheepishly pulling John Wayne out of the trunk to return him to Flair-Boy was quite, quite funny.

Anyway, that's the night we 'almost' stole John Wayne.

-EarlJam

[Olympic Fan]

I liked John Wayne because he's, well, John Wayne but as an actor, yeah, I think he basically sucked.

Wayne, like a lot of old movie stars, established a "character" and basically played that character in movie after movie.

However, the proposition that he "sucked" as an actor ... all that stuff is opinion, but I don't think you'd find many film historians or professional critics who would agree with you. As I mentioned before his performance in "The Searchers" is widely regarded as one of the greatest -- and most subtle -- performances in screen history. His performance in Howard Hawks' "Red River" is outstanding. I don't like the artsy-fartsy "Long Voyage Home", but playwright Eugene O'Neill praised Wayne's performance in a film based on several of his one-act plays. I think his Nathan Brittles -- an aging cavalry officer who was much older than Wayne at the time -- was a fine performance. I also think he was magnificent in both "The Quiet Man" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence"

BTW Roogster Cogburn was NOT the first Wayne character brought back for a sequel. His Capt. Kirby Yorke from Fort Apache (the first of the cavalry trilogy) is reprised as Col. Kirby Yorke in Rio Grande (the third of Ford's trology).

I can understand not liking Wayne ... especially since I grew up as an anti-war liberal in an era when Wayne was an obnoxious supporter of the war. His "Green Berets" is repellant.

At the same time, I remember a column by Chicago writer Mike Royko, another critic of the war, who says he went to see True Grit determined to hate it because of his dislike for Wayne and his politics.

But Royko admits that when the scene came around when Wayne confronts Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall) and his companions across the field and shouts, "Fill you hands with led, you son #$%%$$", then puts his reins in his teeth and gallops toward the three outlaws with a gun in each hand, Royko found himself standing in his seat, jumping up and down, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Of course, that was just a movie. The real John Wayne, for all his cinema heroics, never served in WWII -- a fact that John Ford (who was wounded at Midway and took part in the Doolittle Raid and was off Omaha Beach on D-Day) never let him forget. Wayne wasn't really a hero, but somehow he became the embodiment of American heroism.

I don't know if that's acting, but it's a very unique gift.

[dukemomLA]

John Wayne was always 'John Wayne.' Not a great actor, but a great screen presence. "A Quiet Man" and "True Grit" were the only movies where it had to 'stretch it.'-- a little.

[Bob Green]

Any John Wayne poll without The Cowboys... just ain't right.

So I'll submit this as a write-in, followed by In Harm's Way.

It isn't a bogus poll because I never said the choices were John Wayne's 10 best films, I said they were my 10 favorite films. My poll - my choices. Olympic Fan is definitely correct in regard to "Red River." John Wayne and Montgomery Clift were great together. I also enjoyed "The Cowboys" as well as "The Shootist."

I realize that "Donovan's Reef" was not critically acclaimed, but it really struck a chord with me and is the John Wayne movie I enjoyed the most.

[micah75]

Rio Bravo was a fun movie. Great cast, with Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson in her prime, and the always cantankerous Walter Brennan. And to jazz things up, a young Ricky Nelson as a gunslinger who could strum a few chords and sing a tune or two.

The Shootist was also one of my favorites. Once again, an all-star cast, with Jimmy Stewart, Lauren Bacall, Richard Boone... Ron Howard, already an experienced actor, said that he was impressed with Wayne's acting, that there were a lot of subtle things he learned from watching him.

A couple of years back I discovered that Wayne was a 4 pack a day chain smoker. He must have been lighting up every 15 minutes or so on the set, inbetween scenes. Never would have guessed it.