John Wayne day on TCM today

John Wayne day on TCM

Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Searchers, Rio Bravo on later today, Chisum on right now.

The Searchers (movie) were searching for a girl kidnapped by Comanches. She is buried at Fort Sill, OK. I also saw Geronimo's jail cell while there.

I didn't know people actually liked John Wayne.

I am not sure what you mean by that. I mean clearly he is one of the biggest stars of his time and has a number very notable movies. I would say he is was about equivalent to what Will Smith is these days (essentially a highly payed action actor), but I don't think he tried as much to do "serious" roles, which Smith seems been hunting recently (and frankly has only done OK with).

If you don't have any interest in westerns though, there's not a lot to look at.

I do wonder if he would even make it into acting these days though, he definitely had a "style" that might not work these days.

yupididit wrote: I didn't know people actually liked John Wayne.

I always liked Quiet Man.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers are two of the best films I've seen, and excellent examples of the traditional Western.

yupididit wrote: I didn't know people actually liked John Wayne.

I'm with Flava Flav on this one.

I like westerns sometimes. I just thought the fan base for John Wayne died off already. I couldn't ever handle his acting or movies plots lol. Might be my age

I haven't liked a Will Smith role in about 9 years

yupididit wrote: I didn't know people actually liked John Wayne.

the only real reason I don't like him or Clint Eastwood(ok I don't like clint for a bunch of reasons) these days is because I was forced to watch them every weekend when I was a kid. My dad loved spaghetti westerns, so after the fishing shows were over it was westerns all day

The Cowboys is still a pretty good one though.

The Shootist is a good movie. True Grit is not a great movie, but I watch it whenever it's on tv. It has the most fabulous lines..."Big talk for a one eyed fat man!"

Streetwiseguy wrote: The Shootist is a good movie. True Grit is not a great movie, but I watch it whenever it's on tv. It has the most fabulous lines..."Big talk for a one eyed fat man!"

I have used that quote here in the past and nobody caught it.

In reply to spitfirebill:

Probably because I missed the thread.

914Driver wrote: The Searchers (movie) were searching for a girl kidnapped by Comanches. She is buried at Fort Sill, OK. I also saw Geronimo's jail cell while there.

"The Searchers" was based on several stories of abduction by the Comanche and Kiowa in Texas, including that of Cynthia Ann Parker. Her story is tragic on several levels. Her son, Quanah, is a legend in this part of the world.

John Wayne's character is partly based on Brit Johnson, a slave/cowboy/ranch manager (Things were different in frontier Texas) whose family was taken by the Comanche.

yupididit wrote: I didn't know people actually liked John Wayne.

I never met him, so I could not say one way or the other if I would have liked him. He was in a lot of outstanding movies though, Stagecoach, Red River, Longest Day, In Harms Way, Quiet Man, Searchers, Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Cowboys, The Shootist.

As I understand it, Wyatt Earp was a consultant in Hollywood way back when. John Wayne met him and pretty much based his western characters on Wyatt Earp.

02Pilot wrote: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers are two of the best films I've seen, and excellent examples of the traditional Western.

You have excellent taste in westerns, sir. These are John Wayne's best two films. Also, incidentally, the only two in which he calls someone "pilgrim."

Here is my challenge. Sit in front of a modern television. Make sure you turn on motion smoothing or motion interpolation, whatever it is that creates the awful "soap opera effect" then play the movie "Hatari"

It is pretty amazing how that motion smoothing makes an old movie look shiny and new, albeit black and white. Now while you are watching this old film that looks like it could have been filmed last year you get a different perspective. Just how corny and forced all the lines seem. The way John Wayne throws his leg onto a tree stump or tire so he can rest his elbow on his knee is so hokey that you start to feel like "Sharknado" was well acted.

I like old movies and a fan of Wayne movies for the most part. It's not one of his best but I love Rio Bravo.