Red River: Mutiny on the Trail
John Wayne and Joanne Dru. Photo: United Artists John Ford was the man behind the movie that made John Wayne a star, Stagecoach (1939). When he saw Red River nine…
Stagecoach: Introducing John Wayne
Photo: United Artists Today, we remember John Ford as a great director of Westerns. In 1939, that wasn’t really the case. Ford hadn’t made a Western since his days as…
The Magnificent Seven
When a small town is harassed by a robber baron (Peter Sarsgaard), the local townsfolk hire a band of men to defend them. A remake of the 1960 classic that…
High Noon: Waiting for the Whistle
Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. Photo: United Artists In a notorious 1971 interview with Playboy, John Wayne talked about how proud he was to have helped make sure a communist…
Magnificent Seven: It Takes a Village
Photo: United Artists In 2009, Robert Vaughn released an autobiography that revealed the full extent of the rivalry between Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner on the set of The Magnificent…
Rio Bravo: A Sheriff Takes a Chance
John Wayne. Photo: Warner For purely political reasons, John Wayne was not a fan of High Noon (1952). In his view, that film celebrated collectivism, having Gary Cooper's sheriff come…
True Grit: A Spielberg Moment
Jeff Bridges. Photo: Paramount The original True Grit (1969) is a very good Western, well directed by Henry Hathaway, featuring a script by Marguerite Roberts and a part for John…
The Searchers: A Savage Nature
John Wayne. Photo: Warner The Searchers was a box office hit in its day, but received no Academy Award nominations. Much like several Alfred Hitchcock movies, it's a typical example…
Westworld
Some time in the future, two tourists (Richard Benjamin, James Brolin) go to Westworld, a theme park built like a city in the Old West where the gunslingers are played…
Back to the Future Part III
Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) is stuck in 1885 and will be murdered, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) learns, unless he can travel back in time from 1955 and warn the…