Tag: Western
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How ‘Stagecoach’ Catapulted John Wayne to Stardom, Riding and Fighting His Way to the Top
I watched an early John Wayne movie on the Grit Network recently and found it awful. I didn’t see the start of it so I don’t know the title, but it had been colorized with an unnatural look. I didn’t expect much of the dialogue, but Wayne’s singing was simply horrible. He was serenading his…
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True Grit’s Resurgence: The Western Genre Rides Again, Crossing $100 Million, and Bob Mondello’s Ultimate Frontier Experience
With True Grit crossing the $100 million mark at the box office, the Western, often given up for dead, appears to be back. Black hats, white hats, guns, a frontier code of honor, big-sky country — all have been Hollywood staples since at least 1903, when The Great Train Robbery sent gunslingers galloping across the…
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Rethinking Icons: Politicians Spearhead Efforts to Rename John Wayne Airport Amidst Racial Critique
The Democratic Party of Orange County passed an emergency resolution this week calling on the Orange County Board of Supervisors to change the name of John Wayne Airport. Submitted by Ada Briceño, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, along with Chapman University professors Fred Smoller and Dr. Michael A. Moodian, the resolution “condemns…
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Brannigan’s Secrets: John Wayne’s Battle with Heart Issues and the Unlikely Appearance of Laurence Olivier
John Wayne’s last cop movie was the London-based Brannigan, where the exhausted veteran star struggled through production with a series of health problems. Having starred in 1974’s McQ, John Wayne played another tough cop in the 1975 action thriller, Brannigan, opposite Richard Attenborough. Set in London, the movie saw Duke’s Chicago detective Lieutenant Jim Brannigan…
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The Ultimate Western Antagonist: Lee Van Cleef, the Scene-Stealer Who Outshone Clint Eastwood
Move over Wayne and Eastwood — Lee Van Cleef is here to steal your scene! Sure, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood are practically synonymous with Westerns (and for good reason), but Van Cleef is the most under-appreciated and overlooked regular of the genre. His hawkish, piercing eyes and naturally intimidating demeanor make him an effortless…
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93 Years Bold From Bed to Betrayal: Clint Eastwood’s Explosive Clash and On-Set Perils Revealed
Following A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, Clint Eastwood returned for a third outing as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s classic Dollars Trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns. In fact, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly would go down as one of the best of the genre, but it…
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Hidden Horrors: Clint Eastwood’s Controversial Decision in the Dollars Trilogy Exposed
Starring in Sergio Leone’s The Dollars Trilogy, Clint Eastwood starred in a genre of movies called Western spaghetti. Portraying the role of The Man with No Name, Eastwood’s dedication to the role is both commendable and a bit disgusting as he reportedly never washed his character’s cape over the course of three years! Clint Eastwood…
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1948 John Wayne Western’s Surprising Survival Twist Leaves Experts Amazed
A 1948 John Wayne Western directed by John Ford gets one desert survival trick right, much to the excitement of survival expert Les Stroud. 3 Godfathers depicts one desert survival trick very accurately, much to the excitement of survival expert Les Stroud. Released in 1948, the Western film stars John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry…
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High Noon’ Vs. ‘Rio Bravo’: How Rivalry Created Two Of The Best Westerns
The 1950s saw the release of two of the most important westerns of all-time: Fred Zimmerman’s romantic morality tale High Noon in 1952, and Howard Hawks’ signature “hangout western,” Rio Bravo, in 1959. Both films are now regarded as classics, and you don’t have to look very far to see how they’ve influenced modern filmmakers.…
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Fueled by Opposition: The Legendary Creation of ‘Rio Bravo’ Driven by Discontent with ‘High Noon’
A certified classic Western was born totally out of spite. “Rio Bravo” was spearheaded by two of the biggest names in Old Hollywood — the on-screen cowboy John Wayne and the multi-faceted director Howard Hawks. The 1959 film was a direct response to a Western released seven years prior, “High Noon.” Hawks took issue with…