The movie "Hang 'em High" starring Clint Eastwood was also based on the Judge Parker and Fort Smith history but the producers labelled Fort Smith as Fort Grant. Not as good a Western as True Grit IMHO.

If you want to see a little known Western of extremely high quality watch "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold". The stunts are real and fantastic if you watch them close. No Computers then but in color. A good theme. The scene where Tonto drives the buggy pulled by two really powerful horses at full speed through town was great stunt work. The buggy slides around the turns hitting buildings but manages to hang together.

Bobby R. Huddleston

Thanks for the review. I am a fan of Bridge's work, but am always leery of remakes.

The Blu-Ray of the original is just out (and on the way). "Fill your hand...."

I guess I will have to see it this week before the prints get too torn up.

Bobby,

Have you seen "The Big Country" with Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, and Chuck Connors? It is about as good as it gets, well, except for "The Searchers".

Rick

The "Searchers" is a classic. For the time it was made it has some thought put into it. John Wayne as Ethan knows the religion and belief system of the Native Americans he is fighting. As evidenced by the scene where the posse in pursuit discovers a member of the Comanche raiding party dead under a flat rock. Ethan draws his revolver and quickly shoots the eyes out of the corpse. Some one asks why he did that and Ethan says so that he would have no sight and his soul would wander forever searching for the Happy Hunting Grounds but unable to find it.

This has modern day warfare applications. I am not going to list any specific world-wide religions here but when your enemy believes in reincarnation you never want to be captured alive by your enemy. That enemy believes that he should make your death so terrible(read torture to death here if he has time) that your soul will not want to come back into the world as a warrior but as something passive like a priest, doctor or farmer.

The other snow scene in the "Searchers" where Ethan wants to kill as many buffalo as possible is indicative that he knows once you destroy the enemy's food source he cannot live or fight.

The last scene of the Searchers where everbody goes into the house but Ethan is silhouetted by the light walking out the front door is something very special. Ethan grabs his right arm rubbing it like it is sore. If I am not mistaken this is a tribute to the deceased husband of the oldest actress in the movie that had been a Western actor also and one of Wayne's best friends who had mentored him as he was coming up in the movie industry.

Very Deep thinking by the author and film makers of the "Searchers".

I respect Wayne's carreer but some of the WWII Marines have told me they did not watch Wayne's movies because he was young enough to enlist during WWII and actually be in the Marine Corps not just play one in the movies. They are
entitled to their opinion for what they went through in the Pacific.

Bobby R. Huddleston

Bobby,

I seem to recall that Harry Carry (not Jr. who played in a great many Wayne movies) held his arm like that. I believe that Turner Classic Movies had a bit in one of their intros to the movie in which they said Wayne asked permission to use that stance before doing so in the closing scene of "The Searchers".

Rick


P.S. Our brother Marines earned the right to their opinions. The price of admission has been paid.

One of the religions that believe in reincarnation is Buddism, a friend of mine was in the 1st Inf Div in Vietnam, at one time some of the Koreans from the White Horse Div was working with them, one of the Koreans got an STD from one the the Viet hookers and didn't know it until he was in the jungle, Their belief is that they can not achieve nirvana or enter into the next life if there is something wrong with their bodies when they die, upon his return from the jungle, Terry told me that the Korean just about beat the life out of the girl. John Wayne was an actor that's it, an actor. I don't know if it's true or not but he ask for a draft deferment during WW2 to support his family, the day after WW2 was over, he filed for divorce.

Jim, Nobody would have understood the reason that the hooker was beaten if the ROK's belief system had not been known. The STD kept the ROK from fighting to the hilt until he got the STD cleared up. He had to be more cautious not to get killed while out in the boonies. Just guessing he was also probably mad because that thought of not reaching the next life took his edge off. What I heard also from Vietnam Vets for the past 28 years was that the ROK were tough and the only rules of engagement they had in Vietnam were to come out on top in any engagement. Many of the ROK were and are Presbyterian also as I am. The ROK Presbyterian Church sends missionaries to America. Kind of ironic isn't it when most American churches think they should be sending missionaries out to the "uncivilized" world. Many Nationalities fought with our troops in Vietnam and Korea. There were also old Waffen SS fighting in the American Army in Korea. The American Army may have not known they were Waffen SS but they were.

Apologies for hijacking the thread. Take it back to Western movies. I like quality Westerns.

You can never forget "Shane" and another recent one is "Open Range" but the only thing I did not like about "Open Range" was that it shows too much reaction of the actors and/or stunt people to being shot defying the laws of physics.
I mean even a close center mass hit with a full load of modern 12 guage 00 Buckshot will not make a person fly 20 feet in the air.

Bobby R. Huddleston

Bobby, This is SC, hijacking a thread is mandatory. My first wife was Korean. During the Korean conflict and after there were basicaly two churches in Korea the Presbytarian and Methodist. Most of the Korean churches now are either one or the other. My ex was a Buddist as well as her parents, I had no interest in worshiping a statue, so I paid little attention to the whole deal. Back to the Westerns, went and seen True Grit tonight, I thought it was worth seeing, but not as good as the original.