John Wayne spends almost 2 hours trying to figure out something we suspected 10 minutes in...and I was seated for it.

John Wayne spends almost 2 hours trying to figure out something we suspected 10 minutes in...and I was seated for it.

Very entertaining and perfect morning movie

Very entertaining and perfect morning movie

[](https://youtu.be/Hyrjh0EDlss?si=XwwqZcs5GY2qVsNH)
Another one of those foundational flicks where I wore the VHS tape to pieces. Probably haven’t sat down to watch the entire thing front-to-back in a little under a decade. Essentially know The Sons of Katie Elder like the back of my hand, and yet it had taken on a new form with the eyes of an adult. As with most of his filmog towards the back half of the 1960s, I wouldn’t rank this anywhere near the greatest of his portfolio but it remains handily one of the better offerings of late period Duke star vehicles. There’s a much more melancholic, emotionally centered driving force to the narrative than most of his offerings from around this time. All the stuff with the four brothers (if you can accept the almost sixty-year age gap from oldest to youngest actor) hits like it’s supposed to. Every character here is remarkably simple and in no way does anything about the film itself attempt to break the mold or reinvent the wheel. But you buy into these four men as these distant but not uncaring brothers who have been brought back home by the death of the only person who ever dared think much of them. A lot of the stuff explaining how they’re all kind of shitty sons went over my head as a kid and it layers each of them with this imperfection that makes the mess they get themselves into all the more engaging. It’s not the most consistent tone in the world and the usual rip roarin’ slapstick fisticuffs and comedic beats of Duke’s family friendly brand kind of break up the melodrama but at its strongest, there’s a remarkably dark story being told here about the Elder and Hastings family destroying each other. A rather handsomely lit, nocturnal third act that’s got John Wayne surrounded by a dead kid and two shot brothers stood out to me quite a bit this time. I appreciate that a lot of his leading man vanity seemed to be left at the door for this one. His 58-year-old self getting paired up with 41-year-old Martha Hyer (who, sometimes amusingly, speaks almost exclusively in sermons) is refreshingly more appropriate than asomething like his romance in El Dorado. Earl Holliman and Michael Anderson Jr. are each perfectly capable for their parts, but Dean Martin was truly one of Duke’s best on-screen foils. The two of them had a rather remarkable dynamic when sharing the frame and it shines through here, especially when it narrows down to focus on the two of them in the home stretch. That extended bit in the bar where he raffles off that glass eye is the kind of amusing, if not eccentric, side quest I’m not sure a Hollywood production would stop for now. It’s not Rio Bravo but how many movies are? Biggest positive of all, that PanaVision look is just unparalleled for me. The best way to shoot a movie. Some real gorgeous backdrops and valleys and dusty streets and warmly lit saloons. The big gunfight at the river has a whole bunch of waterfalls and streams that I’d love to dive into. Lucien Ballard was a Peckinpah regular and you can tell, because this has that look stamped all over it. But that’s okay because that’s one of the best ways for a Western to look. It’s nowhere near a perfect film, in fact, it sort of just stops rather abruptly and the brothers’ dynamic is carried largely by the charisma of the four actors playing them but there isn’t a single character here that will be remembered as one of cinema’s great icons. It can get a little tiresome watching these guys get snuffed out of the truth by the most cartoonishly insidious and obviously guilty bad guys you’ve ever seen but you forgive it because it’s sort of supposed to be frustrating. What else is there to say? A good movie. Not hard to understand why I was so taken with it when I was younger. Very much indicative of the mythological, romantic visions of the West that anybody with a passion for the subject could dream up. One last note: cannot tell you how much my mind was blown when it dawned on me that the bad guy’s kid is played by none other than a very young Dennis Hopper in a beautifully nasally, sniveling, cowardly performance. Seeing John Wayne choke out Frank Booth was so goddamn funny.

[](https://youtu.be/Hyrjh0EDlss?si=XwwqZcs5GY2qVsNH)
Another one of those foundational flicks where I wore the VHS tape to pieces. Probably haven’t sat down to watch the entire thing front-to-back in a little under a decade. Essentially know The Sons of Katie Elder like the back of my hand, and yet it had taken on a new form with the eyes of an adult. As with most of his filmog towards the back half of the 1960s, I wouldn’t rank this anywhere near the greatest of his portfolio but it remains handily one of the better offerings of late period Duke star vehicles. There’s a much more melancholic, emotionally centered driving force to the narrative than most of his offerings from around this time. All the stuff with the four brothers (if you can accept the almost sixty-year age gap from oldest to youngest actor) hits like it’s supposed to. Every character here is remarkably simple and in no way does anything about the film itself attempt to break the mold or reinvent the wheel. But you buy into these four men as these distant but not uncaring brothers who have been brought back home by the death of the only person who ever dared think much of them. A lot of the stuff explaining how they’re all kind of shitty sons went over my head as a kid and it layers each of them with this imperfection that makes the mess they get themselves into all the more engaging. It’s not the most consistent tone in the world and the usual rip roarin’ slapstick fisticuffs and comedic beats of Duke’s family friendly brand kind of break up the melodrama but at its strongest, there’s a remarkably dark story being told here about the Elder and Hastings family destroying each other. A rather handsomely lit, nocturnal third act that’s got John Wayne surrounded by a dead kid and two shot brothers stood out to me quite a bit this time. I appreciate that a lot of his leading man vanity seemed to be left at the door for this one. His 58-year-old self getting paired up with 41-year-old Martha Hyer (who, sometimes amusingly, speaks almost exclusively in sermons) is refreshingly more appropriate than asomething like his romance in El Dorado. Earl Holliman and Michael Anderson Jr. are each perfectly capable for their parts, but Dean Martin was truly one of Duke’s best on-screen foils. The two of them had a rather remarkable dynamic when sharing the frame and it shines through here, especially when it narrows down to focus on the two of them in the home stretch. That extended bit in the bar where he raffles off that glass eye is the kind of amusing, if not eccentric, side quest I’m not sure a Hollywood production would stop for now. It’s not Rio Bravo but how many movies are? Biggest positive of all, that PanaVision look is just unparalleled for me. The best way to shoot a movie. Some real gorgeous backdrops and valleys and dusty streets and warmly lit saloons. The big gunfight at the river has a whole bunch of waterfalls and streams that I’d love to dive into. Lucien Ballard was a Peckinpah regular and you can tell, because this has that look stamped all over it. But that’s okay because that’s one of the best ways for a Western to look. It’s nowhere near a perfect film, in fact, it sort of just stops rather abruptly and the brothers’ dynamic is carried largely by the charisma of the four actors playing them but there isn’t a single character here that will be remembered as one of cinema’s great icons. It can get a little tiresome watching these guys get snuffed out of the truth by the most cartoonishly insidious and obviously guilty bad guys you’ve ever seen but you forgive it because it’s sort of supposed to be frustrating. What else is there to say? A good movie. Not hard to understand why I was so taken with it when I was younger. Very much indicative of the mythological, romantic visions of the West that anybody with a passion for the subject could dream up. One last note: cannot tell you how much my mind was blown when it dawned on me that the bad guy’s kid is played by none other than a very young Dennis Hopper in a beautifully nasally, sniveling, cowardly performance. Seeing John Wayne choke out Frank Booth was so goddamn funny.

that sex scene between dennis hopper n john wayne was crazy!

that sex scene between dennis hopper n john wayne was crazy!