The John Wayne Signature Collection (Stagecoach / The Searchers / Rio Bravo / The Cowboys)

Rating:
Summary: Amazon has it listed wrong
Review: For anyone who is interested, I thought I'd let it be known that this isn't JUST "The Searchers" (1956) but an actual DVD collection ("signature edition") of John Wayne's films, to be released on October 12th. It will include a bundle of his most famous and cherished a la The Scorsese Collection and Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection.

So, don't be scared by the $36 price -- it's going to be more than just The Searchers. I hope Amazon fixes this soon and posts all the other films to be included.

Rating:
Summary: A GOOD CROSS-SECTION OF THE DUKE'S CAREER
Review: Most of the John Wayne movies prior to "Stagecoach" were just generic shoot-'em-ups but in this movie, he made a name for himself as a man's man. It lasted for another 40 years. The disparate flawed characters and competent character actors who portrayed them made "Stagecoach" a unique film, an "adult Western" years before "High Noon" which has been called the "first" such movie. "The Searchers" shows the intensity and acting ability of Wayne for which he was never given credit as he searches for years for a niece kidnapped by renegade Indians. This is a classic Western also with accomplished character actors, great direction by John Ford and beautiful locales meant to be Texas but filmed in Arizona's Monument Valley in color. "Rio Bravo" was the original and the best of other like-themed movies of Wayne's about the good guys being under siege by a host of bad guys. Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan lend good support, along with the much younger Wayne love interest, Angie Dickinson. The theme was repeated in "El Dorado" and "Rio Lobo", not to mention the two modern-day versions of "Assault on Precinct 13". For "The Cowboys", the producers did not use Wayne's usual retinue of friends and family as supporting characters but instead showed him as a lone rancher, having to use kids to drive his cattle to market. It was not as well-received as the other movies herein as Wayne did not prevail in the usual manner, but veteran bad guy Bruce Dern is memorable and at his slimy backshootingest best. This is a good cross-section of the Duke's career, as stated, and I recommend it. Just don't forget to get "True Grit" and "The Shootist" (a term first used by real life bad guy Ben Thompson).