Rating: 
Summary: One of the best, but don't look for accuracy
Review: A wonderful film, lots of fun, but do your best to ignore the rampant historical problems. Set around 1840, yet everyone carries weapons from the 1870's and 1880's, and dresses like 1920. And Texas sure looks like Utah.A full version of the wonderful Elmer Bernstein score is available from Filmscoremonthly.com.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best, but don't look for accuracy
Review: A wonderful film, lots of fun, but do your best to ignore the rampant historical problems. Set around 1840, yet everyone carries weapons from the 1870's and 1880's, and dresses like 1920. And Texas sure looks like Utah. A full version of the wonderful Elmer Bernstein score is available from Filmscoremonthly.com.
Rating:
Summary: Classic western
Review: Finally, "The Comancheros" is released on DVD. This is one of Wayne's best, and most enjoyable westerns(that says a lot, because the Duke's westerns were always classic). The acting is superb, Stuart Whitman turning out one of his best performances, and John Wayne underrated as usual. Lee Marvin also makes a powerful, short performance. That cast alone makes for a classic. Michael Curtiz's("Casablanca"-1942) last film, he creates one of the better 1960's westerns. Several people have mentioned the guns in the film. Historical facts are often changed to create entertaining films. This film is not a history lesson, it is an example of classic hollywood at it's best. A well crafted, fun, classic western. Recommended for both fans of classic westerns, and classic films in general.
Rating: 
Summary: No regret
Review: Good thing the Duke kept Mr Paul Regret around! This is a great JW movie with a tremendous supporting cast. This one falls in and out of my top ten John wayne movies, so i still haven't bought it. Instead, I have to watch it with the commercials on TV.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun, but strictly Hollywood
Review: I first saw "The Comancheros" as a kid at one of Houston's downtown movie palaces. I loved it and still do, as sheer entertainment. It's perhaps the greatest horseman's stunt extravaganza ever, with more falls per minute than any other movie I know. I'm glad to have it on DVD (and in widescreen, too). But BEWARE of thinking it is true to actual Texas history! The film is set in 1840, during the days of the Texas Republic. Among its rampant anachronisms and inaccuracies: * It shows a Texas Ranger arresting a fugitive from Louisiana. The Rangers in 1840 were not policemen. They were a frontier militia set up to fight Mexicans and Indians. * The Winchester repeating rifle did not exist in 1840. Ditto the Army Colt "peacemaker" revolver. * Texans in 1840 lived almost entirely in the eastern part of the state, not in the semi-arid West. They raised crops, not herds of cattle. There was as yet no such thing as a "cowboy." Hence the film's costumes and ranch-house sets are wrong. * The Comancheros were not an outlaw band of Anglo renegades who rode along with Comanches on their raids and took vacations on Louisiana riverboats. They were virtually the entire population of what is now New Mexico, separated from the Texas settlements, never mind Louisiana, by the Comanches' impassable domain. They survived by staying on the Comanches' good side, and they did that by trading with them and ransoming the captives the Comanches brought up from Old Mexico. As T.R. Fehrenbach notes, the Comanches bragged that they allowed these people to live on the fringes of Comancheria only so that they might raise horses for them. * Speaking of riverboats, those vessels kept to their rivers, and did not ply the Gulf of Mexico between New Orleans and Galveston as one does in this movie. Enjoy "The Comancheros" for its action, scenery, music, star turns, humor and ripe dialogue, but if you want a more realistic portrait of a Comanchero, see Antonio Moreno's character in "The Searchers." He's the Spanish-American gentleman who guides Ethan and Martin to Chief Scar's camp. For a more realistic portrayal of an Indian raid and settler's pursuit, get the recently released Disney DVD "Savage Sam," starring Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Brian Keith, Jeff York and Slim Pickens. It's a sequel to "Old Yeller," and very nicely done (if you can get past its hokey title song). And for a thrilling history of the Comanches and their 40-year war with the Texans, get Fehrenbach's book "Comanches: The Destruction of a People."
Rating:
Summary: another true john wayne movie
Review: In text with most john wayne movies he's in charge as
useual. Interesting,inovative,keeps youre interest.
Rating:
Summary: rollicking good time.
Review: John Wayne as the texas ranger whose job it is intially to bring in gambler Stuart Whitman is great fun with a great score to support this technicolor action and buddy film. The title refers to a group of white outlaws who rile up the indians against the settlers. Ina Balin is the lady with a connection to the outlaw clan that Stuart lays claim to and eventually wins. Wayne as the senior member of this buddy team helps out in the romance department being a little long of tooth to be the romantic focal point though there is a brief indication of a love interest for his character as well. Stuart becomes a reluctant ranger in order to save himself from deportation back to Louisiana and an appointment with a hangman for winning a dueling contest and he is teamed with Wayne to locate the outlaw gang. The scenes between the two while they travel together initially as ranger and prisoner and finally as evolving friends and allies are most entertaining.
Pleanty of action and entertaining dialogue. Cast is populated by a number of Wayne's stock company of actors and includes Lee Marvin in a relatively brief role as, what else, a bad guy. One of the most fun of Wayne's westerns before he started playing parodys of himself.
Rating:
Summary: Lightweight but entertaining John Wayne western.
Review: John Wayne rules in this big, sprawling western adventure film. The screenplay, co-written by western novelist Clair Huffaker, struggles with the historical accuracy of Texas in the 1840s and the rifles seem a little advanced for 1843, but, nit-picking aside, this is an entertaining film. Texas Ranger Jake Cutter (Wayne) and sometime gambler Paul Regret (Stuart Whitman) go under cover after a vicious army of outlaw raiders known as "Comancheros," led by the diabolical Graile (Nehemiah Persoff). Hard-hitting, large scale action sequences deftly directed by Michael Curtiz, who directd some of Errol Flynn's better adventure films, will please action-adventure fans. The movie includes a comfortable blend of action, suspense, and humor with occasional serious overtones of duty, friendship, and the love of a good woman. Taken within the context of the film that isn't as corny as it might sound. Great outdoor color photography adds to the appeal. A pulse-pounding musical score by Elmer Bernstein matches the excitement. Lee Marvin makes the most of his costarring role as Tully Crow, one of the West's wildest bad men. Watch for the hilarious vignette featuring Edgar Buchanan as a judge of dubious integrity. Ditto the comic relief segment with Guinn "Big Boy" Williams as a seemingly bewildered gunrunner. There is nothing intellectual or artistic to say of this movie, but it's good old fashioned fun. Recommended viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Good, mid-period John Wayne western
Review: John Wayne's tough-guy character gets some choice zingers in this amiable, two-fisted, entertaining (and occasionally ricketty) western about a Texas Ranger who's out to bust up a gun-running gang that's selling arms to the Comanche renegades. It's one of those films where the Indians drop like flies every time the cowboys open fire, but it zips along at a pleasant pace, with a tad more plot than normal. Lee Marvin has a short but choice role as Mr. Crow, a sinister gunslinger who goes on a roaring bender with Wayne, paving the way for their interplay in the '62 sizzler, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence." This was the last film directed by Michael Curtiz, who is probably best known for his work on "Casablanca," and while this film is nowhere near the same league at that classic, it still has its moments.
Rating:
Summary: A rousing western
Review: On of the last great westerns of the golden period. John Wayne is great as always in westerns. I reserve 5 stars to Shane, Magnificen seven and a couple of others, but this is not much behind of these. You can see how good Lee Marvin was in smaller parts, too. Enjoy it!
|
