The Searchers

The War Wagon

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

El Dorado

The Quiet Man

The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are two excellent choices.

I will add In Harm's Way for a non-western choice.

TXAG 05 said:

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The Quiet Man

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Tough call, but this is probably my top.

Paint Your Wagon

McLintock and The Longest Day are two of my favorites.

John Wayne was the 20th Century version of The Rock.
*Bigger than life persona
*Wildly popular
*In a crap ton of movies
*Is always himself, doesn't matter if he's playing Davy Crockett, Rooster Cogburn or Genghis Khan.

The only JW movies I ever watch when I see them are "The Alamo" and "The Cowboys".
Never mentioned among his best works... but they are my favorites.

That Alamo version is the agreed upon fictionalized story we all grew up with. Now we know something closer to the truth... but that movie is great. Heck of a score as well.

I love the Cowboys for the interaction between the kids, Wayne & Nightlinger. Bruce Dern plays an excellent bad guy... one of the few men to kill Wayne on screen. Wayne's taunting of Dern's character is a favorite of mine:

Quote:

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I'm 30 years older than you are. I had my back broke once, my hip twice. And on my worst day I could beat the hell outta you.

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Nightlinger had a one as well:

Quote:

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I regret trifling with married women. I'm thoroughly ashamed at cheating at cards. I deplore my occasional departures from the truth. Forgive me for taking your name in vain, my Saturday drunkenness, my Sunday sloth. Above all, forgive me for the men I've killed in anger [eyes shifting to Asa Watts]... and those I am about to.

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The Quiet Man
True Grit
The Cowboys
The Shootist

Those are my top 4. But I enjoy a wide variety of his movies.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance are two excellent choices.

I will add In Harm's Way for a non-western choice.

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This movie is so good, and I hardly ever run into someone who knows it. I wouldnt mind seeing a new version of it.

The Conqueror

I am not well versed in John Wayne, but of the handful of movies I know well.
"The Cowboys" gets my vote.

"Rio Bravo" is my favorite. You can't go wrong with John Wayne and Dean Martin together. And Dino even sings!

for me it's The Cowboys with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance as a very close second. The Shootist gets honorable mention.

I don't think I've ever seen a John Wayne movie I didn't like. Some of the very early westerns are kind of cheesy but still watchable.

Arrakis ecologist said:

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The Searchers

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The Searchers is at or near the top of many "Best Western Movies" lists. Guess I'll have to watch it since I've never seen it.

Big Jake is my favorite. A little darker than the typical JW western.

Quote:

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The Searchers is at or near the top of many "Best Western Movies" lists. Guess I'll have to watch it since I've never seen it.

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You should definitely watch it. The cinematography is amazing. (Too bad it's supposed to be in Texas & it was filmed in Monument Valley Arizona where the Comanche never lived)
The film to me doesn't rate in the top 10 of any Western list. Bad writing, hokey 50's humor.... didn't do it for me.

Red River

Stagecoach is quite old and John Wayne was quite young. He had a smaller part in this movie being a young actor. The chase scene with runaway horses and stagecoaches is Hollywood famous - long before computer graphics, quite a rampaging scene.

Txmoe said:

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Big Jake is my favorite. A little darker than the typical JW western.

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Yep, I love Big Jake. Not his best by any means, but it's the one I'll stop and sit down for whenever it's playing. Like The Shootist, it's an interesting look at the transition of the West into the 20th century.

I'm not sure I could narrow down his best Western movies, but my favorite 2 non-western movies he did were "Hatari!" and "Hellfighters".

All of my top Westerns have already been named, but for non-Westerns I'll throw in a vote for Trouble Along the Way, where he plays a college football coach and single dad.

John Wayne was my hero growing up. Probably seen nearly every film he was ever in as a credited role. His stuff really isn't on tv anymore, but it was on all the time growing up and it always stopped the channel surfing.

The Searchers is probably his best.

Always loved The Sons of Katie Elder. Dad's favorites were McClintock and Hatari

I'd like to build a library, either digital or physical to have most of his works to show my kids one day.

Also Big Jake has the best character intro of them all

Apache said:

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John Wayne was the 20th Century version of The Rock.
*Bigger than life persona
*Wildly popular
*In a crap ton of movies
*Is always himself, doesn't matter if he's playing Davy Crockett, Rooster Cogburn or Genghis Khan.

The only JW movies I ever watch when I see them are "The Alamo" and "The Cowboys".
Never mentioned among his best works... but they are my favorites.

That Alamo version is the agreed upon fictionalized story we all grew up with. Now we know something closer to the truth... but that movie is great. Heck of a score as well.

I love the Cowboys for the interaction between the kids, Wayne & Nightlinger. Bruce Dern plays an excellent bad guy... one of the few men to kill Wayne on screen. Wayne's taunting of Dern's character is a favorite of mine:

Quote:

---

I'm 30 years older than you are. I had my back broke once, my hip twice. And on my worst day I could beat the hell outta you.

---

Nightlinger had a one as well:

Quote:

---

I regret trifling with married women. I'm thoroughly ashamed at cheating at cards. I deplore my occasional departures from the truth. Forgive me for taking your name in vain, my Saturday drunkenness, my Sunday sloth. Above all, forgive me for the men I've killed in anger [eyes shifting to Asa Watts]... and those I am about to.

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+1 for The Cowboys

Too many to pick one but for me his best are

Rio Bravo
Hondo
True Grit

The longest day.

Shanghai Noon.

Weirdly, John Wayne movies were responsible for the two most surprising/disturbing movie scenes of my childhood:

• The Cowboys--(spoiler alert) I didn't think John Wayne could be killed
• The Green Berets--The death at the end of the movie seemed so tragic to me because of how it happened and how unexpected it was.

Great movies mentioned already! My top 4 off the top of my head, no order:

El Dorado
The Searchers
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Big Jake

A 5th entry is a toss up between a few.

maverick2076 said:

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All of my top Westerns have already been named, but for non-Westerns I'll throw in a vote for Trouble Along the Way, where he plays a college football coach and single dad.

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You just reminded me of this commercial.

wangus12 said:

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Also Big Jake has the best character intro of them all

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This

The Searchers is one of the best movies of all time, period.

My favorite non-western is probably Hatari!

Many of my favorites have been mentioned. I'll add:

North to Alaska
They Were Expendable
The John Ford Cavalry Trilogy
Hondo
Donovan's Reef
3 Godfathers

Many of these movies (and those mentioned) had great supporting actors/characters, too.