John Wayne didn't win the oscar this year. Broderick Crawford won for All the King's Men.

sorry folks. wrong picture

Right about the oscar as well. oh well...

still one of my fav's

Personaly, I would have picked Gregory Peck to win that year.

But you right, it's a great movie. (Hit the button to fast).

Wayne might have been nominated for Iwo Jima, but he won his one and only oscar 20 years later for True Grit (kind of a career achievement award). Not that this makes his portrayal of Sgt. Stryker any less memorable.

Man...what a horrible piece of crap THAT movie was.

. . . Which is interesting, since the movie isn't even a good representation of the book it was based on.

Compared to many of the anti-Vietnam War films that have been produced, the sentiment in The Green Berets may reflect what those Vietnam vets feel, but the film itself is badly made --- even the Viet Cong assault on the Special Forces outpost is filmed like a Japanese banzai charge overrunning Fort Apache.

It certainly has its share of rhetorical propaganda --- which many find fault with --- but that is the least of its problems. It is no more propaganda than the Hollywood war films of the 1940s.

I suppose the fact that the film was made during the 60's while the war was still raging was part of it. It can't help but look authentic in the sense that it would have been impossible to have anachronistic props or political views. So a Vietnam vet might have more "oh yeah" moments (in a scrapbook sense) while watching The Green Berets as opposed to watching something like Platoon with its 20/20 hindsight take on the war.

it had Geroge "Full speed mr Sulu!" Takai in it too

You may be right, although I think most of Platoon was more authentic than The Green Berets, save for the Barnes-versus-Elias-for-the-spirit-of-Taylor's-soul nonsense. Having been a US Army infantryman in the '73-'76 post-war period, I was very impressed the attention to detail in Platoon when it came to dialogue, weapons, equipment, and other little things. Looking at COL Kirby (the Duke) carrying his M-16 upside-down (the magazine is pointing up), was one of but a number of things that jumped out at me as "We're just dressed up doing a Western-war hybrid movie, so bear with us." The Green Berets indeed compares favorably with many of the war fils Hollywood produced during WW2, and for the same reasons.

As for the basic sentiment of the two films, I, too, know of a number of Vietnam vets who've said the The Green Berets is a better representation of how they felt than Platoon. For all its attention to detail, I think Platoon was accepted more by non-vets than by Vietnam vets.

One of my Top 10 movies, regardless of subject or language.

Getting some nice recognition over the last few years (9/11, perhaps?), frequently appearing on Turner Classic Movies.

IIRC, director Ford had just returned to the movies after filming combat (and losing several coworkers in the process) and co-star Robert Montgomery had returned after commanding a PT boat in the Pacific and then a destroyer in support at D-Day.

Wayne has often been accused of being a chickenhawk, but if those two had thought so I question whether they would have hired him. (Or in Donovan's Reef, the "Valhalla" fantasy for that set.)

And fairly true to the book of the same name -- an oral history of the events in the Philippines as recounted by the PT boat officers who made it out.

It remains won of the best movies of the US Navy of all time.



Ford eventually held the rank of Rear Admiral in the US Naval Reserve, and Montgomery was a Commander in the Reserve. Though he had almost always played flamboyent playboy types in pre-war films, his portrayal as the skipper of Motor Torpedo Boat Sqaudron 3 is subdued and stoic -- perhaps the best of his career. He may have modeled it after officers he had known and his personal experience. Wayne is definitely the second banana in this war film.



According to biographer Garry Wills, Wayne avoided wartime military service because his Hollywood career was elevating from B-film Westerns to big movie roles just as WW2 was breaking, and he didn't want it sidetracked or derailed. Thus, the studios concocted myths that Wayne was too old and a family man (Despite the fact that older actors with kids were in the service), and that old college football injuries prevented him from passing a physical (Which was also not true).

Furthermore, according to Wills, John Ford never let Wayne forget that the Duke had ducked the war. It was reported that he even humilated Wayne in front of cast and crew on the set of They Were Expendable, when Wayne rendered a rather unmilitary salute in the scene. The Duke reportedly walked right of the set, and came back only after Ford sent Montgomery to Wayne trailer to coax him.

Nevertheless, Ford and Wayne made numerous successful films together, so the Duke couldn't have taken it all too hard.

The part about Ford humiliating Wayne on the set is true. However, what happened after that was that Montgomery took Ford aside and told him if he didn't lay off Wayne, he'd take a walk from the picture. Ford agreed, and Montgomery went to the Duke's trailer to ask him to come back.

plus Bruce Dern is a sinisiter baddy!

Quiet Man almost didn't get made. It was John Ford's reward for making a few extra cowboy movies. He got to do this picture in spite of studio opposition. On location in Ireland if I have it right.

Cast included Maureen O'Hara, Ward Bond, and Victor McLaglen.

Gets my vote as the Duke's best film. Doesn't hurt that my wife likes it too. And she went to school in Ireland (UCG).

This one's my favorite.

Every time I think the priest should curse her for life for making him lose that fish.

Mine and my wife's all time favorite romantic movie--we watch this at least once a year. I have it on dvd and vhs, yet if it shows up on cable and I turn to it, we don't stop watching until it's over. Arguably the Duke's all time best film, and one to coax Wayne haters into watching if at all possible--it always suprises them.

I'm not even a big John Wayne fan, but this is one of my favorite movies.

I presume the "Wayne haters" expect that all his characters will be blustery, invicible macho types...

My favorite Wayne movies include The Searchers, Red River, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance because his characters in these movies have more depth to them than that. I think the latter in particular would appeal to the general moviegoer, esp. with the conflict between Tom Doniphon the frontiersman (Wayne) and Ransom Stoddard the attorney (Stewart) in the context of the passing of an era.

The Shootist is an excellent film, but the book was better (Glendon Swarthout?). Major change in the ending, especially concerning the character played by Ron Howard in the movie.

Opening sequence is genius, with old John Wayne films shown in Sepia tone, including Stagecoach (caption: J.B.Books, 1830), Rio Bravo (J.B.Books, 1850), and a couple others, finally changing into color to start movie. J.B.Books was the character's name, and the clips are used to "illustrate" his violent past. Jimmy Stewart plays the doctor, Lauren Bacall rents him a room (Howard's mother in the film), and Hugh O'Brien a professional gambler.

A fitting way to conclude his career. Classic film.

and *sigh* lauren Bacall

And nobody says "Nakajima" quite like the Duke.

One of the major inaccuracies in the film is the portrayal of the AVG (The Flying Tigers) fighting Japanese aircraft before December 7th. In reality, the AVG was still forming at the time of Pearl Harbor, and didn't see their first combat against the Japanese until around Christmas Day, 1941.

By July 1942, the world-famous AVG was disbanded, and most of its pilots commissioned/re-commissioned in the US Army Air Corps, regardless of their original service affiliation. (One of the few who avoided this plight, Greg "Pappy" Boyington was able to pull some strings and return to the US Marine Corps as a Major, and he eventually commanded the famous "Black Sheep Squadron.")

Another "Flying Tiger" film made several years after the Wayne film was God Is My Co-Pilot, based on the autobiography of COL Robert Scott.

Good stuff, Bill!

Keep those Zeroes in your sights and off your tail, ya' hear?

Gg

And Walter Brennan. Great flick.

This was remade again as Rio Lobo.

This is one we used to quote alot: "Just like nobody come runnin' in here." and "Burdette. Nathan Burdette." and "Took ya two!"

Walter Brennan as Stumpy–hilarious.

Great contrast with High Noon (supposedly, one reason why it was made). A little notorious now as a movie Quentin Tarantino's girlfriends must enjoy in order for them to be "screened" for further interest.

Mira Sorvino passed the test, bless her heart. And she had the good sense to look elsewhere.

I thought this one was cool because it was the first time I saw a motorcycle in a Western.

I was trying to figure out how to include this one! Thanks!!

I always get a kick out of people throughout the movie finding out who Big Jake is, and responding with
"Oh. I thought you were dead, Mr. McCandles."

And Jake's same response every time to those thinking he was dead: "Not hardly." I use this line a lot myself because of this film.

Always a favorite because this is the one film of his I remember seeing at a drive in at the initial release--even though very young, I remember Jake's rifle aiming out of the screen just before he save's the Scotsman.

Watched this movie this afternoon. A movie full of great lines. His first lines in that scene where he's peering down the barrel of his rifle. He lowers his rifle and says to Dog "No, sir. No, sir, I ain't. I ain't butted into someone else's business since I was eighteen, and it almost got me killed then." Then one of the bad guys kicks the Scotsman's young boy, and the Duke says to Dog "Now what did he have to go and do that for?"

Was this the Alaska movie that had a cameo of the three stooges?

I'm not a fan of many of these movies on the list, but this is a wonderful film, and John Wayne does an excellent job.

I totally agree. John Ford made many fine Westerns, and this is one of his very best. John Wayne is great as Tom Doniphon, but Lee Marvin's Liberty steals the show.

Also inspired a great song, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" by Gene Pitney. Wasn't used in the movie. "When two men go out to face each other, only one returns."

My favorite John Wayne movie, and my favorite Western.

John Ford was on the set when they were filming the first big scene between Wayne and Clift ("You shoulda killed me, 'cause I'm gonna kill you"). When the scene was complete, Ford said to Howard Hawks (about Wayne): "I never knew the sonuvabitch could act!"

What's even worse, they had to reshoot some scenes and Hughes had the same sand trucked into the studio, so several folks that never went on location ended up dying of cancer as well.

This project was doomed on so many levels.

"... truly, he is the son of God."

It's a toss up (almost literally) between this and "Big Jim McClain", but this one edges the other out for sheer camp value alone.

Actually, I thought this film was shot in New Mexico near where all the atomic bomb testing was done in the 1940s to 1950s. The residual radiation from all those tests is what later killed all of the actors.

Wayne should have won an Oscar for his performance here as well as in Sands of Iwo Jima. Both of these performance were better than Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, IMO.

The Searchers has a magnificent scene at the end of the film. It was shot from inside the home looking out the door at Wayne as he saunters off, holding one arm

One of my favorite movies. I can't forget the line "Let's go home, Debbie".

As the searchers are following the Comanche kidnappers.

MARTY: "If they're human beings at all, they gotta stop sometime!"

ETHAN: "Nope. A man rides a horse, 'til it drops...then continues on afoot. A Comanch comes along, gets that horse up and rides him 25 more miles. Then he eats him."

Legend has it that Wayne's thrice uttered comment "That'll be the day.", was the inspiration for Buddy Holly's song of the same title.

My all time favorite movie, and this year (2006) is it's 50th anniversary...so I've got my eyes peeled for a fancy DVD package

In this one, Wayne plays Rooster Cogburn, a U.S. Marshall out of Fort Smith, AR. They track the bad guys into "Indian Territory," which would later become Oklahoma. Glenn Campbell plays a Texas Ranger.

There are numerous references to area history--Judge Parker (the "hanging judge"--so called not because he was hung, but because he sentenced so many defendants to be hung), for example. Rooster is a former Confederate Soldier who served under General Sterling Price, commander of the Confederate forces in Missouri, former Missouri governor, and a veteran who had made a name for himself in the Mexican-American War. Rooster named his cat "General Price."

"Fill your hands you sunnuvabitch!"

I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!


Great dialogue in this movie; many of the quotes, including the oddly format diction of Mattie and Tom Chaney are straight from Charles Portis's novel.

The special effects in this film are so bad, that even co-star Kirk Douglas was reportedly disgusted with them. I can't help but laugh whenever I see the hokey Japanese warships and the PT boats crewed by plastic sailors in the climactic naval battle.

Oops! The film is called The Sea Chase.

In case it isn't obvious, there are not one but two stagecoaches in that picture...I wasn't being lazy