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The Duke
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Deconstructing the Duke
During the current box-office furor over Michael Bay's World War II epic, Pearl Harbor, it's somehow appropriate that a past moviemade hero like John "The Duke" Wayne makes a cinematic return via the DVD universe. Bay's film begs for a cameo from a middle-aged John Wayne. After all, Wayne's brand of ultra-patriotism would be perfect for the feel-good histrionics of Pearl Harbor.
Still, the truth of the matter is that today's audiences aren't very familiar with past Wayne adventures like Donovan's Reef, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Sons of Katie Elder.
The image of a movie cowboy riding into a manufactured Western village placed -- appropriately in Monument Valley, Utah -- is distant and vague. Time has proven kinder to a more handsome hero like Steve McQueen. Wayne appears too conservative to current film fans to ever become retro hip. He is, and will always be, your grandfather's idea of the traditional American hero.
But three DVD debuts confirm the fantasy that Wayne won every war he ever fought and vanquished every Indian tribe he ever faced. It helps that Wayne never met a gun he didn't like firing.
Wayne's brand of heroes were loyal and steadfastly conservative. In the typical Wayne adventure, it was always the liberals who proved wishy-washy by the closing credits. Basically, Wayne never lost.
In terms of sheer physical presence, Sylvester Stallone can match Wayne jaw-to-jaw. But Clint Eastwood is probably the closest thing to a Wayne-like hero current audiences have, although you would never see Wayne do a tearjerker romance like The Bridges of Madison County.
Wayne's brand of stoical machismo would be a perfect companion to the comic strip patriotism of Pearl Harbor. These DVD debuts are the next best thing.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Unrated1962, Paramount
Dead-on casting brings a nostalgic glow to director John Ford's consummate Western adventure. James Stewart plays a lawyer, inexperienced in frontier life but determined to best local baddie Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Wayne, looking more larger-than-life as ever, is the "Man" of the film's title. Vera Miles is the love interest who ultimately has to choose between the two leading men.
To this day, it's clear that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was never meant to break new ground for the Western genre. Instead, Ford leads his all-star cast through a textbook example of cowboy mythmaking. (Grade: A)
Donovan's Reef
Unrated1963, Paramount
In this comic actioner about war veterans settling down on a South Sea island, Lee Marvin promptly steals the spotlight as the brawling sidekick to Wayne, as well as the love interest for Dorothy Lamour. Producer/director John Ford sets most of the film's hijinks in the island saloon, Donovan's Reef. It's the perfect locale for the type of rough-house slapstick enjoyed by a macho man like Wayne.
Marvin couldn't match Wayne's star power at the time of Donovan's Reef's initial release. Still, history has proven Marvin is worthy of acclaim. Looking back at, Donovan's Reef, Wayne's last film with Ford, it's Marvin who supplies the best moments. (Grade: B)
The Sons of Katie Elder
Unrated1965, ParamountThe funeral of Katie Elder draws her four wayward sons (Wayne, Dean Martin, Earl Holliman and Michael Anderson Jr.) back to Clearwater, their Texas hometown. Despite the somber atmosphere of this brotherly reunion, director Henry Hathaway (True Grit) makes sure the he-man cast has plenty of opportunity for fist-fights and overall ruckus-raising. For film buffs hoping to recapture the image of the sprawling Wayne punch, The Sons of Katie Elder offers plenty of opportunities. (Grade: B)
