John Wayne has directed many action films throughout his 50-year career, but what are his best action sequences? John Wayne directed around 80 westerns during his career and adopted his own typography as a cowboy. He often turned to other genres, whether war films, romantic dramas or historical epics.
For the rest of his career, Wayne punched, shot and car chased with the best of them. From Unofficial Wayne Rio Bravo trilogy to his last film, The shooterthe star knew what his fans wanted to see him do, and he was only happy to oblige.
Wayne’s “fight dirty” style also changed fight scenes forever. In early Hollywood, heroes were expected to fight cleanly and honorably, something Wayne disagreed with. He wanted his characters to fight to win, and if he included hard, dirty blows to end the fights quickly, he would do it.
McQ (1974) – The finale on the beach
Brannigan And McQ were both of Wayne Dirty Harry scams. Wayne regretted abandoning the 1971 thriller that cemented Clint Eastwood’s stardom and wanted to create his own crime thrillers.. McQ is the better film and finds Wayne’s titular detective taking on corrupt officers.
Clint Eastwood later revealed in an interview with journalist Paul Nelson that McQ had been written with him in mind; he passed on the project.
Although the film is quite unremarkable, the final action sequence is worth the wait. This sees McQ pursued on a beach by a drug dealer and his men, leading to a beautifully filmed car chase that leads to a tense shootout. The ending also sees Wayne use a MAC-10 submachine gun to cut..
Big Jake (1971) – The Opening Raid
Wayne hated the way violent films were developing in the 1970s. He expressed his dislike for The wild bandbut despite his protests, Big Jake is by far Wayne’s most violent film. It’s the rare Wayne “Oater” that features lots of blood squibs and even people getting chopped up with machetes.
The film wastes no time letting the audience know what’s in store, with a shocking opening raid on a family ranch. Men, women And children are shot during the prologue by a band of outlaws. It’s a brutal, nasty little sequence, unlike anything else in Wayne’s filmography.
El Dorado (1967) – The Church Shooting
Gold was the second of the Hawks and Wayne Rio Bravo trilogy. In reality, it’s a remake of their previous film, but remixes the characters and plot beats. This sees Wayne’s shooter, Thornton, try to help his friend Sheriff Hara (Robert Mitchum) when a powerful rancher attacks his town.
The remarkable action pace involves the two friends and Mississippi (James Caan) following three armed men to a church. It’s a setting that’s both funny and exciting, in which the heroes joke with each other while slowly making their way to the church. while taking heavy fire. Once inside, Thornton and Hara quickly resolve the issues.
The Spoilers (1942) – Roy vs. McNamara
The novel by author Rex Beach Spoilers has been filmed five times, the first coming in 1914 and the most recent being a 1955 version starring Rory Calhoun. The most famous was the 1942 adaptation directed by John Wayne, in which his miner comes into conflict with a corrupt gold commissioner named McNamara in an Alaskan town.
Wayne is no stranger to prolonged climatic punches (as a later article will prove), but Spoilers is a special case. The fight between Wayne and his co-star Randolph Scott lasts four minutesand although the use of stunt doubles and time-lapse photography is now evident, it remains a very enjoyable brawl.
Rio Bravo (1959) – Saving “Dude”
Rio Bravo » was Wayne’s angry reply to Midi topthe acclaimed 1952 western where a marshal is forced to fend for himself against a band of outlaws. Wayne hated the idea that the hero of the film would ask the townspeople for help – and that they would all refuse to give it.
Rio Bravo thus portrays the Wayne sheriff as a man who would never ask for help, but his deputies and friends give it to him anyway. The finale involves Wayne’s Chance saving his troubled deputy, “Dude” (Dean Martin), who has been taken away by the Burdette gang. In exchange for Dude, Chance must hand over his prisoner to the gang.
Instead, shots are fired and Chance’s friends soon arrive to help him. Rio Bravo the finale feels oddly modern in the way it’s staged and editedbringing real intensity to the sequence.
The Cowboys (1972) – Wil fights Asa
The Cowboys was produced near the end of Wayne’s career and is one of his last really good westerns.. The story sees Wil, a grumpy rancher, forced to hire a group of boys to help him transport his cattle. Naturally, Wil (Wayne) and the boys form a bond, which is cruelly torn apart after Wil gets into a fight with Watts (Bruce Dern).
Watts is a heinous thief who ambushes the group, whom Wil challenges to a fight. It’s a grueling match where both men take heavy blows, but Wil always comes out on top.. A humiliated Watts reaches for a gun, and after Wil refuses his orders, Watts fatally wounds him. It’s still a shocking moment and one of Wayne’s best on-screen fights.
Stagecoach (1939) – The Apache Attack
The introduction of John Wayne in Diligence made him a star, after a solid decade directing cheap B-Westerns. John Ford’s classic western is at its core an ensemble film, but once Wayne’s outlaw Ringo Kid enters the story, he takes over.
Diligence was a groundbreaking film in many ways, including its famous Apache attack sequence. This sees the titular stagecoach come under attack from all sides, with the group of misfit travelers forced to work together to survive. It is to the filmmaker’s credit that, more than 80 years later, this attack is still as intense.
Some techniques, like rear projection, are obvious to modern eyes, but the stunts are still incredible. It’s a tense set piece, and like all the best action beats, it also reveals its characters. Needless to say, Wayne’s Ringo Kid proves his worth.
The Quiet Man (1952) – The Final Fist Fight
The quiet man was another duo of Wayne and John Ford, which found Wayne’s retired boxer Sean heading to Ireland. It’s there that he falls in love with Maureen O’Hara’s Mary, but is stopped from taking her hand in marriage by her bully brother Will (Victor McLaglen).
Instead of solving this problem in a few pints, The quiet man the finale involves Sean and Will fighting all over town. It’s outrageous and over-the-top, but it’s also quite fun and cathartic. It lasts almost ten minutes, with part of the gag being that it never seems to end.
The Shootist (1976) – The Final Battle of the Books
The shooter associated Wayne with Dirty Harry director Don Siegel, and what would unfortunately prove to be the star’s final film. Even if this hadn’t been intended as Wayne’s cinematic swan song, he couldn’t have planned a better one. The story follows legendary shooter Wayne Books, who plans a final battle with his biggest rivals. when he learns he has terminal cancer.
The shooter The final bar shootout is a small-scale but tense affair, with Siegel pacing the battle superbly.. The books turn out to be so good that his goal of dying at the hands of old enemies doesn’t come true as planned – until he makes the mistake of turning his back on the bartender.
True Grit (1969) – “Fill your hands, you son of a bitch!”
Real courage Rooster Cogburn was the role that ultimately won John Wayne an Oscar. Wayne may have given more nuanced turns in The Searchers, but his hammering turn as Cogburn is still a delight. The film also features one of its best shootouts, in which Cogburn confronts the outlaw Pepper. (Robert Duvall) and his gang.
They charge on horseback as Cogburn orders Pepper to “Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!” that of John Wayne The one-eyed marshal then fires with a gun in each hand as Pepper’s men come towards him, and his “true courage” is proven by dismantling them one by one.
Source: Conversations with Clint: Paul Nelson’s Lost Interviews with Clint Eastwood, 1979-1983)
