The War Wagon [Blu-ray]

Additional to my collection

Happy to have found this. It's great.

John Wayne no more needs to be said

This is one of my favorite movies I watch it at least 2-3 times a month

Good high adventure with humor and drama

First off, this is pretty much a by-the-numbers John Wayne oater. The two main draws here are that he teams up with Kirk Douglas in their only on-screen western together, plus novelty of the title battle buggy itself. I'll admit it does look pretty cool but, as another reviewer pointed out, there's just no way this thing would function in real life like it's portrayed on-screen. It's basically a wild west version of a tank. The overly heavy superstructure would have crushed the wimpy undercarriage and/or the too-tall body would have toppled over the first time it rounded a curve going more than five miles an hour. Speaking of which, pulling that much weight as fast as it's portrayed would have taken a team of 20 Clydesdales on steroids. Finally, can you imagine the deafening noise with two men firing Henry repeater rifles AND another guy cranking a .45-70 caliber Gatling Gun... all of those gunshots echoing around inside that hollow iron can??? They'd all be stone deaf and/or suffering from bleeding eardrums! LOL!OK, so even if you can suspend disbelief long enough to get past that, the film still has a lot of other problems. Supposedly there's a lot of bad blood & ugly back history between the Duke & Kirk characters... yet they drop their hostilities and buddy up almost instantly!? Huh? Delightfully cranky Keenan Wynn plays an employee of the greasy bad guy (Bruce Cabot) but jumps sides to pal up with Wayne with no reason given? (That's just plain sloppy writing.) Also, the sad Hollywood tradition of covering a white guy in redface to play an Indian is grossly on display here. Howard Keel lowers his voice and talks plenty gruff, though at least he doesn't stoop to raising his right hand and saying "Hao!" every five minutes. Still, the script sinks low enough to have Keel's character actually call a local tribe a bunch of "dumb Indians" (twice!), claiming he's better than them because he's molded himself to be like the white man. I mean c'mon... really? I know, I know, this was filmed during the 1960's and America and Hollywood hadn't gotten their collective heads out of their butts yet, but it's still cringe-worthy and sorta hard to watch.There's the required (but well-staged) barfight sequence and some rousing action towards the film's climax as the Duke and his ragtag buddies take on the War Wagon, but we've all seen this before. It's just a routine crime caper done up in western garb. Don't misunderstand me. I love John Wayne and several of his movies are among my all-time favorites; True Grit, Stagecoach and Hatari! among them. He simply has done many, much better films than this. He could have slept through this thing as he'd done so many by this time in his acting career. Speaking of which, Wayne was a little too old and overweight at this point to be trying to pull off the part of a young action stud. Maybe 10 years earlier. There's a scene where he's washing up in his skivvies that's unintentionally hilarious because you can clearly see the girdle he's wearing underneath his red longjohns in order to help keep his big belly in check. Lastly, as in so many of these formula Wayne westerns, he's wearing that same faded red shirt, blue neckerchief and leather vest. JW should've insisted that the scripts be changed so that his character was the same guy in all of these movies, that way it could have been an ongoing film series, like Charlie Chan or Dagwood & Blondie.The absolute worst thing about this particular release of The War Wagon, however, is the pitiful, piss-poor transfer Universal used for their DVD master. It literally looks like someone made a dupe from an old, worn out VHS tape. I've come to expect this kind of pap from bargain basement public domain outfits, but not Universal! Shame on them!!! Also, do to the age of this DVD release, the film only took up the middle 2/3 of the screen when played on my Blu-ray player on my 60" HDTV. Even with a Blu-ray player's ability to upconvert a picture, this print looks just disgustingly gawd awful. Thankfully, I bought this used and only paid a buck. Otherwise I would have demanded my money back. If you HAVE to own everything the Duke's ever done, then I guess you could justify this, but don't pay full price for a new disc. Buy it used or you'll end up kicking yourself. Better yet, buy one of Wayne's better films instead. 3 STARS (barely) for this so-so Duke outing.

See above

Good quality, exactly what was expected

Just perfect for my John Wayne collection.Wanted my own to watch again and again and not on video.What can I say if your a John Wayne fan well you should know it’s a cracking film but if you’re a wee snowflake like the my 2nd man that asked me who John Wayne is I threw him in the Humber (river) as I drove over bridge, only joking.But if you are a wee snowflake well, there was a time when there were real actors, real acting, real adventure no filmed with special effects, green/blue screen no humpy pumpy nudey stuff, no fakey dude got rights PC pish just honest to god good auld western gunslinging, righting of wrongs, action packed adventure with a hard done by hero being fekd over and you’re sitting on the edge of your seat shouting at tele watch your left get the pig with the usual John Wayne sarcasm n belly laughing out loud one liners too.So, who’s John Wayne watch the film then google it to find out what other films to watch n get them, I’d say roughly about 250 so start your collection with this but his first was a 1920s silent film (that means B&W no speaky stuff just ready stuff with old waltzy organ music no boom boom) John in tiny bit part for seconds a very young John Wayne in the crowd at American football game shouting at the ref, film called Drop Kick to his last film because John was really dying for reals and plays a dying gunslinger in town for the last fight film called The Shootist and at least 248 films in between so get this and start your collection of what a proper film should be, don’t make em like this anymore.

Can't believe I haven't seen this one publicised more. Sort of a cross between Star Wars and The Magnificent Seven, the War Wagon being the impervious Death Star, and Kirk Douglas playing the mercenary swashbuckling but likeable Han Solo character. One guy is the explosives expert, one guy is the getaway driver, and to complete the team the last guy is the Indian expert. The Duke knits the movie together in a sort of Skywalker role. Darth Vader is the evil miner who has thieved the Duke's old ranch. If you like John Wayne films you will love this. There is no deep meaning attached, it's just great popcorn entertainment.

Two of Hollywood's most charismatic stars, John Wayne and Kirk Douglas team up to provide as entertaining a 90 minutes as one could wish for.The war wagon of the title is an armoured wagon full of gold that Wayne plans to steal, on the premise that it was stolen from him in the first place. To achieve his goal he needs the help of Douglas, who, in an added twist is hired by the bad guy to kill Wayne's character.It follows the general template of most heist movies - the first half of the film is the gathering of the team and planning the job. The second half is the heist itself. There are a few twists and turns along the way that add to the fun.There is an excellent feeling of lighthearted humour running throughout, accentuated by the easy banter between Douglas and Wayne. The two leads are at their charming, magnetic bests, and dominate the screen. The supporting cast is unusually strong, including Keenan Wynn and Howard Keel, so many of the bit parts make an impression as well, and it is this aspect that helps make the film memorable and entertaining.The action sequences are well filmed, and the heist itself is a well thought out and well constructed set piece. Humour, action and plot development are all mixed up and evenly spaced through the film, making it a very well paced and watchable piece.This release has a very good clean and sharp transfer, though there is the occasional scratch on the film. The soundtrack is in excellent shape with a good crisp sound. An very good budget release of this entertaining film.

Saw this on TV years ago and wanted it on DVD and now I have! This has the best punch-up scene in a wild west saloon! Howard Keel makes a damn good Indian - sorry, Native American. And a drunk with bottles of nitro-glycerin? Would you trust this guy? Glad he sobered up and got the girl!

Another great movie with John Wayne with a brilliant storyline.