The Comancheros
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.14 You Save: $7.84 (52%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $5.62 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Comancheros
Movie Review: One of the Duke's Most Enjoyable Films
Summary: 5 Stars
Other than "Rio Bravo" and "El Dorado," "The Comancheros" is my favorite Wayne western. I first saw it in the movies with my father when I was eleven. I loved it then and I love it now: it is incredibly entertaining from start to finish. The basic premise is that Texas Ranger Wayne must team up with a man he was formerly sent to arrest (Stuart Whitman) to infiltrate a small army of renegades selling guns to the indians. Theres the plot.
But there is so much more to this film than that. The dialogue is some of the most entertaining and amusing in any Wayne filme. It is hard to believe that it was written by Wayne crony James Edward Grant, the same man who wrote the rather ponderous script for Wayne's "The Alamo" the year before. The dialogue in this film is priceless and has me chuckling continuously.
The cast is excellent. Wayne and Stuart Whitman work wonderfully together in this film, you get the impression that they got along well. (They would appear together to a lesser extent a year later in "The Longest Day.") Ina Balin is very attractive as Whitman's love interest who just happens to be the daughter of Comanchero leader Nehemiah Persoff. Michael Ansara is predictibly nasty as Persoff's number one stooge. Others in the cast include Wayne's friend Bruce Cabot as the Texas Ranger Captain, Joan O'Brien (who appeared with the Duke the year before in "The Alamo,") as the widow the Duke is in love with, Richard Devon as a comanchero with more loyalty to Balin, than her father and Wayne's son Patrick as a young Texas Ranger. And then theres Lee Marvin...On the audio-commentary of "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," it is mentioned that John Ford chose Marvin for the evil Liberty after seeing him as the obnoxious Tully Crowe in this film the year before, the charcters are very much alike. While posing as a gunrunner trying to infiltate the comancheros, Wayne is forced to deal with the totally dispicable Crowe. All does not end well when the Duke is forced to dispatch him after Crowe draws on him after a bad night at cards. (I love the evil manner in which Marvin, after acting like a drunken lout, tells Wayne that "I'm only as drunk as I want to be." It really doesn't help him in the end anyway.)
This film has some wonderful action scenes. The end scene with a large force of rifle-toting Rangers on horseback taking on whats left of the comancheros after Wayne and friends have created a great deal of havoc with a wagon and some dynamite is extremely exciting. The terrific Elmer Bernstein score is one of my favorites.
But, once again, to me the thing that puts this above so many others in terms of entertainment is the wonderful dialogue and the growing respect and friendship between Wayne's Texas Ranger Jake Cutter and Whitman's gambler turned fugitive turned Texas Ranger, Paul Regret.
The is an absolutely wonderful film and a great western.
Unfortunately the DVD has very few extras other than the trailer and a "movie tone news" segment regarding the film.
Movie Review: JOHN WAYNE ACTOR AND DIRECTOR!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love John Wayne. He is here at his prime and he also got to direct that end parts of this classic movie.
The Comancheros is a 1961 western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. When health troubles prevented Curtiz from finishing the film, Wayne directed the remainder of the movie, though his role remained uncredited. Curtiz died shortly after the film was completed. The supporting cast includes Lee Marvin, Jack Elam, and Edgar Buchanan. Also featured are western film veterans Bob Steele, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, and Harry Carey, Jr. in uncredited supporting roles.Anachronisms: Although set in 1843 Texas, the characters all use Winchester lever action rifles and Colt Peacemaker pistols, which were not available until 1866 and 1873 respectively. The Guinn Williams character is said have stolen rifles from the army base at Fort Sill and to have served a sentence in the Yuma Territorial Prison, neither of which became operational until after the Civil War, 1869 and 1876 respectively.
John Wayne and Stuart Whitman leave Galveston bound for the Louisiana border and immediately find themselves in desert-like surroundings with sandstone bluffs in the background. From Galveston to Louisiana the only thing they would have seen is canebrakes, grass prairies, live oak groves and piney woods.
Whitman's character Paul Regret was the lead in the novel and Wayne's part had to be amplified for the film version. Wellman had envisioned Cary Grant as Regret as he wrote the novel.
Michael Curtiz also directed The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart. The Comancheros was his last film.
Budd Boetticher was the first choice for director of the film but turned it down as he had previously worked for John Wayne's Batjac on Seven Men From Now and The Bullfighter and the Lady.
Elmer Bernstein's theme music is heard in the Apocalypse Cow episode of The Simpsons when Bart drives a farm tractor
Movie Review: Classic western
Summary: 5 Stars
Finally, "The Comancheros" is released on DVD. This is one of Wayne's best, and most enjoyable westerns(that says a lot, because the Duke's westerns were always classic). The acting is superb, Stuart Whitman turning out one of his best performances, and John Wayne underrated as usual. Lee Marvin also makes a powerful, short performance. That cast alone makes for a classic. Michael Curtiz's("Casablanca"-1942) last film, he creates one of the better 1960's westerns. Several people have mentioned the guns in the film. Historical facts are often changed to create entertaining films. This film is not a history lesson, it is an example of classic hollywood at it's best. A well crafted, fun, classic western. Recommended for both fans of classic westerns, and classic films in general.Movie Review: A Real Entertaining John Wayne Western
Summary: 5 Stars
THE COMANCHEROS is one of John Wayne's most entertaining Westerns. It has a great cast, story, photography and one of Elmer Bernstein's best scores. The widescreen DVD looks incredible. John Wayne and Stuart Whitman play off each other brilliantly. Lee Marvin as Crow has a small but effective and outrageous character part. There's plenty of action and heroics to go around in this great outdoor adventure. I wish they would make movies like this today.Movie Review: One of the best, but don't look for accuracy
Summary: 5 Stars
A wonderful film, lots of fun, but do your best to ignore the rampant historical problems. Set around 1840, yet everyone carries weapons from the 1870's and 1880's, and dresses like 1920. And Texas sure looks like Utah.A full version of the wonderful Elmer Bernstein score is available from Filmscoremonthly.com.