John Wayne's 10 Best Movies

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RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010

  1. The Searchers
  2. Red River
  3. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  4. Stagecoach
  5. The Quiet Man
  6. The Shootist
  7. Fort Apache
  8. Rio Bravo
  9. Rio Grande
  10. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Good list. I might include The Cowboys on mine, not sure though. I've seen hundreds of his films. I was a huge John Wayne fan back in high school and though my opinion of him has waned over the years, I still think he's a marvelous actor if not a person I'd wanna have a drink with at all. He's a great reactor as they say and he appears natural on screen.

The Searchers is great, but my favorite film of his and my favorite film of all time is Red River, but the film stands outside the context of being a "John Wayne" film. For me, it's a Montgomery Clift film, which is probably a huge factor to why it clicks so much for me.
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Well i would rather have a drink with the Duke than with any of todays vapid hollywood tools.1.searchers2.red river.3.rio bravo.4.comancheros.5.stagecoach.6.rooster cogburn.7.hondo.8.wake of the red witch.9.liberty valance10.fighting kentuckian



I have read that John Wayne's most disastrous and controversial movie is The Conqueror (1956), the one where he played Genghis Khan. It was produced by Howard Hughes.

The picture was a critical and commercial failure (often ranked as one of the worst films of the 1950s) which is remarkable given the stature of the cast (John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendariz).

The film was shot near a nuclear testing site, causing cancer to the director and the main cast (which all died). And of the 220 movie production crew, 91 had developed some form of cancer by 1981 and 46 had died by then.




.....doesn't know what to put here!
i've only saw one John Wayne movie, McQ, i liked it, it wasn't that bad



I don't consider "bragging" to be a negative as you apparently take it. Seems to me that most people who are part Indian seem to work it into a conversation with strangers at the earliest opportunity. Always figured they were proud of the fact.



Jeeze, I haven't heard that ol' "one drop rule" chestnut in dogs' years! Thought only Kluxers still subscribed to that. What brought all this comparision of part-Indian to part-black to mind was an ol' buddy of mine in the army--black kid from California--said once that he figured someday that people would be bragging about being part-black like they now brag about being part-Indian. Believe me, being native American Indian hasn't always been as popular as it is now, expecially here in Texas.
Haha. You make me laugh man. probably b/c i'm a fellow texan. As far as Mr. Wayne goes, i love John Wayne and the Cowboys!



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
First off, I'm differentiating films from performances, although my first three films (in order) are also my fave Wayne performances (in order). If I were to list a fourth fave performance, I'd probably choose the little-seen Island in the Sky, directed by William ("Wild Bill" for you, Holden) Wellman.

That ties into rufnek too. I like The High and the Mighty because it's authentic concerning airplanes/ATC, it has a great score, and Wayne played the "disgraced" co-pilot to Robert Stack's pilot. I also liked Wayne's performance in Island in the Sky for similar reasons, since that ole' pilot Wellman directed that one too. But I find very few "younger" people will appreciate them because even I think they're only OK in general. That still doesn't stop me from watching them if nothing else is happening.

Re: Tatty
I know people who don't enjoy The Quiet Man for its cliches, but I enjoy it for its craziness and "originality". What someone finds as possibly racist cliches, I might find to be wonderful human frailties. Plus Wayne silently holding onto O'Hara while staring into the fireplace and smoking once is powerful and deeply romantic to me. He could have not smoked, but you could tell he cared about her and the situation he was in a million times more than the cig. (I was going to use another slang term for cigarettes which also has three letters and ends in g, but I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea. )


The Quiet Man

As far as my ACTUAL choice for John Wayne's Best Movies, I'll offer some. If you believe that The Longest Day is a John Wayne flick, you can probably move it into #4.

1. The Quiet Man
2. Red River
3. The Searchers
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. Hondo
6. True Grit
7. The Shootist
8. The War Wagon
9. Rooster Cogburn
10. The Horse Soldiers


Island in the Sky
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RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010
I don't think I've ever seen Island in the Sky. I've seen The High and the Mighty, but that was back in high school almost 10 years ago, so I don't remember it.



I don't need a bigger boat.
True Grit...his crowning achievement. (and a well deserved Oscar)
The Shootist...a brilliant swan song to a brilliant career.

Although I am somewhat perplexed that no one has mentioned Blood Alley. I loved him in that one!



RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010
I don't get "Doesn't make it right, and certainly doesn't make it palatable."

You have to say why he was so wrong in 1952 and in 1968 for John Wayne to support the things he believed in. He certainly wasn't a fortune teller. Why was he so wrong at that time. (obviously we know he was wrong from a later perspective).
I'm not so sure he was wrong. The fact is communism was a very real threat and while in America people have the right to believe what they wish, the fact is communism was a political movement that was antithetical to the American tenets and ideology and the concepts in our Constitution. We forget that communism did pose a danger to the US and how it had spread around the world. Communism, be it at the hands of Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Castro, Stalin, Raphael Trujillo is often overlooked as the great evil of the 20th century by Nazism. While the Holocaust killed 3 - 4 million, communism is responsible for well over 100 million deaths.

I don't fault John Wayne for making a pro McCarthy film and I know McCarthy, while not an angel by any means, has had his place in history distorted by several generations of very liberal, post modern, and American Exceptionalism apologist academics in the secondary and collegiate levels.

Anyway... having said that. I'm a huge HUGE John Wayne fan and his top performances/films:

1. Red River
2. The Searchers
3. Rio Bravo
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. The Shootist
6. McLintock!
7. Stagecoach
8. The Quiet Man
9. The Cowboys
10. True Grit

All great stuff, the only bigger classic Hollywood movie stars/actors are Bogart and Cary Grant... maybe James Stewart. Oh and some dude who was in some other movie that was an anti communist allegory... a film that got a lot of boos and cheers... about a boxer or something... a flick I can't get through without getting misty eyed.



Trouble with a capital "T"
...Anyway... having said that. I'm a huge HUGE John Wayne fan and his top performances/films:

1. Red River
2. The Searchers
3. Rio Bravo
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. The Shootist
6. McLintock!
7. Stagecoach
8. The Quiet Man
9. The Cowboys
10. True Grit

All great stuff, the only bigger classic Hollywood movie stars/actors are Bogart and Cary Grant... maybe James Stewart. Oh and some dude who was in some other movie that was an anti communist allegory... a film that got a lot of boos and cheers... about a boxer or something... a flick I can't get through without getting misty eyed.
I'm a big fan of John Wayne, both the man and his movies. That doesn't mean I agree with everything he ever said, that would be silly as we're all individuals. I agree with what you said about communism in your post it was insidious and enslaving through our the 20th century. Especially aggressive in the mid 20th century.


I recently watched every single film John Wayne made from: Stage Coach (1939) when he hit the big time to his last film The Shootist (1976) 82 movies in all, and I enjoyed all of them. But I'm not sure what movie of his was pro McCarthy?

You have a solid list of Wayne's top 10 films.

My favorite films of his in chronological order would be:
Stagecoach
The Shepherd of the Hills
Tall in the Saddle
Without Reservations
Angel and the Badman
Red River
3 Godfathers
Wake of the Red Witch
Island in the Sky
Hondo
The High and the Mighty
The Searchers
Legend of the Lost
Rio Bravo
The Alamo
North to Alaska
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Donovan's Reef
Circus World
In Harm's Way
The Green Berets
Hellfighters
True Grit

The rest of his films are pretty good too. The weakest one IMO is The Train Robbers.



  1. Stagecoach
  2. The Shootist
  3. The Quiet Man
  4. Rio Bravo
  5. The High and the Mighty
  6. El Dorado
  7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
  8. The Searchers
  9. Red River
  10. True Grit



RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010
I don't think I've seen ten John Wayne movies
Yeah or for those of the generation that game after his heyday - mainly Generation X (those in their 40s and 50s) and younger, the likely exposure we've had to John Wayne is either as just an icon - someone we've heard about, have seen pictures of on memorabilia, t-shirts, and memes OR have maybe seen bits and pieces of his movies chopped up and edited with commercial breaks back in the 1990s and early 2000s when they played regularly on cable tv network like TBS and TNT OR have maybe been visiting the grandparents and our grandpas had a John Wayne flick on in the background.

BUT, several people on here may have seen them in class... for example, back when I was teaching American Literature in High School, I played The Searchers to culminate our unit on American Indian literature and storytelling and then I know I was shown The Searchers back when I was in High School in film history class. That would have been way back in 2001.

I think enough time has passed between John Wayne as a present cultural icon - he passed away in 1979, that the youngest generation and hopefully future generations can hopefully discover his material and look at it through the lens of storytelling, acting ability (despite limited range and genre - 9/10 of my top 10 of his films were westerns), and just the quality of the pictures he was in and not only that, but also perfect casting... really, can you imagine any else as Ethan Edwards, Tom Dunson, and/or Tom Doniphon?

If you really want to get into John Wayne's films then forgo all those films like Big Jake, McQ, Brannigan, The Sons of Katie Elder, etc... stuff that got played on TV a lot back in the day, and just go down my top 10 list and watch them in order. John Wayne was likely in two or three hundred films, so it stands to reason that a majority of them were OK, mediocre, or just good escapism, but little else.

However, there are a few absolute masterpieces and true works of cinematic art sprinkled in the career of a man who worked all the time and starred in films at a breakneck pace and rate.

Here's my list again for reference; I'd just track them down in order.

1. Red River
2. The Searchers
3. Rio Bravo
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. The Shootist
6. McLintock!
7. Stagecoach
8. The Quiet Man
9. The Cowboys
10. True Grit



RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010
"The Cowboys" was always my favorite. Mostly because of the great cast.
The Cowboys is in my top 10 John Wayne pictures, and it's not without flaws... some of the stuff when the kids get revenge and start systematically offing the baddies, gets very VERY close to crossing the tightrope into shlock or slapstick, but given the narrative whole, I think it does work, but barely.

However, leading up to that moment and John Wayne's death is truly great and frightening stuff and the tone and mood of the film is solid with a great sense of dread and danger throughout. Some of the scenes come off as a bit, hackneyed, but in looking at the picture on the whole, it really is great flaws and all.

It's due for a rewatch for me, as it's been a good handful of years since I watched it.

Here's a good Bruce Dern interview and I appreciate the film for the boldness it takes in not only having Bruce Dern kill John Wayne, but the method and horrifying way he does it too. It doesn't pull its punches and the film stays true to those characters.




Yeah or for those of the generation that game after his heyday - mainly Generation X (those in their 40s and 50s) and younger, the likely exposure we've had to John Wayne is either as just an icon - someone we've heard about, have seen pictures of on memorabilia, t-shirts, and memes OR have maybe seen bits and pieces of his movies chopped up and edited with commercial breaks back in the 1990s and early 2000s when they played regularly on cable tv network like TBS and TNT OR have maybe been visiting the grandparents and our grandpas had a John Wayne flick on in the background.

BUT, several people on here may have seen them in class... for example, back when I was teaching American Literature in High School, I played The Searchers to culminate our unit on American Indian literature and storytelling and then I know I was shown The Searchers back when I was in High School in film history class. That would have been way back in 2001.

I think enough time has passed between John Wayne as a present cultural icon - he passed away in 1979, that the youngest generation and hopefully future generations can hopefully discover his material and look at it through the lens of storytelling, acting ability (despite limited range and genre - 9/10 of my top 10 of his films were westerns), and just the quality of the pictures he was in and not only that, but also perfect casting... really, can you imagine any else as Ethan Edwards, Tom Dunson, and/or Tom Doniphon?

If you really want to get into John Wayne's films then forgo all those films like Big Jake, McQ, Brannigan, The Sons of Katie Elder, etc... stuff that got played on TV a lot back in the day, and just go down my top 10 list and watch them in order. John Wayne was likely in two or three hundred films, so it stands to reason that a majority of them were OK, mediocre, or just good escapism, but little else.

However, there are a few absolute masterpieces and true works of cinematic art sprinkled in the career of a man who worked all the time and starred in films at a breakneck pace and rate.

Here's my list again for reference; I'd just track them down in order.

1. Red River
2. The Searchers
3. Rio Bravo
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. The Shootist
6. McLintock!
7. Stagecoach
8. The Quiet Man
9. The Cowboys
10. True Grit
I have seen True Grit, The Cowboys, and McLintock!. I've heard nothing but good things about the other 7 you mentioned here. I'm especially interested in checking The Quiet Man, Rio Bravo and because it was his final film The Shootist



I have seen True Grit, The Cowboys, and McLintock!. I've heard nothing but good things about the other 7 you mentioned here. I'm especially interested in checking The Quiet Man, Rio Bravo and because it was his final film The Shootist
Gideon, I think you would really like The Quiet Man (1952). I love the picture, and have enjoyed it many times. Great ensemble work with Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen, and Barry Fitzgerald. A real classic.