Even in the modern day, John Wayne remains an iconic figure in American cinema whose legacy and impact on the medium simply can’t be overstated. Thanks to John Wayne’s Westerns, the slow-talking cowboy was able to define an entire genre with his inspiring characters while not sacrificing a certain rough edge that textured some performances.
Looking back on his catalog today, there are a handful of standout films that are simply too good not to pay proper respects to. Some elements of John Wayne’s movies may have aged poorly, but a handsome portion of his filmography is too iconic to ignore even over five decades later.
10
The Quiet Man
It’s worth noting that though he may have been known for playing gunslingers, not all of John Wayne’s movies were Westerns. Some of his best work took place in other genres and settings, including The Quiet Man, which stars him as an Irish-American boxer who returns to his ancestral homeland only to find culture shock, romance, and drama.
The Quiet Man is easily the zenith of Wayne’s career when it comes to romance, with his on-screen chemistry with co-star Maureen O’Hara making the movie. The vibrant cinematography and insight into life in rural Ireland also makes it a unique novelty in Wayne’s filmography, too cozy and lovable of a film to exclude from his greatest hits.
9
The Comancheros
The classic odd-couple action duo pairing is a tried-and-true trope well-suited to the Western genre, and The Comancheros is one of the most fun takes on the concept to-date. Here, Wayne plays a Texas ranger who reluctantly teams up with a gambling fugitive to target a cabal of gun-runners supplying weapons to the Comanche.
Wayne is the perfect archetypal “white hat” cowboy here, a gruff but morally astute hero whose honor clashes with his sleazy counterpart in Stuart Whitman. The humor, action sequences, and fun dynamic between the two leads results in a classic Western that shouldn’t be written off lightly.
8
Stagecoach
In the realm of John Wayne’s bread-and-butter cowboy movies, few have as legendary a status as Stagecoach, which represented his first major breakthrough on screen. The 1939 Western functions as a sort of roadtrip movie, with a handful of strangers in the titular wagon making a perilous trek through Apache territory in the Wild West.
The first shot of Wayne’s Ringo is one of the most iconic character introductions in Western movies ever, effortlessly flip-cocking his repeated with boundless charm. From this moment onward, Wayne’s charisma in this young, fiery character is the driving force of an amazing film that would generate a Hollywood fixture.
7
Red River
Red River is one of the few cowboy movies actually about the profession of being a cattleman, with John Wayne’s character participating in the first dangerous cattle drive going from Texas all the way to Missouri. Working alongside his adopted son Matt, Wayne’s Thomas Dunson soon has to deal with a mutiny on his hands in the isolated expanse of the American West.
Once again, Wayne’s ability to bounce off of another actor provides the delicious emotional core to a tense Western, his clashes with Montgomery Clift’s Matt truly feeling like a genuine spat between stern father and headstrong son. The idea of a mutiny on land is also a clever conceit to conflict that Red River gets full mileage out of.
6
True Grit
Though the Cohen brothers movie remake may be better known at this point, John Wayne’s efforts in the original True Grit are not to be taken lightly, even today. Wayne earned his only Academy Award for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn, the eyepatch-wearing U.S. marshal who helps a young girl track down her father’s killer, for a very good reason.
Rooster is one of Wayne’s most complex and cynical characters, a hardened man with a heart of gold buried beneath layers of calloused survival instinct. His dynamic with the young Kim Darby, played by Mattie Ross, is yet another of Wayne’s great pairings, and it’s no coincidence that True Grit was chosen for a modern remake.
5
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Another of Wayne’s many collaborations with Western director John Ford, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the best films produced by the duo. Here, John Wayne’s character is actually dead at the start of the story, which uses a narrative framing device of a man recounting how Wayne’s Tom Doniphon was one of two to stand up to a notorious outlaw.
The unique storytelling mechanisms of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance provides an interesting slant to the film’s narrative, with the tragic outcome being clear from the beginning, but the means of getting there totally unknown. It’s this rich story that makes The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance one of the most compelling Westerns ever, let alone in Wayne’s career.
4
The Searchers
For as huge an impact as John Wayne’s many films have had on the Western genre, few changed filmmaking itself so much as The Searchers. A bleak and edgy tale by John Wayne’s standards, the plot revolves around a civil war veteran who leads a daring raid into Comanche territory after his niece is seemingly kidnapped by raiders.
The film’s complex performances and daring critiques of racism and petty, vengeance-fueled violence continue to be one of the greatest Western movie inspirations to this very day, an enduring and compelling saga. It was also the first film to coin John Wayne’s signature use of the word “pilgrim”, which would go on to become a staple of his.
3
Rio Bravo
Based on the short story of the same name, Rio Bravo stars John Wayne as Sheriff John T. Chance, who organizes an eclectic crew of gunmen in order to prevent a violent gang of criminals from springing a jailed outlaw from custody. Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson round out the star-studded cast, bringing to bear their talents on a relatively simple story.
The main trio have excellent camaraderie as they bicker, joke, and cover each other’s backs, each of them a richly developed character as well as an entertaining gunslinger. The latter is shown off in the film’s excellent shootout scenes, among the best of John Wayne’s career and Westerns in general.
2
Sands Of Iwo Jima
The Western wasn’t the only area in which John Wayne excelled, contributing to some of the best war movies ever made, as well. Enter Sands of Iwo Jima, which sees Wayne play the resolute and unyielding Sergeant John Stryker, a marine leading his troops through some of the most brutal fighting of World War II’s Pacific theater.
The film swept the 22nd Academy Awards with many nominations, including a nod to Johne Wayne as Sergeant Stryker. Looking back on the film, his valiant dedication to the character not that long after the real-world horrors of war that inspired his story is an effort worth remembering today.
1
El Dorado
El Dorado centers on a hardscrabble family whose livelihood is put in jeopardy when a greedy landowner sends dangerous hired guns to intimidate them into giving up their land, with their town’s alcoholic sheriff refusing to be of any help. Luckily, John Wayne’s Cole Thorton, an aged gunfighter with a keen sense of justice, is there to pick up the slack.
El Dorado is the epitome of a simple, yet effective Western that makes the most out of John Wayne’s relentless nobility and endearing charm. With a great early appearance of a young James Caan as his apprentice and a phenomenal climactic action scene, El Dorado is an immovable fixture of John Wayne‘s legacy.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
