Chisum (1970)

This was pretty good overall.

Here's what I liked:

• Wayne's very good as usual here. It's nice to see him finally drop the love interest that was so inappropriate in most of the movies he made after the age of 55.

• Some good supporting cast performances, especially Ben Johnson and Forrest Tucker.

• Pretty good story, based pretty solidly on real events of the Lincoln County range war in New Mexico.

• Tunstall's mentoring of Billy the Kid was very similar to "The Left Handed Gun", the 1958 film where Paul Newman played Billy. I wonder if this is based in fact?

Christoper George isn't bad here, reprising his henchman role from "El Dorado".

Here's what kept it from being better:

• A critical character in this movie is Billy the Kid. He is horribly miscast here by an actor with zero charisma. Because he has no personality, it's a little hard to understand his contradictory behavior in the movie. This almost leads to serious plausibility issues.

• The whole thing is a little too much by the numbers. Sometimes feels like a big budget episode of Bonanza.

Fmovies: Cattle ranchers John Chisum (John Wayne) and Henry Tunstall (an almost unrecognizable Patric Knowles) face off against villainous Lawrence Murphy (Forrest Tucker). Murphy has the corrupt law on his side, but that's okay because Duke has Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid! Fairly by-the-numbers western very loosely based on the real life Lincoln County War. A decent supporting cast, headed by Ben Johnson playing himself. There's also Bruce Cabot, Richard Jaeckal, Christopher George and soon-to-be wife Lynda Day, Andrew Prine, Glenn Corbett, and Geoffrey Deuel as Billy the Kid. All in all, not a bad bunch. It's all enjoyable enough but not one of Duke's best.

In the town of Lincoln, John Chisum (John Wayne) battles rustlers stealing his horses. He is concerned that greedy baron Lawrence Murphy is taking over as he buys up everything and pushing out the smaller operations. Murphy has even chosen the lawmen. Chisum and his men with honest rancher Tunstall, Pat Garrett, William Bonney aka Billy the Kid and others are forced to battle Murphy in his crocked schemes. Chisum opens his own bank and store to compete.

It's a simplistic old fashion western. Chisum is the best of the good. It's not all necessary. For example, it's not really necessary for Chisum to stand up for the Indians. It becomes a bit clunky. Billy the Kid needs to be played by a more charismatic actor than Geoffrey Deuel. McSween is too idealistic bordering on idiocy. This is a movie of sharp black and white. The cattle stampede is quite impressive and there is plenty of good action. The sensibility is old fashion even in its times.

Chisum fmovies. As much as I like this movieÂ…

Â…what its storyline does, especially as it gets further along, is simply to re-tell the story of Billy `The Kid' Bonney. It supposed to take place after Chisum has made that famous cattle-drive and shows the start of the Lincoln County war. Towards the end, the battle between Chisum and Murphy (the war) is completely set aside and we end up seeing all the same things happen to Billy that we've already seen in all the other movies about him, i.e., his relationship with Tunstall, meeting Pat Garrett and becoming friends (at first, then their falling out, well, kinda), him getting revenge on everybody, and the ol' shootout at McSween's store. The movie alters history in some interesting ways, though, like instead of the U.S. Army helping the sheriff (a fictitious character that replaces Brady) during the McSween's store shootout, Chisum becomes the cavalry and he and Pat Garrett help Billy out. The movie ends rather abruptly, never letting us know what happens to Chisum, Billy or the Lincoln County war.

This excellent film concerns about the real-life land baron living in New Mexico and dealing with the Lincoln County Wars of 1878 . Wayne as the cattle baron Chisum is magnificent . It's one of very few John Wayne Westerns based on historic deeds . The movie is plenty of action , shootouts , adventures and being pretty entertaining . Casting is frankly awesome with usual Andrew McLagen , John Ford's actors (Wayne , Ben Johnson , John Agar and Hank Worden) . Furthermore , habitual Ford cameraman William H. Clothier (Cheyenne Autumm , Man who shot Liberty Balance , Horse soldiers) giving a colorful cinematography as well as evocative musical score by Dominic Frontiere . The motion picture was well directed by Andrew W. McLagen , Ford's known disciple , and he called the film one of his favorites .

The real events are the followings : This powerful cattle king of New Mexico , John Simpson Chisum (1824-84) living in New Mexico governed by governor Lew Wallace (Ben Hur's author) , he started with a few head of stray longhorns and became one of the biggest individual cattle owners in North America, with between 60.000 and 100.000 head . In 1854 he entered the cattle business , selling beef to Indian reservations, making friendship with Chief White Buffalo (Abraham Sofaer's last film) . In 1867 he moved to New Mexico and established a large spread at South Spring in Old Lincoln County where he prospered greatly . He became involved in the Lincoln County war of 1878-79 in which he opposed the Murphy (Forrest Tucker)-Dolan (Edward Faulkner) faction and backed cattleman Tunstall (Patrick Knowles) , whose gunfighters-cowboys included the handsome Billy the Kid (Geoffrey Deuel's film debut). It is said that Chisum was instrumental in making Billy the Kid an outlaw killer , he used his considerable influence in getting Pat Garret (Glenn Corbett) elected Sheriff of Lincoln County in 1880 and it was Garrett who hunted down and killed the young outlaw . Chisum's cattle brand was the Long Rail , a long , straight mark extending from shoulder to flank . Chisum , who never married, died at Eureka Springs , Arkansas , leaving an state of some 500.000 dollars .

For those of us who love him, there's something about a John Wayne movie that kind of makes it immune to criticism. You can fault his no-frills acting style, the pious patriotism, the oft-uneven supporting cast, the predictable fight scenes, But even a lesser Wayne film still has John Wayne, and for his fans, that's nine-tenths of the battle in determining whether it's a good film.

"Chisum" is not going to convert non-Duke fans. On its own merits it's a serviceable western with good action sequences, some incredible vistas of the Mexican countryside (supposed to be Lincoln County, New Mexico) by cinematographer William H. Clothier, and an interesting if not always coherent storyline that places Wayne's title character, John Chisum, as more of a remote icon than active player in the proceedings, especially in its second half. Much of the film focuses on young William Bonney (Geoffrey Deuel), a former gunman better known as Billy the Kid now trying to live "clean and forward, all the way" with the help of a fatherly rancher named Tunstall (Patric Knowles, Will Scarlet to Errol Flynn's Robin Hood some 32 years before).

Geoffrey Deuel didn't go on to much of a career after this, and it's not hard seeing why. In "Chisum" his shallow characterization exudes no visible menace even after Bonney, well-provoked though not well-reasoned, turns against the law. I'm not sure how much of it was Deuel's fault. The script works against him, setting Bonney up as a decent, humble guy to the point of boringness, and director Andrew V. McLaglen only adds to the emasculation by showcasing Deuel's shy smile and his character's rote romancing of Chisum's niece. One scene freezes on Bonney holding a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other. I don't think Marlon Brando could have acted his way out of Deuel's bind.

Other actors come off better, especially Forrest Tucker as the chief heavy, Lawrence Murphy, who showcases an affable menace that makes him a good foil to Wayne's straightforward Chisum; Glenn Corbett, who plays drifting gambler Pat Garrett, hard but decent, who joins Chisum and befriends young Bonney until he turns into The Kid again; and Christopher George, whose Dan Nodeen is a nasty bounty hunter obsessed with killing the Kid. One nice thing about this film is seeing these actors, all best known for TV series work, stretching out beyond their popular identities of the period. George makes the strongest impression as the cold-eyed Nodeen.

"You just had to kill him," asks a sheriff when Nodeen brings in the body of a wanted man.

"No, less trouble that way," Nodeen replies.

Ben Johnson and Richard Jaeckel also have their moments as companions to Chisum and Murphy respectively, as does Andrew Prine as a lawyer who switches sides halfway through. There are many other performances, too, most good and all detracting somewhat from Wayne at the center, though Chisum does assert himself from time to time.

"Chisum" may be too busy a film that way, with too rambling a focus even when its on Wayne. There's one scene where Chisum looks after an old Commanche chief which should have been cut, while others need trims. But director McLaglen keeps a firm rein on things most of the time, and the story does move. His mentor was John Ford, but while McLaglen lacked Ford's nuance and depth, he was better at delivering action sequences, both in terms of frequency and originali