One of the best westerns of all time, John Wayne in his element and for once actually acted well, however I don't think it was either his best acting or best film, The Cowboys 1972 for me was better and he acted better, but this is as close as can be.
Kim Darby and Glen Campbell were great, and Robert Duvall is fantastic, I have always believed that if the bad man in the film is a great actor it makes the film that much better, and they don't come much better than Robert Duvall in this.
All the rest are great, Jeff Corey, Dennis Hopper, John Fiedler and Strother Martin are excellent character actors and the rest do great as well, whoever cast this film was inspirational.
It was a beautiful film as well, with great scenery, photography was excellent, the music was spot on particular the theme song by Campbell himself. Direction was good, it must have been a joy with all those excellent actors to fall on. But it was the story that was so good, they did not stick to it completely but the outline was good enough, you would have had to go some by making a bad film from it, and the screenplay reflected this.
I have criticised Wayne for several of his movies, but not this one, this he got right.
It was a beautiful film as well, with great scenery, photography was excellent, the music was spot on particular the theme song by Campbell himself. Direction was good, it must have been a joy with all those excellent actors to fall on. But it was the story that was so good, they did not stick to it completely but the outline was good enough, you would have had to go some by making a bad film from it, and the screenplay reflected this.
I have criticised Wayne for several of his movies, but not this one, this he got right.