Director: John Sturgis
Year: 1974
Rating: 6.5
By the mid-1970s the Western was slowly heading towards near oblivion. You
can see that by just looking at how the Television landscape was changing
from a schedule filled with Westerns to the 70's when the detective/cop show
was everywhere. So John Wayne was to make two contemporary cop films in quick
succession - this and Brannigan a year later. Apparently, he didn't really
want to make either and didn't have a high opinion of them. But he needed
the money and this was relatively easy work for a 67-year old man. It is
surprising that as far as I can tell he had never played a cop set in the
present. Lots of them in Westerns of course but I think he just felt they
were not for him and his straight arrow code - he passed on Dirty Harry -
which we are all grateful for.
Here he goes through the paces, says his lines and is fine. So is the film.
He is stuck with a TV cast - Clu Gulager, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, Collen
Dewhurst, Roger Mosley, and David Huddleston but the director was John Sturgis
who was behind some terrific films - The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven,
Bad Day at Black Rock, Gunfight at the OK Corral and more recently Ice Station
Zebra and Joe Kid. The man knew how to make a Western and that must have
comforted Wayne though they had never made one together.
It is standard corrupt cop material but they play it well with a few surprises
along the way. It opens with two cops separately being gunned down by another
cop, And then in turn he gets murdered. The murdered/killer cop turns out
to be McQ's partner and he forces himself into the case even when they tell
him not to. Hell, he is John Wayne. When did he ever stand down. He has no
idea that his partner was dirty and goes after a drug mob - when he finds
out they didn't do it - he has to go looking for others. In blue. And he
is so dedicated as a cop that he sleeps with Colleen Dewhurst to get information
- that is called going above and beyond your duty. Action and cop films were
so different back then from today - even the Dirty Harry films - nothing
slick, no CGI, a lot less violence, more character driven - great films
like Bullitt and The French Connection hold up very well. As long as you
don't go in expecting John Wick shoot-outs. Not that this comes close to
Bullitt or The French Connection but it has its car chases and shoot-outs.
Wayne looks nearly unable to show emotion in this - you could tell him the
world was ending and he would just grunt. But he does well with a machine-gun
and that is what counts.
After Brannigan Wayne was to go to make two more very respected films - both
Westerns - Rooster Cogburn and The Shootist. And that was it, He went out
on top of a horse riding the high country.
