"No matter where people go, the law follows, and no matter where people go, they find God has been there first." Thus utters The Duke in the title role of this typical product of John Wayne's waning years. He utters this after a considerable body count has accumulated in the course of recounting some of the events of the Lincoln County War in New Mexico in the 1870s. God was passive as all that corruption and killing, including some who were unarmed, was going on. Mysterious ways...
The Chisum depicted here is the Wayne character that developed in the decade after Rio Bravo put him back in the saddle after excursions into non-Westerns: tough but fair; ready to do what it takes to make things right, i.e. be extremely violent; amiable but something of a loner (too many personal connections might compromise one at some point). Wayne wears the same togs he wore in all his Westerns from this period: vest, red or blue shirt, bandanna, high-crowned Stetson. He was already enshrined as the personification of the Old West, or the Old West by way of Hollywood. Next stop, Madame Tussaud's.
The screenplay actually has some details here and there that are supported by the history of the events, but this is mostly a warped and inflated version of the story. For instance, in this telling, Billy the Kid rides into town, big as you please, shoots Sheriff Brady in front of Chisum and co., then rides out without anyone so much as reaching for their six-shooter. In the actual incident, Billy the Kid (aka Henry McCarty) and his accomplices ambushed Sheriff Brady, a much wiser tactic. McCarty was wounded in the thigh when he broke cover to retrieve something (a warrant or a rifle) from Brady's body. The height of the ludicrous is reached, fittingly, at the film's climax, the shootout at McSween's store. A slew of bad guys are slain, even though they are barely visible (there were perhaps a half dozen casualties on both sides in the actual confrontation) and the whole shebang is wrapped up when The Duke and his boys come with guns blazing amid a herd of stampeding cattle. The Duke then dukes it out with the Murphy character (Forrest Tucker); they both fall from a balcony and Murphy is...impaled on steer horns. Wow! The real Chisum was a couple of days ride away on his ranch when that action was taking place in Lincoln. In fact, Chisum himself never fired a shot in the Lincoln County War. Murphy was ill with cancer by time the conflict in Lincoln County reached a fever pitch; he died a few months after the Battle of Lincoln.
This is simply an excuse to make another Wayne Western, and dress it up as Something That Really Happened. The efficient director, Andrew McLaglen, assembled a passel of familiar faces — Forrest Tucker, Bruce Cabot, Ben Johnson, Christopher George (he had been a bad guy in El Dorado), Richard Jaeckel, all of whom could be depended on to give unsurprising performances. Wayne's house cinematographer (he did 21 films for Wayne's Batjac production company), William Clothier, keeps things in focus and the contrasts in the bright sunlight of the Durango, Mexico and other Southwestern locations well-balanced. The whole thing is a product of pros in the process of "keeping on", as the lyrics of the film's song say, without any urge to do much more.
Filming was done in the late fall, which must have made for a nice working vacation for all involved.
The Chisum depicted here is the Wayne character that developed in the decade after Rio Bravo put him back in the saddle after excursions into non-Westerns: tough but fair; ready to do what it takes to make things right, i.e. be extremely violent; amiable but something of a loner (too many personal connections might compromise one at some point). Wayne wears the same togs he wore in all his Westerns from this period: vest, red or blue shirt, bandanna, high-crowned Stetson. He was already enshrined as the personification of the Old West, or the Old West by way of Hollywood. Next stop, Madame Tussaud's.
The screenplay actually has some details here and there that are supported by the history of the events, but this is mostly a warped and inflated version of the story. For instance, in this telling, Billy the Kid rides into town, big as you please, shoots Sheriff Brady in front of Chisum and co., then rides out without anyone so much as reaching for their six-shooter. In the actual incident, Billy the Kid (aka Henry McCarty) and his accomplices ambushed Sheriff Brady, a much wiser tactic. McCarty was wounded in the thigh when he broke cover to retrieve something (a warrant or a rifle) from Brady's body. The height of the ludicrous is reached, fittingly, at the film's climax, the shootout at McSween's store. A slew of bad guys are slain, even though they are barely visible (there were perhaps a half dozen casualties on both sides in the actual confrontation) and the whole shebang is wrapped up when The Duke and his boys come with guns blazing amid a herd of stampeding cattle. The Duke then dukes it out with the Murphy character (Forrest Tucker); they both fall from a balcony and Murphy is...impaled on steer horns. Wow! The real Chisum was a couple of days ride away on his ranch when that action was taking place in Lincoln. In fact, Chisum himself never fired a shot in the Lincoln County War. Murphy was ill with cancer by time the conflict in Lincoln County reached a fever pitch; he died a few months after the Battle of Lincoln.
This is simply an excuse to make another Wayne Western, and dress it up as Something That Really Happened. The efficient director, Andrew McLaglen, assembled a passel of familiar faces — Forrest Tucker, Bruce Cabot, Ben Johnson, Christopher George (he had been a bad guy in El Dorado), Richard Jaeckel, all of whom could be depended on to give unsurprising performances. Wayne's house cinematographer (he did 21 films for Wayne's Batjac production company), William Clothier, keeps things in focus and the contrasts in the bright sunlight of the Durango, Mexico and other Southwestern locations well-balanced. The whole thing is a product of pros in the process of "keeping on", as the lyrics of the film's song say, without any urge to do much more.
Filming was done in the late fall, which must have made for a nice working vacation for all involved.