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Apr 20, 2015 - 7:29 PM
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johnjohnson
(Member)
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Warner Bros. has announced the 5-disc Blu-ray release of the John Wayne Westerns Film Collection, which features five classic films from The Duke: The Train Robbers (1973), Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973), Fort Apache (1948), The Searchers (1956) and Rio Bravo (1959). Two films, director Andrew V. McLaglen's The Train Robbers and writer/director Burt Kennedy's Cahill U.S. Marshal, are making their Blu-ray debuts and will also be available for purchase as BD singles. Street date is June 2nd.
Born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, John Wayne first worked in the film business as a laborer on the Fox lot during summer vacations from University of Southern California, which he attended on a football scholarship. He met and was befriended by John Ford, a young director who was beginning to make a name for himself in action films, comedies and dramas. It was Ford who recommended Wayne to director Raoul Walsh for the male lead in the 1930 epic Western, The Big Trail, and, although it was a box-office failure, the movie showed Wayne's potential.
For the next nine years, Wayne worked in a multitude of B-Westerns and serials in between bit parts in larger features. Wayne's big break came in 1939, when Ford cast him as Ringo Kid in the adventure Stagecoach. Wayne nearly stole the picture from his more seasoned co-stars, and his career as a box-office superstar began. During his 50-year film career, Wayne played the lead in 142 movies, an as yet unsurpassed record, and was nominated for three Academy Awards, winning the Best Actor Oscar in 1970 for his performance in True Grit.
The John Wayne Westerns Film Collection breaks down as follows:
The Train Robbers (New to Blu-ray!)
The action never stops in this western starring Wayne, Ann-Margret and Ricardo Montalban. Three Civil War veterans team up with a train robber's attractive widow to recover a cool half-million in hidden gold. The widow (Ann-Margaret) wants to clear her husband's name and the three friends (John Wayne, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson) want to aid her and collect a $50,000 reward. But the dead man's ex-partners just want the gold… and will kill to get it. The Train Robbers is a rollicking caper from writer/director Burt Kennedy, a specialist in Westerns with a comic touch (The Rounders, Support Your Local Sheriff). Here he sets a mood of amiable adventure among colorful characters, not stinting on the two-fisted action that's part of all the best Wayne Westerns.
Complete technical specifications have yet to be revealed. Special features include:
Featurette: John Wayne: Working with a Western Legend
Featurette: The Wayne Train
Theatrical Trailer
Cahill U.S. Marshal (New to Blu-ray!)
Lawman J.D. Cahill can stand alone against a bad-guy army. But as a widower father, he's on insecure footing raising two sons, particularly when he suspects his boys are involved in a bank robbery and two killings. Filmed on location in the high desert of Durango, New Mexico, this suspenseful saga offers a hearty helping of the stoic charisma that made John Wayne a long-time box-office champion. Summer of '42 discovery Gary Grimes – as Cahill's rebellious older son – joins a cast of tough-guy favorites (Neville Brand, Denver Pyle, Harry Carey Jr. and George Kennedy) and such other Hollywood greats as Marie Windsor and Jackie Coogan in a deft blend of trigger-fast action and heroic sentiment.
Complete tech specs have yet to be revealed. Special features include:
Commentary by Andrew V. McLaglen
Featurette: The Man Behind the Star
Theatrical Trailer
Fort Apache
The soldiers at Fort Apache may disagree with the tactics of their glory-seeking new commander. But to a man, they're duty-bound to obey, even when it means almost certain disaster. John Wayne, Henry Fonda and many familiar supporting players from master director John Ford's "stock company: saddle up for the first film in the director's famed cavalry trilogy (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande are the others). Roughhouse camaraderie, sentimental vignettes of frontier life, massive action sequences staged in Monument Valley – all are part of Fort Apache. So is Ford's exploration of the West's darker side. Themes of justice, heroism and honor that Ford would revisit in later Westerns are given rein in this moving, thought-provoking film that, even as it salutes a legend, gives reasons to question it.
Fort Apache is presented in 1080p with a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track. Extras include:
Commentary by F.X. Feeney
Featurette: Monument Valley: John Ford Country
Theatrical Trailer
The Searchers
Working together for the 12th time, John Wayne and director John Ford forged The Searchers into a landmark Western offering an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays an ex-Confederate soldier seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his five-year search, he encounters something unexpected: his own humanity. Beautifully shot by Winton C. Hoch, thrillingly scored by Max Steiner and memorably acted by a wonderful ensemble including Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood and Ward Bond, The Searchers endures as "a great film of enormous scope and breathtaking physical beauty" (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic).
The Searchers is presented in 1080p. Its previous release did not offer a lossless audio option. Warner has yet to confirm whether the latest version will offer a lossless upgrade or still feature a Dolby Digital mono mix. Special features include:
The Searchers: An Appreciation (2006 Documentary)
A Turning of the Earth: John Ford, John Wayne and The Searchers (1998 documentary narrated by John Milius)
Introduction by John Wayne's son and The Searchers co-star Patrick Wayne
Commentary by director/John Ford biographer Peter Bogdanovich
Vintage Behind the cameras segments from the Warner Bros. Presents TV Series
Theatrical Trailer
Rio Bravo
On one side is an army of gunmen dead-set on springing a murderous cohort from jail. On the other is Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) and two deputies: a recovering drunkard (Dean Martin) and a crippled codger (Walter Brennan). Also in their ragtag ranks are a trigger-happy youth (Ricky Nelson) and a woman with a past (Angie Dickinson) – and her eye on Chance. Director Howard Hawks lifted the Western to new heights with Red River. Capturing the legendary West with a stellar cast in peak form, he does it again here.
Rio Bravo is presented in 1080p. Its previous release did not offer a lossless audio option. Warner has yet to confirm whether the latest version will offer a lossless upgrade or still feature a Dolby Digital mono mix. Special features include:
Commentary by John Carpenter and Richard Schickel
Documentary: Commemoration: Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo
Featurette: Old Tucson: Where the Legends Walked
Theatrical Trailer
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=16586
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