cult film freak: SOME JOHN WAYNE ACTION BEFORE IT'S COMPLETELY ILLEGAL

Written by James M. Tate / 6/23/2020 / No comments / action , al lettieri , clu gulager , david huddleston , eddie albert , john wayne , neo noir , roger e. mosley , seventies

SOME JOHN WAYNE ACTION BEFORE IT'S COMPLETELY ILLEGAL

6/23/2020 | No comment

And pretty soon there will be no cops or guns so just watch McQ and remember when times were: 1973

REVIEW OF McQ: Sounding like an upbeat version of a jazzy New Orleans funeral march or a car honking to a clunky yet catchy rhythm, McQ’s main theme takes our hero, the title character played by John Wayne, through a string of mysterious and dangerous elements that starts out reminiscent of cop thrillers DIRTY HARRY and BULLITT but winds up very Film Noir...

Beginning with an unnamed gunman slaying several victims throughout the pre-dawn city streets, we soon realize he’s the partner of a veteran cop named McQ.

John Wayne and villain's villain Al Lettieri in MCQ Rates: ***1/2

When that killer’s quickly shot down, McQ has to investigate… not knowing his partner had pulled off the murders beforehand… going from an ex wife, a former lover, a reluctant ratting pimp and a notorious drug dealer to get clues, mostly red herrings which lead him (the first time round) absolutely nowhere.

After he beats up Al Lettieri’s Santiago, the usual suspect with an aggressive lawyer and tons of connections, McQ drops his badge and winds up piggybacking on a private investigator/gumshoe’s license to learn things sans his burdening police moniker...

John Wayne shoots up the bad guys in the cop thriller MCQ

Here’s where the action picks up as McQ becomes a target from hit men, drug dealers and even the police: the latter most likely responsible for a bundle of stolen cocaine.

John Wayne, despite his advanced age, is perfect in the grizzly role. Supposedly having watched Don Siegel’s DIRTY HARRY with envy, and wishing he could play that part — or get a role like it — the Duke did his first of two (followed by BRANNIGAN) police flicks...

John Wayne and some good old fashion gunplay in MCQ

It’s fun seeing the usually straight-laced actor wearing a halo with horns, rolling up a dollar bill for a druggie waitress to get high or frantically driving his “green hornet” hotrod to wah-wah peddle 1970’s funk… all leading to a beachside car chase choreographed by stuntman/future action guru Hal Needham.

Director John Sturges was, like Wayne, best known for making Westerns, a genre McQ borrows from with the maverick loner verses an eclectic string of feisty (and often sneaky) antagonists, each with their own lethal agenda, sometimes even coming out of the woodwork with guns blazing.

John Wayne and the machine gun he calls home in MCQ

Yet with the cool looking MAC-10 submachine gun and a snaky trail pitting one man against shadowy odds, this is really a modern Noir thriller providing a chance to see the American icon grittier, and often more vulnerable, than ever before: at least in a modern setting.

NOTE: But this review is more than a review. It's here to defend a man who was fifty years dead before George Floyd was murdered, and yet, somehow, he's responsible for the man's death... by the same folks who backed the lifelong political career of Senator Robert Byrd, who started HIS career as a head ranking member of the KKK, and it's not okay. Leave The Duke's legacy alone, you mediocre runts.