This Influential John Wayne Western Is Also One of the Most Underrated War Movies of the ‘70s

By the 1970s, the popularity of the classic Western—which had been the hallmark of John Wayne’s career—was losing ground fast. In its place, revisionist Westerns had surged onto the scene. Sergio Leone's groundbreaking Spaghetti Westerns, led by the Dollars trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West, and other revisionist takes of the time, such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,had earned a place in the hearts of audiences with their alternative kind of Western hero. In 1970, Wayne made Chisum, an underrated movie straddling the two worlds of the classic Western and this new wave. The movie also adds to Wayne’s complicated legacy, especially regarding his stance on war—from some of his controversial frontier portrayals to his avoiding service in World War II while maintaining a fiercely nationalistic image and outspoken support for the Vietnam War. In fact, just two years before Chisum, Wayne had made The Green Berets, a movie that irked critics, including Roger Ebert, who called it a “virus” for its outright propagandist tone. But in Chisum, Wayne seems to make up for what he has been criticized for throughout his career.