Chisum [Commemorative Packaging]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

John Wayne toplines this biography of the cattle owner John Simpson Chisum, a controversial figure who was the most powerful man in New Mexico during the Wild West era. A founder and prominent citizen in the town of Lincoln, Chisum is slow to act when ruthless land baron Lawrence Murphy (Forrest Tucker) moves in on several local businesses and takes them over. By the time Chisum and his ally, fellow rancher Henry Tunstall (Patrick Knowles), decide to go to the law, Murphy's already bought and paid for influence there, as well. The only recourse left to the cattlemen is to take Murphy on in all-out range war that embroils everyone in the county, including Tunstall's hand Billy the Kid Bonney (Geoffrey Deuel) and his comrade Pat Garrett (Glenn Corbett). Screenwriter and producer Andrew J. Fenady based the script for Chisum (1970) on his own short story, a very loosely fact-based account of Chisum, Billy the Kid and their involvement in the Lincoln County wars. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Features:
  • Commentary by director Andrew V. McLaglen
  • Vintage featurette John Wayne and Chisum
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Languages: English & Francais
  • Subtitles: English, Francais, Espanol & Japanese (feature film only)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       John Wayne - John Chisum
       Forrest Tucker - Lawrence Murphy
       Christopher George - Dan Nodeen
       Ben Johnson - James Pepper
       Glenn Corbett - Pat Garrett
       Andrew Prine - Alex McSween
       Bruce Cabot - Sheriff Brady
       Geoffrey Deuel - Billy "The Kid" Bonney
       Pamela McMyler - Sallie Chisum
       Patric Knowles - Henry Tunstall
       Richard Jaeckel - Jess Evans
       Lynda Day - Sue McSween
       John Agar - Patton
       Lloyd Battista - Neemo
       Robert Donner - Morton
       Ray Teal - Justice Wilson
       Edward Faulkner - Dolan
       Ron Soble - Bowdre
       John Mitchum - Baker
       Alan Baxter - Gov. Axtell
       Alberto Morin - Delgado
       William Bryant - Jeff
       Pedro Armendariz, Jr. - Ben
       Christopher Mitchum - O'Folliard
       Abraham Sofaer - White Buffalo
       Gregg Palmer - Riker
       Bob Morgan

• Director:

  Andrew V. McLaglen

• Producer:

  Andrew J. Fenady, Michael Wayne

• Screenwriter:

  Andrew J. Fenady

• Cinematographer:

  William H. Clothier

• Songwriter:

  Andrew J. Fenady

• Composer (Music Score):

  Dominic Frontiere

• Songwriter:

  Norman Gimbel

• Editor:

  Robert L. Simpson

• Art Director:

  Carl Anderson

• Costume Designer:

  Luster Bayless, Michael J. Harte

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  John Ferguson

• Singer:

  Merle Haggard

REVIEW:

• John Wayne was one of the few personalities who could carry a movie almost entirely on his personality, and Chisum is one of those movies. It came out in 1970, a year after Wayne won an Oscar for his self-referential role in True Grit and Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch revolutionized the screen Western. Hollywood studios (behind the times as usual) continued to make the genre the old fashioned way for a few more years. Chisum follows all the traditional formulas, but, thanks to a solid performance by Wayne and some high-energy action sequences, it manages to be good entertainment. Ben Johnson is pretty standard as the comic sidekick; remarkably, this was the film before his Oscar-winning performance in The Last Picture Show. The director, Andrew McLaglen, went on to direct a number of lamentable -- though quite funny -- sequels to movies that he had nothing to do with originally, including Return From the River Kwai, Sergeant Steiner, and The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi