Good Cop Or Copped Out?

[Robbie]

John Wayne has received a lot of criticism for taking on cop roles at a later stage in his career. However I dont feel his two cop movies were all that bad in fact I like both of them.

I want to analyse McQ in this thread and maybe Brannigan in another thread.

McQ I feel has a good story with a few nice litte twists and it deals with some serious issues about police corruption which is quite unusual for a John Wayne movie. The action is good the dialogue is fine and I think Duke does a great job as the lead character.

What do you all feel about this movie, have you any interesting trivia regarding it and do you think Duke made the right decision entering a new field so late in his career.

[Cole Thornton]

I love Elmer Bernstein's score (even if it sounds like everything else he'd done; such as it is with Elmer) but I think the movie was ill-advised. Duke was right to refuse "Dirty Harry" and took this role only out of regret that he didn't have the hit that Eastwood would have. Duke shouldn't have done this or Brannigan, IMO. Duke was better off staying in westerns since he did create his own sub genre in a way.

What I like about MCQ is Al Lettieri, who died way too soon and was a great villain of the early 1970s.

BTW, is that a MAC-10 or an UZI that Duke uses to hose down Lettieri during that climactic shootout at the beach? I always thought it was a MAC-10.

[falc04]

I enjoy McQ for the most part, and am looking forward to next Tuesday's release of the movie on DVD (seeing it in widescreen for the first time will be a blast).

The only part of the movie I don't like is the dubbed-over voice used for his teenage daughter. Sounds like a 5-year old's voice. Not sure why the director (John Sturges) decided to edit out the original actresses voice, and put in a small child's voice.

Other than that, it moves along very nicely....and makes a nice double-bill with Brannigan (which should have just been called McQ II).

[itdo]

McQ(een), Steve, that is, was really the first one to start it, with Bullitt - and even he had to be talked into it (according to his wife Neile's bio), because it wasn't popular to play a cop back then. But then, Harry Calahan and Bullitt were a breed apart. Outsiders in the system, loners - modern cowboys. Eastwood and Siegel made the transition really in Coogan's Bluff, letting a ranger loose in New York City (a plot which Brannigan just copies).

I can see why Wayne thought it might be a good idea. Those films were sure-fire box-office, it seemed. Even Cahill was at first scripted as a cop thriller! You see how easy it is to make the transition from genre to genre.

The year McQ reached theaters would be the last one in which Wayne was in the Top Ten of moneymakers. McQ might have had something to do with that.

What do I think about McQ? I think JW just doesn't fit into the modern setting as good as he did in, say, Big Jim McLain. He had the corner in westerns by that time, practically nobody else did do it. But Batjac had to go and try.

There is about no exposition in the plot for the character of McQ. Everything that character has, John Wayne has to bring with him. The gag that he lives on a boat is one for the fans. But a fan would rather expect McQ to drive a truck, not a sports car. We learn that he is an outsider and that his marriage broke up - that's all. At the end, he's the same as in the beginning, nothing that would make his character interesting. It's just John Wayne blowing away bad guys (poor old Chuck Roberson again!). If you look at the complex characters of Bullitt and Harry Calahan - well, those were well scripted plots.

It's another Sturges-Bernstein collaboration which makes it interesting on the soundtrack level. But I think Sturges was on autopilot making it. Even the locations aren't too exciting (with the exception of the beach shoot out), something Brannigan makes up for.





For me, the eerie moment in McQ comes when the chopper pilot from MAGNUM P.I. appears as a drug dealer

[REASR]

It was a Mac 10

You could fire about 10 shots with what it takes to click a mouse.


Rick

[ethanedwards]

Thought Duke was too old for these parts, but who cares!
They were both good movies,
Here's an interesting piece about BRANNIGAN.
It was filmed obviously in London,
at the derelict site of the Beckton Gas Works,
a fire officer, who is a member of The John Wayne Film Society, here in England was called to the site, and remembered the signal box , from the film!
He looked around and found the door Duke had kicked in, and there on the floor was that same brass door knob, the Duke had kicked!!
After removing the door knob, with a screwdriver from the fire engine, he took it home!
It had a dent in it, where the great man's boot made contact!
Needless to say,the door in his lounge at home, is now the proud supporter, of the brass handle, dent and all!!

[Robbie]

I personally fell that McQ was an important addition to John Waynes portfolio. I agree with Roland in so much as the character could have done with some development perhaps he should have been a little meaner.

I feel the the story is quite fresh with nice little twists here and there, the beach shootout at the end is excellent and the movie moves along quite swiftly.

I think Dukes age makes the character more interesting and I belive he pulled of the role quite well, its nice to see him in a sports car and modern clothes and I think the big guy looks comfortable in the roll I only wish he attempted the genre a little sooner.

[B5Erik]

I just watched McQ for the first time last night, and I've got to say that it was a pretty good film. Not quite at the level of Dirty Harry, but not that far off, either.

With a little more character development for Lon McQ it might have been better, but to me John Wayne fit that kind of character like a glove! The only downside for me as far as John Wayne's participation in the movie was that he was 10-15 years too old for the part. a 52 or 53 year old John Wayne would have been great in that role, but they didn't make those kinds of movies in the late 50's or early 60's. Even an older John Wayne was still fairly convincing as a tough as nails cop.

I'm looking forward to watching Branningan - but I've got to actually buy the DVD first!

[ethanedwards]

By pure coincidence, I watched BRANNIGAN last night(for the umpteenth time) and still enjoyed it.
It really seems it should have been McQ-2, but the big fella carries the role well, but as everyone agrees, a Hondo or Searchers age Duke, would have been more ideal.