CHISUM (1970)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Andrew V. McLaglen

SCREENWRITER: Andrew J. Fenady

FILM STARS: John Wayne, Forrest Tucker, Ben Johnson, Patric Knowles, Geoffrey Deuel, Pamela McMyler, Glenn Corbett, Andrew Prine, Christopher George, Bruce Cabot, Richard Jaeckel, Lynda Day, Robert Donner, John Mitchum, John Agar, Ray Teal, Edward Faulkner, Christopher Mitchum, Pedro Armendáriz Jr.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Sam Bowie (Todhunter Ballard)

TYPE: Novelization

PUBLISHER: Ace

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1970

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK (Short Story)

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: Andrew J. Fenady

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: unknown

ORIGINAL SHORT STORY TITLE: “Chisum and the Lincoln County War”

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS:

This is a (very) loose history of Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, land baron John Chisum and the bloody Lincoln County War.

As short story and screenwriter Andrew Fenady said:

“Well, when somebody would say something (was inaccurate), Duke would say, ‘Damn it, we’re not making a documentary, we’re making a movie!’ I took some liberties. (laughs) Matter of fact I took quite a few liberties. But the basic characters were all there: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett and Henry Tunstall, L.G. Murphy and all the rest of them, they were all involved in the Lincoln County War, and so was Chisum”. http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2012/04/aj-fenady-pt-2-john-wayne-and-chisum.html

Director (a John Wayne regular) Andrew V. McLaglen called the film one of his favourites and said: “I wanted Billy the Kid to just be Billy the Kid, a human being, not a bad little boy. Fenady was sort of a scholar about the Lincoln County Cattle War, which was a conflict over water and cattle—trading cattle—and John Chisum actually became a very powerful landowner. It was an American story”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chisum

Because of Billy the Kid’s involvement (though on its own the story is compelling) the Lincoln County War has featured in a few films – Billy the Kid (1930), The Kid from Texas (1950), The Left Handed Gun (1958), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Young Guns (1988), Young Guns II (1990), The Kid (2019).

McLaglen’s direction is certain, with enough asides to the scenery to give you an idea of the size of the cattle country. William Clothier’s photography is superb and and the action driven narrative make it entertaining. It’s not going to be on any “best of” lists but it is thumping fun and set the pattern for most of Wayne’s 70s westerns … ie 7os westerns rather than any truthful recreation of an era past. The fist fight between the 50 year old Forrest Tucker and the 62 year old Wayne is fun, clunky and not as stunt man choreographed as the fights you see nowadays between “older” men. A great cast (Wayne, Tucker, Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Glenn Corbett, Chris Mitchum, Patric Knowles, Richard Jaeckel) with a lot of John Wayne’s friends (and regulars) in smaller roles – Ben Johnson, Bruce Cabot, John Agar, Ed Faulkner, Pedro Armendariz. What’s there not to like?

The left would read it (correctly) as a right wing “law and order” film but by the same token you can read it as a attack on monopoly capitalism. OK, I might be reading too much into it but Wayne’s rancher goes up against Forrest Tucker’s who is trying to vertically monopolise all the industry and uses hired thugs to do so.

There is a respect for the Native American, whose lands have been appropriated by Chisum, and a disrespect for the government who enforce the dispossession and treat the original inhabitants poorly. This is, perhaps, a double standard given both (historically) benefitted from the dispossession but, here, on film, there is an acknowledgement of native rights, which was, of course a major social movement at the time (1970). Interestingly Wayne’s cattle baron, John Chisum, is played, by Wayne perhaps as a sequel to his Thomas Dunson from Red River (1948). Both men are single minded in their goals and ambitions.

The music (by Dominic Frontiere) is re superb as are the two highlighted songs , the title theme narrated by William (Cannon, Jake and the Fatman) Conrad (it’s one of those songs that sounds great in the shower with a beer … if you drink beer in the shower) and “Turn Me Around” sung by Merle Haggard.

The novelization follows the film closely, naturally enough, I can’t recall what the differences were , if any. It’s been a while.

Author Sam Bowie is Todhunter Ballard (who wrote under many names … mainly westerns and crime). This is no nonsense stuff. Bowie, err Ballard, also novelized John Wayne’s “The Train Robbers (1973).

LINKS

TRAILER

MUSIC

The title theme – narrated by William Conrad

“Turn Me Around” by Merle Haggard.