Moving forward with more John Wayne films to watch on John Wayne month, I decided in my own right as well as reliving another classic Duke film that my Dad loved moreover would watch constantly when I was young and surprisingly another film I haven't seen in a long while but is also an enjoyable movie despite some flaws that are a bit mixed at times. McLintock! A movie that stands the test of time as John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara best comedic film together and surprisingly is hilarious because this type of dysfunctional couple still exists even to this day.
Aging rancher George Washington McLintock (John Wayne), a wealthy self-made man, is forced to deal with numerous personal and professional problems. Seemingly everyone wants a piece of his enormous farmstead, including high-ranking government men. As McLintock tries to juggle his various adversaries, his wife (Maureen O'Hara), who left him two years previously, suddenly returns. But she isn't interested in her husband--she wants full custody of their daughter (Stefanie Powers).
Again, this was one of those films like The Sons of Katie Elder, or Big Jake that we would watch constantly and with McLintock! It was one of those films that's just funny in terms of the slap stick humor from various characters as well as Wayne and O'Hara. And Wayne through the years always said that Maureen O'Hara was his favorite leading lady moreover this movie shows why their such a great duo together, and the fact that they’re both a dysfunctional couple almost becomes hilarious because it's a typical relationship that everyone can almost relate to because you obviously have that wife who looks at the West as a barbaric country and prefers to live in a high society/rich and famous type of people, and yet Wayne is a manly man who wouldn't give her an inch and yet for some reasons you can relate to the poor man's pain in terms of having to put up with her yelling and by end of the movie we have the greatest climax where Wayne finally stands up to her for which really is why Wayne is such a manly man although sure you may or may not be able to do this now, though if it were me I would use a ton of sarcasm and if I hit the breaking point I would most certainly spank my wife with a coal shovel in front of everybody if I ever get the chance in this life time, the same way I would teach my kids to learn their manners if they sarcastically call me "Daddy". McLintock! Became a personal note written by Wayne in terms of the way Indians or Native American's are treated in today’s films as well as bashing the Democrats back in the 1960's, specifically spoofing Liberal Senator Hubert H. Humphrey whom Wayne disliked and in fact Wayne was annoyed during the promotional events because JFK's assassination happened just a couple of days prior to the film’s release moreover Kennedy was another politician that Wayne didn't like because Bay of Pigs incident back in 61. For which in all fairness when you have all the money and power like the Duke it's perfectly normal to make a movie on how awful the Democrats were back in the sixties and really I think Wayne is the only person who can do that and get away with it while Hollywood stars now, are just the worst because they literally don't know what they’re talking about and should just shut up and act in movies and do less political talk, hell it's a reason as to why actors should be treated like cattle. The movie still holds up in terms of comedy as well as John Wayne being a bada** especially when it comes to the mud brawl for which everyone gets into a fight as well as falling into a mudhole, furthermore when Wayne gets up the hill and if you freeze frame the movie you can see that theirs a man with sunglasses wearing a sixties suit for which is surprisingly funny and yet WTF, like why would you even have that in the shot. With all the numerous actors involved with Wayne's movie I'm surprised that Jerry Van Dyke aka Dick Van Dyke's little brother aka Luthor from Coach. Is the son of McLintock's rival, who’s also trying to woo his daughter and like Sterling Hayden playing the cop in the Godfather this is one of those little things that even at my old age becomes a huge surprise and yet funny at the same time. This isn't Wayne's greatest films ever made but it's most certainly one of his most enjoyable films, where you can just sit down and have a great time laughing at Wayne getting up the stairs while being plastered although I still love Lee Marvin's drunkenness in Donovan's Reef, but Wayne pressuring Yvonne De Carlo into drinking whiskey. And overall it's one of those films where if you have a great time laughing as well as looking for a film to turn your brain off McLintock is most certainly one of those films that keeps you entertained even to this day and hopefully to all the married couples out there, I hope this is one of those films you can laugh and relate to when it comes to Wayne and O'Hara's dysfunctional and comedic duo, hell even I look at this movie and look at my parents as Wayne and O'Hara in terms of comparisons and that's the honest truth.
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