The War Wagon

The War Wagon (1967)

Runtime: 101 minutes

Directed by: Burt Kennedy

Starring: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Howard Keel, Robert Walker, Jr., Keenan Wynn, Bruce Cabot

From: Universal

Here is a movie that you probably haven’t heard of but if you’re a fan of fun Westerns with action and some humor, then you should find this by whatever means.

Wayne technically plays a bad guy, you could say, although he was set up to go to jail by an evil man (Cabot) who took over Wayne’s ranch *and* possesses the gold that’s there. During all that he’s shot at by an expert marksman/safecracker (Douglas) but Wayne is wounded rather than killed. That all happens before the movie starts so you hear about it throughout. The film actually starts off with Wayne being released from jail and he returns to town and Cabot tries to get rid of him. So, he tries to hire Douglas. But instead Wayne and Douglas team up and the Duke rounds up a motley crew (or maybe even Motley Crue) of men who conspire together to rob the gold from the Duke’s ranch that’s being transported in the title vehicle, which is an armor-plated wagon that even has a Gatling Gun on top and it’s accompanied by a slew of heavily armed henchmen. Simple yet effective plot and there’s really no wasted minute in this flick. Things move along at a great clip and it all ties together in the end.

Wayne and Douglas didn’t have a lot in common in real life and the same goes with their characters; I mean, the Duke sure as hell didn’t wear an all black leather getup with flashy scarf and one black glove with a gaudy diamond on the outside like Kirk did, although that would’ve been quite the look for old John! The other characters are also entertaining and the main ones have character arcs and everything. It’s breezy fun and while you could say that maybe the action scenes could be a little longer, otherwise I really enjoyed it.