For those of you who never seen it, I'm going to introduce you to the worst of Wayne... A movie so bad, that it's good...
John Wayne struggles to fulfill Howard Hughes vision of Genghis Khan... but without cattle to round up, or a sixgun to draw, he doesn't seem to know what to do with his hands... at the beginning of the movie he's busy with the hawk flapping on his wrist as he's galloping up and down mountains... later he's got his hands full with uberbabe Susan Hayward, and trying to get into her mountains...LOL... but John Wayne as a Mongolian warlord and Susan Hayward as a Chinese princess isn't just a stretch, it's a trip to the moon!
It's a goofy movie, and I sure wouldn't write a term paper on Genghis Khan based on this movie... but it is watchable, I've enjoyed it more than once, it has many interesting scenes... some of them unintentionally humorous. Give John Wayne credit for trying to break new ground... And with Susan Hayward in the offing, who can blame him? Have a few alcoholic beverages or a smidgen of your favorite controlled substance, and I'm sure you'll enjoy ... The Conqueror
Well, if John Wayne doing Temujin has warped your classic movie mind, here's just the thing to restore your favorite American movie icon back to black and white he man reality... John Wayne is still on the Chinese mainland, but this time they found a P-40 big enough to fit the big galoot and he's shooting down Japs, who are in China getting there jollies bombing the innocent Chinese. Remember, these are the old Chinese... back when Mao only a screwed up little kid with nothing to do. Soon after the war ended, the Chinese in this movie got to experience their kids sending them all to concentration... umm, reeducation camps, and then see their grandchildren foreclose on the United States. The ones that survived, that is... 30,000,000 of them died at the hands of their liberally enlightened offspring. Next time you complain about your kids, just remember: at least they didn't put you behind barbed wire eating fish heads with megaphones blasting in your ear.
Well, enough of that hoo haw... let's see the Duke send some samurai flyboys to the happy hunting ground for their Emperor ...Flying Tigers
Now, go hug your kids and tell them you love them, and remind them how much you HATE fish heads...bye bye!
If you like that kind of movie you're probably familiar with Ivanhoe... this is a 1997 BBC miniseries based on the book/movie
IMO it is excellent... the fight scenes are very good, realism and grittiness prevails, no CGI whatsoever...and the women are beautiful... just as in the original Ivanhoe, it would have been my choice to a become a Messianic Jew and married Rebecca...I always go for the dark haired complex ones, not the blonde barbie dolls. Not trying to make young people avoid reading, but I read the book, and if you base your book report on this movie you probably will get a decent grade.
Only downside, is that it's broken into 15 minute vids, so every 15 minutes you have to click on the next part. This series is well, well worth the wear and tear on your index finger.
Pour yourself a leather jack of mead, and enjoy ...Ivanhoe, the miniseries