Shall we gather at the river? - (Roger Ebert and John Wayne)

Chicago Sun Times ^ | May 26, 2012 | Roger Ebert

[NEWwoman]

BTTT

My folks loved John Wayne.

[ClearCase_guy]

"They keep bringing up the fact that America's for the downtrodden. But this new thing of genuflecting to the downtrodden, I don't go along with that. We ought to go back to praising the kids who get good grades, instead of making excuses for the ones who shoot the neighborhood grocery man."

True then. True now.

RIP

[Cicero]

I have a lot of his westerns on disk. I think the greatest western of them all is Red River--that early scene when they start the cattle drive, in particular.

[Grams A]

If Hollywood had even a handful of true John Wayne’s, the entire U.S. would be a much better place and our Arizona Sheriff Joe would have lots of help and at least we would have some decent movies for the whole family to see.

[berdie]

I know lot of people hate on John Wayne. I loved the guy.

I'm not naive, I know he was an actor. But he projected a strong, positive image. In private (and yes, I know his foibles) as well as public.

Hollywierd, today, has very few that did what Wayne and the other old guys did.

I love all of his flicks. But of the later ones...I'll never forgive Bruce Dern for shooting him (The Cowboys) and I will stay up and watch True Grit every stinkin’ time to see him put the reigns in his teeth and ride.

(As an aside, I tried that once. I didn't notice how loosely the reigns were held. Darn near pulled my teeth out and gave myself whiplash,lol)

[ConservativeMind]

That was a very good article from Roger.

In case anyone was wondering, yes, read it.

[davisfh]

One of my all-time favorite human beings, that John Wayne. What a better world it would be if we had more like him.

[berdie]

I did as well...and yes I was somewhat surprised it was such a good article.

[ohiobushman]

I grew up watching “The Duke”. I like all his movies but “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” is my favorite.

[Lancey Howard]

John Wayne was the greatest movie actor of all time.

I loved his westerns (naturally) but also enjoyed his war films. There were a handful of miscasts, I think, but a John Wayne movie was a John Wayne movie and it couldn’t be bad. ‘The Sons of Katie Elder’ and ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ were always favorites of mine, but ‘Trouble Along the Way’, where Wayne played a football coach at a Notre Dame-type college, may be at the top of my personal list.

[Liberty Valance]

~ John Wayne Bump ~

[Billthedrill]

I believe he would have had contempt for the latter-day weirdos of the Right.

No, Roger, he would not. We didn't change, you did.

[RoseofTexas]

"In 'True Grit,' for example, that scene where Rooster shoots the rat. That was a kind of reference to today's problems.

LOL how SO very TRUE!

[RedStateRocker]

It also reminds us that, although Ebert can profess some flaky ideas at times, the man knows movies- why they are important and how they work in our society; and he can write.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks re_tail20.

GOP won by planting seeds of deception
by Roger Ebert
December 14, 2000

Now that the adventure is over, it might be instructive to consider some of the ideas that seeped into the general consciousness. How and why, for example, did it become established in so many minds that Bush was the presumptive winner and Gore the apparent loser?

What the Republicans did, cleverly, was to establish effective “memes” in the minds of the public and the pundits...

[Pelham]

True, as much as it pains me to praise Ebert that was an excellent bit of writing.

[Liberty Valance]

Indeed. Informative. Very well written.

Frankly, i’m shocked that Ebert wrote this.

[Crapgame]

“Red River” is a great movie no doubt, one of my favorites, but “The Searchers” is the greatest western ever made...

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

Wow, awesome read about the Duke! Long article, but worth it.