THE WAR WAGON (1967) **1/2 The great westerns are funny. John Wayne is one of the all-time greats for a list of reasons that includes being able to overplay his part just enough that you're kind of half wondering. That's cool, and funny. Mix in Kirk Douglas as someone who thinks he's even tougher, and you're smiling. Out tough The Duke, hah! And if any of that's not funny enough for you, just take a gander at the wagon itself! Well worth the price of admission and investment of time, just to imagine that such a thing ever rolled around intimidating people. So it's that and good guys (the outlaws, of course), bad guys (crooked capitalists), relatively uneventful women in a series of questionable circumstances, lots of guns goin' off, whiskey, horses, you know, it's got it all. It's not going to be the film that either John or Kirk are remembered most for, but they're consistent and endearing performances-the writers give 'em plenty of the kind of lines they deliver best-and the ambivalent buddy dynamic is probably enough to set some grad student somewhere off making some kind of a point. They can if they want to, why not?
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