Movie Spotlight: McLintock!

Some westerns are about survival. Some about justice. McLintock! is about a man who won't shut up, and the woman who shows up to make sure he knows it.

Released in 1963, this John Wayne vehicle is part western, part screwball comedy. Wayne plays G.W. McLintock, a cattle baron who basically built the local economy with his bare hands. Respected. A little feared. Absolutely unable to control his own household when his estranged wife (Maureen O'Hara, at full force) arrives to collect their daughter and finalize a divorce.

The Setup

McLintock has everything. Land, money, power. What he doesn't have is a wife who stayed or a daughter who listens.

The film plays out across escalating disputes, settlers against ranchers, locals against the territorial governor, McLintock against his wife. Everything collides in one of the most gloriously chaotic saloon brawls and mud-pit melees ever put on film.

Why It Holds Up

Easy to write off McLintock! as a nostalgia piece. It is that, unabashedly. But the dynamic between Wayne and O'Hara is genuinely sharp. They'd worked together before (Rio Grande, The Quiet Man). The chemistry shows. O'Hara matches Wayne beat for beat. The script gives her more to do than most westerns of the era would have allowed.

The supporting cast is deep. Yvonne De Carlo, Patrick Wayne, Chill Wills, a young Stefanie Powers. The film moves fast. It doesn't take itself too seriously.

Big landscapes, bigger personalities, a finale that commits fully to the absurdity. No apologies offered.

Western

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Streaming now on Relay.