The War Wagon

Taw Jackson comes out of prison. Pierce, the man who took his gold bearing land, moves that gold in an armoured stagecoach: the war wagon. Jackson assembles a crew to rob it, and takes on Lomax, the gunman once hired to kill him. Burt Kennedy directs. John Wayne plays Jackson and Kirk Douglas plays Lomax, with Howard Keel and Robert Walker Jr. in support. The source is Clair Huffaker's novel Badman, which he adapted himself. The idea is to cross the western with the heist. The structure is straight caper: the target is named, the crew assembled, each man's job explained, and the last half hour given to the execution. What sets the tone is the relationship between Wayne and Douglas. Neither likes the other and the film keeps turning that into a joke. The most quoted lines come out of the sparring. The wagon itself is a notable piece of production work: built full size, actually driven, with a working mechanism. Who it is for: viewers who like star cast westerns of the sixties and heist stories in a light key. Who it is not for: this is not a serious western. The violence is soft and the danger never really registers.