The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I saw this movie on its first release way back when at a long gone local cinema. 53 years on, it seems somewhat more romanticised, and just a little bit pretentious than way back then. None the less this is a rollicking good cowboy yarn. And nobody sounds more granite strong and with total conviction of the american ideal, than the big man himself John Wayne, boy could he deliver a manly speech. The plot well there is one with bad guy's but oh how that score from Elmer Bernstein soars above the whole movie rousing action-full and stirring! as the movie blasts away with shoot out's a plenty and good old Johnny Cash gruff's out a catchy theme song for good measure - A those good old cowboy movie from days of yore! - and no revisionism here!

Four brothers arrive back in town initially to pay their respects to their mother who has died recently, but the plot thickens when they learn that their father died in a rather unscrupulous card game. The brothers are suspicious about what has happened in their absence and are determined to seek the truth out...The set-up of the story (involving four brothers grieving the loss of their mother is touching) and I suppose this can extend two-fold in respect of their father, but the truth is that The Sons Of Katie Elder is so boring that any aspects that set the story up seem to almost burn into insignificance...Yes I'm sorry, but I'm prepared to go on record and say that this film is boring and that almost nothing happens; John Wayne and his brothers swagger around from place to place seemingly creating incidents, but little seems to exist to advance the story leaving this film feeling a little boring. John Wayne himself is terrible and like with any of his other films one can only take him seriously ironically; i.e 'Hey you know what'...RIDICULOUS PAUSE... I genuinely think'...RIDICULOUS PAUSE... that it is hard to take me seriously.. He is bad here, but almost in a way that makes it fun. Perhaps less so is the guy that plays the younger Elder Bud; his acting wasn't great and he became annoying the longer the film progressed. Aside from the terrible acting, the film seems to have no real point; George Kennedy is established as the antagonist earlier on, but does very little of significance in any part of the story (and makes very little impact throughout). Although to be fair he does his best with what he has to work with. There's no real tension or suspense throughout the film and it seems to just coast to its safe and inevitable conclusion. That's about all I can say I'm afraid, it's got a great cast but it's a fairly crappy western that I couldn't possibly recommend to anyone.

THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER is an old-fashioned western with the kind of plot you'd see in a 1930s-era movie, updated to the 1960s with glorious colour and a bigger budget allowing for great backdrops and expansive landscape scenes. It brings together two lions of the western genre, expert and experienced director Henry Hathaway, with veteran old-timer John Wayne to tell a story of suspense and revenge.This is a very good film and one I thoroughly enjoyed thanks to the solid pacing and never-ending suspense right from the word go. The idea of having the four sons having to band together to solve a murder mystery and then subsequently take their revenge is a very strong one and really powers forth from beginning to end. Even hints of romantic sub-plots fall by the wayside in favour of the action-adventure template, and the strong set-pieces are endless; the outstanding bridge set-piece being the highlight for me.Wayne is his dependable self and this is the best I've seen from him after THE ALAMO and TRUE GRIT. Dean Martin provides veteran support, but the most fun performances come from the up-and-coming stars like George Kennedy and Dennis Hopper. Inevitably the real winner is Hathaway himself, whose lush visuals and endlessly dramatic cinematography add up to a great addition to the western genre.

A bit of research provides this humbling realization--the most improbable parts of this film are the ones based upon reality. The wrongly-accused Marlow brothers DID resist a lynch mob and an ambush assisted by their guards, and in the end, the survivors found legal vindication.A sheriff and his deputy wait at the station for the expected arrival of a brother with a bad reputation. Instead, an obvious hired gun arrives, about whom they worry, about whom they do... nothing. John Wayne, eldest and most formidable of the Elder brothers, comes in the back way and even attends his late mother's funeral at a safe distance. One of the most interesting aspects to this film is Wayne's character's repeated refusals to fall into ambush, to do the stupid thing.Their parents are dead, the family impoverished, the scent of fish slowly rises as Wayne, particularly, but also Martin and a VERY strong cast of supporting actors gradually unspool the plot. A hired gun... an ambitious gunsmith and his son, even in his early days, Dennis Hopper did edgy and creepy with a master's abilities. Who ARE the good guys? The Director is honest enough to let the viewer go with his impulses to trust the Brothers--rightly, as it turns out.George Kennedy makes a creepy, convincing heavy, one with a psychopath's utter lack of concern for legality and a sadist's delight in inflicting pain. There are few scenes to rival his gleeful torturing of an inoffensive undertaker interrupted when he looks up to receive Wayne's pick handle in his face. Seldom is a steaming dish of come-uppance so satisfactorily served.The growing and utter hopelessness of the brothers' cause manifests itself with conviction. The villainy of the scheming antagonist grows more and more manifest until he murders his own son without any particular sign of remorse. There is an intensity here that rewards the careful watcher, there is a breadth to this film worth a bit of slow pacing in the second half.On the whole, a convincingly superior effort.