John Wayne – Stream On Demand

‘They Were Expendable’ – defending the Pacific in World War II on Max

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Based on a nonfiction book, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, Have You Seen...?, Hollywood Classic, Max, SVOD, war 05/29/2023 Sean Axmaker

John Ford directs John Wayne and Robert Montgomery in this somber classic about the devastating early Pacific campaign after the declaration of war in 1941, a drama about the losses before the victories.

‘In Harm’s Way’ – John Wayne and Kirk Douglas in the WWII Pacific, free on Kanopy

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, BAFTA winner, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, drama, DVD, Free, Hollywood Classic, Kanopy, SVOD, war 05/28/2023 Sean Axmaker

Otto Preminger’s sprawling World War II drama opens with the attack on Pearl Harbor and follows its characters as the Navy rebuilds its fleet and launches its campaign to take back the Pacific.

John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in the 1948 western classic by Howard Hawks

‘Red River’ – the great cattle drive epic on Prime Video, Paramount+ and MGM+

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion, DVD, Essential Viewing, Free, Hollywood Classic, Hoopla, MGM+, National Film Registry, Paramount+, SVOD, western 03/13/2023 Sean Axmaker

John Wayne and Montgomery Clift star in Howard Hawks’ classic western, which reimagines ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ as a frontier epic.

John Wayne is ‘Hondo’ in the classic Louis L’Amour western on Prime Video and Paramount+

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Amazon Prime Video, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, Have You Seen...?, Paramount+, SVOD, western 10/15/2022 Sean Axmaker

The leathery frontier drama costars Geraldine Page as a lonely homesteader left alone with her son in the midst of war between the Apaches and the Cavalry.

John Wayne storms the ‘Sands of Iwo Jima’ on Amazon Prime

!Featured, Academy Award nominee, Amazon Prime Video, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, Hollywood Classic, SVOD, war 05/30/2022 Sean Axmaker

Wayne shows a darker side playing a hard-bitten Marine Sergeant, a damaged man who sacrificed almost everything for the service, in this mix of patriotic drama and grueling war thriller.

John Wayne , Claire Trevor, Thomas Mitchell, John Carradine, Donald Meek, Louise Platt, directed by John Ford

John Ford’s ‘Stagecoach’ on HBO Max

!Featured, Academy Award, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, DVD, Essential Viewing, Max, National Film Registry, SVOD, western 06/30/2020 Sean Axmaker

Stagecoach (1939) – John Ford’s classic western is a landmark of the genre for so many reasons: mature, classically constructed and superbly directed, it made a star of John Wayne, revitalized the western genre, and introduced Ford to the breathtaking landscape of Monument Valley, which would become the mythic backdrop of his west. It was […]

John Wayne stars in the aviation drama classic directed by William Wellman

John Wayne pilots ‘The High and the Mighty’ on SVOD and DVD

!Featured, Academy Award, adventure, based on a novel, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, drama, DVD, Hollywood Classic, SVOD 06/03/2015 Sean Axmaker 2 Comments

The High and the Mighty was the biggest hit of 1954 and nominated for six Academy Awards (it won for Dmitri Tiomkin’s memorable score). Seen today, this lavish aviation drama falls squarely between Stagecoach and Airport, a large ensemble drama about a mechanical crisis on a Honolulu-to-San Francisco flight where every passenger has a story […]