Entertaining late period John Wayne movie, from his last really solid period - the True Grit era. It has the benefit of a strong story, heavily based on history. Wayne plays the real life rancher Chisum dealing with the much-adapted Lincoln County Wars - he has to deal with Tunstall, Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, etc... the same era later glamorised in Young Guns.
Wayne actually doesn't drive a lot of the action - he's more interested in keeping the peace - but because he's so imposing and such a force it doesn't matter. He easily overshadows poor old Forrest Tucker who plays the main baddie - Tucker reminded me and George Kennedy, another big boned character actor with a big presence but who was dwarfed by Wayne (to be fair the script has Wayne punch out Tucker several times).
There's a rich array of support cast: Ben Johnson as Wayne's sidekick, Geoffrey Deuel (who I'd never really heard of) as Billy the Kid, Glen Corbett (ditto) as Pat Garrett, Patric Knowles as Henry Tunstall, Christopher George as a gunslinger, Bruce Cabot as a sheriff, Richard Jaekel as another gunslinger. They've been given decent roles to play too, notably Billy the Kid's emerging psycho and Tunstall determined to lead a better life.
Some decent action (including a cattle stampede at the end), plus decent direction from Andrew McLaglen. I really liked this film.
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