Kim Darby and John Wayne with a shotgun crouching down behind rocks looking out at something in True Grit
For fans of the legendary icon, John Wayne, there was nothing more thrilling than settling into a theater seat, popcorn and drink in hand to watch the Duke ride across the screen, guns drawn and firing at the bad guys. The iconic cowboy led audiences on cinematic joyrides for over 50 years. Wayne's most thrilling movies included brawls, shootouts, chases, and stampedes.
✕ Remove Ads Hellfighters is far from the guns-a-blazing style of Wayne's Western persona, but the Duke still packs the thrills by putting out fires so hot audiences can feel the heat through the screen.Critics scolded the film for the standard tropes of Wayne's movies while audiences sat at the edge of their seats waiting for the blaze to be extinguished. Hellfighters is a thrilling action movie deserving a space among Wayne's other films in this category.
8 'Flying Leathernecks' Directed by Nicholas Ray While his signature style included racing across the Western landscape, Wayne was equally capable of providing action thrills in war films. Flying Leathernecks stars the Duke as Major Daniel Kirby, the commanding officer tasked with preparing a squadron of Marine pilots, The Wildcats, for the historic Battle of Guadalcanal during World War II.
The movie includes all the thrilling genre standards, like shoot-outs and the battle of right and wrong, while including a complicated relationship between Cutter and Regret for the sake of the greater good. The Comancheros withholds from any deep-rooted emotion but serves as an underrated installment for Wayne. Director Michael Curtiz was terminally ill during the film's production that Wayne took over directing, the Duke unwilling to have his name listed as co-director.
5 'Stagecoach' Directed by John Ford In addition to the narrative and action thrills of Stagecoach, audiences witnessed the thrills firsthand in witnessing Wayne's onscreen shift from a B-list to an A-list actor. The landmark Western from John Ford stars Wayne as Ringo Kid, an escaped outlaw among an array of strangers aboard the Overland stagecoach traveling across Apache country to Lordsburg, New Mexico.
3 'True Grit' Directed by Henry Hathaway ✕ Remove Ads While Rooster Cogburn is one of Wayne's most badass characters, True Grit is one of his most thrilling movies. In the role that earned him his only Best Actor Academy Award, Wayne is a drunken U. S. Marshall hired by a young woman, Mattie Ross , to hunt down the man responsible for murdering her father.
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