As a youngster i was never a jw fan but through the years i've come to admire him as a real people person...lots of cast members in his film are loyal to him and some are down on their luck friends he gives honest work to allow them some dignity...this film is a typical jw western...it never lacks for action and he always gets in the last word...and its usually important...i think he's been long under rated ...maureen ohara was his love interest in a lot of films and she pretty much echoed what i've said in her memoirs...to a cowboy that hated horses and loved to sail

Copyright 25 June 1970 by John Wayne's Batjac Productions. Released through Warner Bros Pictures. New York opening and U.S. release: 24 June 1970. U.K. release: 30 August 1970. London opening: 23 July 1970. 9,904 feet. 110 minutes.COMMENT: Fine pictorial values in this mostly interesting re-working of the early days of the Billy the Kid/Henry Tunstall/Pat Garrett legend. Filmed on grand locations, it builds up to a terrific shoot- out climax. As usual, director McLaglen's pace tends to be a little over-leisurely. Where the script is dull, his lethargic treatment tends to make it even duller. This is especially true in many of Wayne's domestic scenes with the heroine which could stand considerable cutting and even gets in the way after the great action climax. The bland and uninteresting Pamela McMyler compounds this error. Nonetheless she cannot be blamed too much for her part is not only superficial and familiar, it's not developed and her scenes are handled by McLaglen in an unflattering close-up style, which actually doesn't suit Wayne either.On a broader plain, McLaglen is obviously aiming for John Ford effects and if ever a film was a homage to Ford, this is it. Hank Worden from the Ford stock company is even in the cast and there are two wonderful villains, Forrest Tucker giving the performance of his career and Chris George packing his role with surprising malevolence. Jaeckel is a most effective and amusing henchman and Cabot is delightful as always as the villain to Wayne's hero once more (cf. "The Angel and the Badman"). Ben Johnson as usual is excellent in his faithful sidekick role, transforming a familiar piece into one that is genuinely interesting. John Agar has a small bit as the dispossessed storekeeper at the beginning of the film.The use of music and song, the set-pieces in the film like Tunstall's funeral with artfully framed backgrounds, extras and period props recall the best of Ford. Only Wayne's somewhat stiff (both physically and histrionically) portrayal and the too-slow pacing of his ranch-house scenes and the mundane TV-style close-ups of same, put the film firmly into the 7/10s, and the start of the tail end of the once omnipresent screen western.Deuel impresses as Bonney, but Glenn Corbett seems too immature for Garrett despite hiding beneath a mustache and Clothier's adroit shadowy lighting. Nice to see Patric Knowles effete as ever as Tunstall.

. . . it is the one flick out of the 300 or so that he made which comes closest to revealing his Real Life character, as a member of Billy the Kid's outlaw gang. By my count, Chisum, Billy, and the rest of their motley crew fatally shoot 36 sheriffs and deputies, and John--playing another "John" for the 180th time on film--rubs out his biggest business rival by flopping on him, thus crushing him to death beneath his manly blubber. Though CHISUM himself isn't exactly a 99 Per Center, he's more respectful of the Little Guy (that is, We 99%) than the characters he plays in all of the other "John Wayne" movies available today to the American Public. (Since at least 100 of John's flicks are currently in hiding, embargoed, or otherwise being suppressed, I cannot speak for their content; maybe they all feature Hombre Love Connections, for all I or most anyone else know(s)). At a time when police in Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, and elsewhere are running rampant over the American citizenry, CHISUM's campaign to show that ALL Lives Matter resonates more today than when it was shot nearly 50 years ago. In this movie, CHISUM isn't afraid to tell White U.S. Army honchos that if they shove one of America's Minority People, he'll kill such a heavy-handed lout. Wouldn't it be peachy if we had 100 such CHISUM's on the front line of every American city today?

Mrs. Shullivan and I just wanted to watch a film that would keep us entertained and enjoy just a couple of hours of another John Wayne western. We were not disappointed. John Wayne plays cattle and land baron John Chisum. He never married and lived a rugged life fighting Indians, thieves, droughts and storms as he grew his land into the most desired in all of New Mexico. Of course there are other wealthy cattle barons who will stoop as low as one has to go to take away what Chisum has worked his entire life to build. That dastardly task goes to another well known western star Forrest Tucker who plays Cattle baron Lawrence Murphy. Now Murphy hires a large group of gunmen led by bounty hunter Dan Nodeen played by Christopher George.Other crooked cowboys on Murphys payroll include Jess Evans (Richard Jaeckel), Riker (Gregg Palmer) and even a dirty sheriff named Brady (Bruce Cabot). But with any great western the good guys need to prevail and on Chisum's side he has Pat Garrett (Glenn Corbett), young gunslinger Billy the Kid (Geoffrey Deuel) and Chisum's old friend and ride'em cowboy James Pepper played by the versatile actor Ben Johnson. This western also have some lovely ladies in the mix with with Sue McSween (Lynda Day George)and Chisum's niece Sally (Pamela McMyler) who just came to New Mexico to live with her uncle John Chisum. So the movie pits the old and ornery John Chisum against a land stealing scoundrel named Lawrence Murphy. Of course there will be fisticuffs, beer and whiskey drinking cowboys, guns a blazing to keep the action of a good western intact. But we do have a decent storyline pitting a fair and understanding land baron in John Chisum (John Wayne) who isn't afraid to resort to the tactics that helped him gain his land over the past 40 years, and a loyal group of fast guns loyal to Chisum in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid to counter the gunslingers who want to steal Chisum's land by way of the gun. Chisum is a classic John Wayne western that will not disappoint. I give it a strong 8 out of 10 and Mrs. Sullivan also gave it two thumbs up.