McQ 1974 John Wayne (region 2) Widescreen

It Is Well Documented in movie fandom That John Wayne Turned Down The Role Of Dirty Harry. That was passed over To Clint Eastwood and with That The rest as They say is history. However Wayne must have been clearly influenced by The success of That movie when he made MQ. Here John Wayne stars as Lon MQ as The cop not even The cops can stop. Directed by non other Than John Sturges famous for The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven with MQ Sturges Takes Wayne's cop and pits him at The heart of The Seattle police force. plenty of action as you would expect from a John Wayne movie from a roaring car chase almost pipping Steve McQueen's famous car chase sequence in The movie Bullitt. To a climatic show down as The Duke dispatches The baddies with a high velocity army gun might look a little dated Though must have been state of The art at The Time. Wayne is supported by a roster of fine Talent including Eddie Albert as MQ's police chief and Al Lettieri as The chief villain you can find him basically The same role in numerous 70s movies. look out for Diana Muldaur as Wayne's leading lady you can catch her in numerous TV Guest shows including Star Trek Though she never really got a series of her own until The short lived Born Free. here Though Diana Muldaur adds some class To This fine movie. John Wayne was coming To The end of his lengthy movie career by The Time he made MQ Though what a way To bow out. it's interesting because in MQ we get To see what Wayne's interpretation of Dirty Harry might have been like. MQ comes To you as a single Disc extras include The movies Trailer and a behind The scenes featurette with The Duke in action. The Blu-ray Transfer well I have To admit its not The best I have seen with The print a slight on The dark side for my liking. That could just be me being picky hence The four stars. Guys it's a John Wayne movie and a Good one at That That's probably all you will need To know.

The blu ray is a US import but it is region free so plays fine on a UK player. Last time I saw this movie was more than 35 years ago so I wanted to catch up with it again. The movie stands up very well, directed by Hollywood heavyweight John Sturges ( Bad Day at Black Rock, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape) it has stood the test of time thanks to realistic dialogue, good story and well rounded characters, it is a solid 1970s police action thriller. McQ has been compared to the Dirty Harry films but I would say by comparison the Dirty Harry films were glossy and more fantasy orientated with overblown characters, McQ has more in common with gritty 1970s thrillers like "The French Connection" or "The Seven Ups", so McQ is more realistic and grounded, the character played by John Wayne is a maverick cop with plenty laconic wisecracks but he is no superman and it takes him a while to realise and accept that his murdered best buddy was in fact a corrupt cop who was involved in stealing drugs that had been seized from criminals. There are a few twists and turns in the story and some surprising revelations, the dialogue is important so worth paying attention! Visually the film is good to look at, the director has found the grimiest darkest parts of Seattle to film in so the film has a dark ominous atmosphere which suits the story,much of it seems to be shot at twilight or at night and appears gritty with a very filmic look which I like very much and the blu ray disc has maintained that quality of the original 1970s filmic elements. Also,... a note about that Ingram Machine gun featured on the artwork of the blu ray cover, this is 1974 so perhaps one of the first times that kind of weapon has been seen in a movie, McQ uses it to devastating effect during a spectacular car chase along a beach, without giving too much away the movie is actually worth watching for the climatic gun battle alone, it is very well done and proves that John wayne as McQ was able to fire a small Ingram machine resting on his forearm as he drives his car, long before James Bond ever did in the opening chase scene in Quantam Of Solace. Anyway glad I finally caught up with McQ again after all these years, I was not disappointed and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I've just watched this film and thoroughly enjoyed it. To be honest I expected something along the lines of Brannigan. Don't get me wrong, Brannigan is a decent movie but it's a vehicle for the big man and you remove him and you've got a 2nd rate film.However, McQ is actually a rather good cop film in its own right. The big man is in fine fettle.I can't recommend MqQ highly enough. Its a brilliant cop movie. Don't miss.

This is an engaging thriller that sees Big John Wayne cast as tough cop Lon McQ, out to clean up the streets of Seattle after his partner is murdered and someone tries to finish him off as well.Directed by the ever reliable John Sturges with his regular collaborator Elmer Bernstein doing the music, with a decent script and starring the charismatic Wayne this was guaranteed to be good.At times it feels like it is jumping on the Dirty Harry and Bullit bandwagon a bit, and every cliché in the book is used - Wayne plays a tough cop on the edge, divorced and one step away for being busted out of the force for brutality. He has an obsessive fixation with drug smuggler Santiago that will get him either killed or fired. He falls out with his superiors often and only seems to be able to solve a case after he's been taken off it. Etc etc. Despite this, Wayne has such charm, the director and scriptwriters such skill that it's done very well and you really don't mind all that much, you just sit back to enjoy the ride.The plot is suitably convoluted, with one or two surprises along the way that I hadn't guessed, which is a bit unusual in a film these days.The transfer on this disc is reasonable, and the soundtrack quite clean. In all a decent release of a good film, four stars.

The Duke is showing his age though, but still, at 6' 4", dominates the screen, Pilgrim!Look out for the explosive car flipping charge at the final car chase scene, which --I gather-- Hal Needham performed.