Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

josepho-20322 Taw Jackson (Wayne) and Lomax (Douglas) are the ultimate western bromance and set the foundations for decades of 'buddy (insert profession here)' movies that would follow. Pitted against the machinations of a greedy business man, Jackson and his gang of misfit wage war against the might of Pierce and his hired guns - not to mention a horse drawn tank that infuses the action packed adventure with a slight the steampunk element. While this film is not ground-breaking, it is without doubt one of my favourite Westerns and - I firm believe - is one of the Duke's most fun and entertaining films.

WandrinStar (6.5/10) Fun tongue in cheek Western that survives an initial slow start to be entertaining afterwards throughout. Both John Wayne and Kirk Douglas do great and have tremendous on screen chemistry together. Their friendly, competitive rivalry that mirrors their off screen persona's. Works extremely well and carries what would have otherwise been an average western. Even though they had their differences in real life, such as politics, you can tell they had a real respect for one another, and this movie does a good job of capturing that. One of the few roles that put the Duke on the wrong side of the law. Let down by the Western scenery, but was impressed with Howard Keel. I liked it but seeing Wayne and Douglas jell as well as they did makes me wish they could have joined together for a better Western. Good but unspectacular movie is highlighted by a hilarious bar room brawl and an extremely catchy theme.

Robert J. Maxwell By the late 1960s the Western as an art form was pretty much fagged out and this is a nearly perfect example of its decadent period.Douglas is hired to knock off Wayne but discovers that, if he throws in with Wayne's plan, he stands to make much more money. The plan is to rob a wagon train full of gold. The problem is that the wagon is armored and equipped with a Gatling gun. Wayne and Douglas remain friendly enemies and trade wisecracks but they combine their efforts. They dig up a queer crew of gangsters including an Indian, Howard Keel, and a youngster who is an expert in explosive and an abject drunk, Robert Walker, Jr.It's as if everyone involved recognized the futility of continuing CPR on the corpse and just gave up. It was directed by Burt Kennedy, who wrote some of the most interesting little Westerns imaginable for Randolph Scott. His direction is pedestrian.Howard Keel, almost unrecognizable under his make up, I suppose is added for comic effect but isn't funny. Often the producers will insist on adding a younger actor for appeal to a different audience -- Ricky Nelson here, Fabian or some other heart throb there. In "The War Wagon" it's Walker and the attempt fails. He's not cute, talented, or appealing, although for all anyone knows he might be a splendid young man in real life, with a stamp collection and a Shih Tzu.If there's a cliché missing, I didn't notice. It's opens with a lively Country and Western tune about the things men will do for one of those wagons full of gold. (Music by Dmitri Tiomkin. Dmitri -- what happened to YOU?) We have one of those bar room brawls in which everyone is slugging everyone else without reason. Men have sturdy chairs splintered over their backs, then turn around and bash the guy who wielded it. Men are thrown through windows. A piano is flung around. Banter: the two heroes shoot a couple of bad guys. Douglas: "Mine hit the ground first." Wayne: "Mine was taller." A wagon load of flour detaches itself from the horses, as all racing wagons must, before rolling off a cliff and exploding at the bottom. Danger: Radioactive Flour.Even Wardrobe gave up. Wayne is dressed as he was always dressed in his later, less imaginative Westerns: jeans, pink shirt, vest, bandanna up around his chin, and the usual beige hat. Douglas is dressed as no cowboy ever was: an olive-green suede vest and matching boots. He wears what appears to be a pair of leotards. He has a black leather glove on his left hand and a big silver ring on the outside of the glove.No need to go on. I sat through it years ago and tried again recently but couldn't do it. It was almost painful to see some of these actors growing old and flabby, hefting themselves onto horses yet again, for the long ride downhill to the end of the trail.

ctomvelu1 John Wayne and Kirk Douglas, both big stars of the period, team up in THE WAR WAGON to steal $500,000 in gold and wreak revenge on a nasty land baron (Bruce Cabot) who has stolen Wayne's ranch while Wayne was in prison. Douglas' gunslinger character initially is hired by Cabot to eliminate Wayne, but ends up falling in with Wayne when promised a much bigger payoff. Along the way, they gather together a motley group (including Howard Keel as a feisty Indian and Robert Walker Jr. as an explosive expert) to grab Cabot's gold. A grizzled Keenan Wynn also is along for the ride. The title refers to a steel-plated wagon, an early version of an armored car, that Cabot uses to transport his gold. Douglas, who appears to have done all his own stunts, steals virtually every scene he is in, but he and Wayne manage to play very well together. An unusual role for the Duke, playing an ex-con with robbery and murder on his mind. Watch for a very young Bruce Dern as a hired thug.