DVD Review: John Wayne in BRANNIGAN (1975)
BRANNIGAN
Directed by Douglas Hickox, Starring John Wayne, Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, Mel Ferrer, John Vernon, Ralph Meeker, Lesley-Anne Down. Released March 26, 1975. Running time: 111 minutes. Released to DVD by Kino Lorber.
One would have to admit, it is truly inspired to cast sexagenarian John Wayne, struggling through the last four years of his life, in a then-contemporary tough guy role as a Dirty Harry type who travels to London to retrieve an American mobster. It is wonderful kitsch filmmaking and is now restored in a hi def DVD by Kino Lorber.
John Wayne notoriously disliked Clint Eastwood’s method of filming westerns, beginning with the Sergio Leone productions, because they were so graphic and challenging of the old ideas that Wayne represented. So the fact that Duke made a couple of movies challenging Eastwood’s approach to the detective on film is rather amusing as well as generally compelling, especially so many years later. Unlike the slender, middle aged Eastwood, John Wayne is old, he plays an old character. But he still saunters along with his familiar gait. And still there is the familiar drawl, the cunning eyes, the uncompromising toughness that had made John Wayne an icon long before he took this role. And that’s why this movie is a blast to watch today.
Brannigan’s very first appearance in the movie is to knock down a door to get into a laboratory. He pulls out an untraceable weapon and threatens to kill a man and make him disappear “like a short beer” if he doesn’t come through with info. He does. But tries to shoot Brannigan with his own gun. Of course it isn’t loaded. He beats the guy up, restrains him, and leaves as the informer hollers after him, “there’s a contract out on you!” Brannigan leaves and a squad car pulls up. “Brannigan, the captain wants to see you.” Toss in the laughably cheesy cop-show-theme-music soundtrack and it almost looks like parody. But it isn’t. Wayne takes this role as seriously as he had his work in such classics as “Red River,” “The Searchers,” “Rio Bravo,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” “True Grit,” and so many others.
When Brannigan gets to London, he discovers that the mobster has been double crossed by his own lawyer, was kidnapped, and is being held for ransom. So Brannigan brings his American methods of law enforcement to Scotland Yard and revamps their approach to every situation. John Wayne was a good actor, and he hasn’t really strayed too far from his niche. But it is still amusingly jarring to hear the cinema’s greatest cowboy hero deliver lines like “mob money squeezed out of hookers and skimmed off of casinos!”
Douglas Hickox (father of director Anthony Hickox), helmed this feature just after having completed the far superior “Theater of Blood” and does little more than allow the shots to respond to the narrative. Hickox seems to realize it is the action, and the presence of his star, that will ultimately sell this movie to its intended audience. The supporting performance are just fine, the bloody shootouts and inevitable trick character changes are all firmly in place. John Wayne bursts through a lot of doors and usually just at the right time.
This is John Wayne’s third-to-last movie. Only “Rooster Cogburn and the Lady” and “The Shootist” were left before the cancer was too much for him and he had to stop working. His last appearance, at the Oscars shortly before he died, is as heartbreaking as it is inspiring. Brannigan features John Wayne culminating all those decades of heroic performances – reaching out to the modern era by meeting it on its own terms and playing a character that had settled into contemporary mainstream culture. The film is well crafted and consistently fun. And John Wayne is a hero once more. The DVD is available here.