Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Chisum Blu-ray Movie Review

Old School

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 29, 2016

Chisum plays differently today than when it first hit theaters in the summer of 1970. At a time when the Western was being redefined by the blood-soaked ballet of The Wild Bunch and the operatic excess of Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy, Chisum looked like a throwback to a bygone era. Director Andrew V. McLaglen was a Hollywood veteran who had overseen more episodes of the long-running CBS series Gunsmoke than any other director and had previously directed Chisum's star, John Wayne, in McClintock!  and The Undefeated. When the Duke's son and producer, Michael, decided to adapt the story of real-life rancher John Chisum as a vehicle for his father, McLaglen was an obvious choice.

Screenwriter Andrew Fenady also came from TV, and he had spent years studying the history of the Lincoln County Cattle War of 1878. The feud between New Mexico rancher Chisum and aggressive businessman Lawrence Murphy has long been a fertile source of legend, thanks to the involvement of such colorful characters as Pat Garrett and William H. Bonney a/k/a "Billy the Kid". Fenady initially wrote Chisum as a short story, and he attempted to stick closely to actual events. The tale that reached the screen took greater dramatic license, but it followed the broad outlines of history. McLaglen would later pronounce Chisum to be one of his favorite films, and he was especially proud of having presented William Bonney as "a human being, not a bad little boy".

Chisum announces its traditional roots with the opening titles, which use the paintings of Western artist Russ Vickers to establish a storybook mood. Legendary voiceover artist William Conrad, uncredited but instantly recognizable, lends his authoritative intonation to "The Ballad of John Chisum", which recounts how the title character carved out the biggest ranch in the territory from a wild and untamed wilderness. When the camera picks up John Wayne's familiar figure on horseback, both his character and the tone of the film have been thoroughly established.

Chisum begins the film contemplating the breadth of his domain from a hill overlooking his ranch house. Creating his kingdom was only the beginning. Now the reluctant emperor has to defend it. An initial skirmish with a gang of horse thieves demonstrates his resolve, as Chisum and his men recover the stolen herd and dispense swift justice. But the real threat to Chisum's ranch comes not from random marauders but from the expanding empire of a ruthless businessman, Lawrence Murphy (Forrest Tucker), who is gobbling up property throughout the county, forcing out long-time owners and shopkeepers and cutting off water rights to neighboring farms. With the local sheriff (Bruce Cabot) in his pocket and a gang of enforcers led by a former outlaw, Jesse Evans (Richard Jaeckel), Murphy aims to own the entire county, including Chisum's spread.

The battle between Lincoln County's two most powerful men draws in numerous characters as it escalates toward the inevitable showdown. Chisum's allies include his loyal friend and chief cowboy, Pepper (Ben Johnson, the Duke's frequent sidekick), as well as a neighboring rancher, Henry Tunstall (Patrick Knowles), with whom Chisum opens a bank and general store to compete with Murphy. Tunstall's charitable disposition has prompted him to employ Billy the Kid (Geoffrey Deuel), whom he is trying to reform with religion and education. Buffalo hunter Pat Garrett (Glen Corbett) joins the fray after he encounters a group of Murphy's men lying in wait to ambush a herd of Chisum's cattle bound for a nearby Army encampment. Garrett sounds the alarm and earns a job from the grateful rancher.

For his part, Murphy has imported an attorney from the East, Alex McSween (Andrew Prine), to cast a sheen of legality over his predatory plans, but McSween turns out to be an honest man, who quickly defects to Chisum's side, accompanied by his wife (Lynda George). Dolan (Edward Faulkner), Murphy's storekeeper, continues to squeeze the townspeople with his prices, until he is undercut by Chisum's and Tunstall's competing operation. A ruthless bounty hunter named Dan Nordeen (Christopher George) is quickly adopted by Murphy after he appears in town to collect a reward.

As director McLaglen orchestrates the rising crescendo of skirmishes between opposing forces, he supplies every familiar staple of the Western genre: poker games, posses, shootouts, ambushes, an assault on a wagon train snaking through the wilderness and even a cattle stampede. Rivalry between Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid for the affections of Chisum's visiting niece, Sally (Pamela McMyler), provides a romantic subplot. The indigenous inhabitants of Lincoln County make a brief appearance in the person of Chief White Buffalo, one of Chisum's former adversaries who is now confined to a reservation but has earned the rancher's respect. In an incongruous casting choice, this Native American character is played by Burmese-born Abraham Sofaer (Quo Vadis) in his last feature appearance.

Chisum builds to an epic gun battle on the town streets between Murphy's enforcers and a group loyal to Chisum. Many people die, but Murphy is overthrown, and the film concludes with Chisum once again on horseback perched atop his favorite hill, surveying the kingdom whose safety he has once again assured—until the next time.

Chisum Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Chisum was shot in anamorphic widescreen by cinematographer William H. Clothier, a frequent collaborator of both John Wayne and director Andrew McLaglen. For the film's Blu-ray debut, Warner has newly scanned an interpositive at 2K, with extensive color-correction to bring the film as close as possible to its original appearance. The resulting 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray provides a faithful reproduction of the film's expansive vistas of the New Mexico landscapes (shot in the region near Durango). The stocks of the era could not replicate the intensity of the now-discontinued three-strip Technicolor, but Chisum's image captures a palette of rich earth tones under a sky that is blue enough to complement them. Flesh tones tend toward the ruddy, which is consistent with the outdoor life of the frontier. The film's grain pattern is finely resolved and, with due allowance for the limited depth of field permitted by anamorphic lenses of the period, the image is crisp and detailed. Warner has mastered Chisum at an average bitrate of 34.90 Mpbs, which is just a fraction under what has become the studio's standard target for catalog releases.

Chisum Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Chisum's original mono soundtrack has been encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, and it is one of the best mono presentations I have heard among recent catalog titles. The dynamic range is broad enough to render gun battles, galloping horses and stampeding cattle with presence and authority, even though the audio is confined to the front soundstage. Dialogue is clear and natural sounding. The classic Western score by Dominic Frontiere (The Train Robbers) blends naturally with the songs performed by narrator William Conrad and country music legend Merle Haggard. If the track were remixed for 5.1, the soundfield might be somewhat expanded, but I doubt that it could tell the story better.

Chisum Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2003 DVD of Chisum:

• Commentary with Director Andrew V. McLaglen: McLaglen was in his eighties when he recorded this commentary for DVD and has since passed away. It's an informal commentary, heavy on personal reminiscences of actors and crew with whom McLaglen enjoyed working—above all, Wayne, for whom the director helmed multiple films.



• John Wayne and Chisum (480i; 1.33:1; 8:55): This contemporary EPK heavily promotes both Wayne's involvement and the historical basis of the story. It includes footage of the cast and crew at work on location.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 3:30): With narration that apes the style of William Conrad's voiceover introduction to the film itself, the trailer present a compendium of Wayne's action beats from the film. By today's standards, it's filled with spoilers, but I suspect contemporary audiences enjoyed the promise that Chisum would deliver a familiar John Wayne character.

Chisum Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In the decades following Chisum, the Western would continue to be recast and reconsidered, producing such varied achievements as Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven. But the classic frontier tropes that Chisum brought back to the screen in 1970 never went away. Lawrence Kasdan revived them in Silverado, which lifts numerous elements from Chisum, and Wayne himself would star in another seven Westerns, including The Shootist and Rooster Cogburn. Chisum remains the grandest and most epic of the Duke's late-career works, and Warner has given it the Blu-ray treatment it deserves. Highly recommended.