Static Media
John Wayne’s filmography offers plenty of room for debate, but naming Henry Hathaway’s “The Sons of Katie Elder” as his finest movie would not have pleased the actor himself. The 1965 Western follows four brothers who return home to avenge their mother’s death. Although the film has earned a devoted following, Wayne remembered the production for reasons that had little to do with its eventual reputation.
“I had just got over that cancer operation and I thought I could hear myself breathing all the time,” Wayne told Roger Ebert in a 1968 interview. “Everybody said it was my imagination. Well, old Henry [Hathaway] was very thoughtful of me, of course, since I was recuperating and all. He took me up to 8,500 feet to shoot the damned thing and the fourth day of shooting he had me jumping into ice water. Very considerate.”
“The Sons of Katie Elder” arrived in 1965, just a year after Wayne underwent surgery to remove his left lung following a cancer diagnosis linked to heavy smoking. Rather than pause his career to recover, the actor continued working at a time when most people would have stepped away from the spotlight. Given those circumstances, it is easy to understand why Wayne felt his performance fell short of his usual standard. Critics and audiences, however, reached a very different conclusion.
Critics disagree with John Wayne’s The Sons of Katie Elder assessment
Paramount Pictures
Wayne appeared in many of the most celebrated Westerns ever made, and several of those films have arguably eclipsed “The Sons of Katie Elder.” Even so, The Duke’s personal doubts were not widely shared. The movie attracted substantial critical praise and currently holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers singling out Wayne’s work for particular attention.
“Wayne delivers one of his customary rugged portrayals, a little old, perhaps, to have such a young brother as Anderson but not so old that he lacks the attributes of a gunman,” Variety wrote.
Howard Thompson of The New York Times likewise praised the film as a direct, unfussy Western. “It has, most unobstrusively, an ace director Henry Hathaway, who knows exactly how to spike menace and mayhem with authentic settings and excellent color,” he wrote.
The film’s influence reached far beyond the Western genre. “Four Brothers,” the crime thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and Tyrese Gibson, reworked the same basic premise—siblings seeking justice for their mother’s death—in a contemporary urban setting. “The Sons of Katie Elder” may not rank as Wayne’s greatest Western in every viewer’s eyes, but its lasting legacy proves that the movie remains an important and influential entry in his career.
