say what ya want, but the acting in the original was horrendous. now i know they made movies back then with men in them, and they could act, too. i have damn near every one of clint's westerns. you believed his roles when you watched his movies.
Ok that is really not a fair comparison. That's like saying you'd rather have an 85 mustang as oppose to a 65 mustang... Both are mustangs, both will get you to the grocery store, but the 65 had sooo much more class. Same way w/ the John Wayne cheese vs. Clint Eastwood spaghetti. Both were westerns, both had shoot em up action, but John Wayne is such an American Icon, it's classy. You can't tell me that you can watch the Shootist, then turn around and watch a crappy ripoff of a decent Louis L'Amour novel (Insert Spaghetti Western here) and say John Wayne's movie didn't have way more class and finess.
I think towards the end of his career John Wayne developed a bit of stiffness in his personality. His characters were very different in his early movies such as Stagecoach and The Sands of Iwo Jima, to name two.
St762
That's because like any actor, when John Wayne first started out, he had to act to impress people to keep acting. Once he became established he had the luxury of brining his own persona into his movies.
Now, not being a huge fan of the cheesy westerns or spaghetti westerns, I would suggest the following as some of the best Westerns I've ever seen...
Quigley Down Under (Ok so technically an Eastern, but he wears a cowboy had and carries around a Sharps)
Tombstone - Prolly Val Kilmer's best role ever.
You Know My Name - Sam Elliot plays an awesome role in this one...
Open Range... Hands down the best western I've ever seen in my short life. Robert Duvall is such an awesome actor. Not to mention Kevin Costner redeems himself in this role.