Episode: 367 • Duration: 01:00:59
Westward Ho! continues with a look at The Duke and his western “romantic” comedy McLintock! While neither of us are John Wayne fans, we thought it only appropriate to include one of his films in this series, and we picked one that has the appropriate amount of misogyny. From spankings to clay slide fights, we pick apart the very odd, fetish-y film that stars not just John Wayne but also his son Patrick – a true family affair.
Stick with us all August for our Red Hot Action Summer!
Hit that play button above to listen in.
Transcript – Red Hot Action Summer: Westward Ho! (2) MCLINTOCK! (auto-generated)
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0:01
Howdy partners.
Welcome back to the Blood of Black Rum podcast Red Hot Action Summer.
This year, we’re not going to a specific era.
Instead, we’re heading out West, what we’re calling Westward Ho.
This time you’ll find American Westerns from all kinds of eras.
0:19
There’s sure to be some Clint Eastwood, some Pecked Pot and Ethan John Wayne with a couple of surprises thrown in as well to tell your mom pop, come on out, saddle up and listen in all August for red hot action summer Westward Ho.
0:40
Hey guys, welcome back to the Black Rum podcast.
I’m Ryan from closeplaytation.com and I’m joined with my Co host Martin.
How’s it going?
Howdy.
Partner.
Yeah.
That’s right, we’re knee deep and cow shit over here. 10 four, good buddy.
No, no, I don’t think that.
0:56
I don’t think that one.
No, that was wrong.
We’re not doing.
Trucker, No, no, unfortunately not.
No, no trucker stuff.
No.
We are currently in our red hot action summer, whereas Taylor Swift would say our era and we’re going westward, westward.
1:14
Ho, last week we did.
We started it off, did our first episode on American Westerns, westerns that are not spaghetti.
And we we started it with the Wild Bunch.
Fun times, fun, fun episode.
1:32
And part of the idea behind this that sprung up was that we were going to do American Western, Western specifically, but then all different kinds of years, right?
Because like normally when we do red hot Action summer, we’re situated in one particular time period, a decade.
1:52
And this was more of a a chance to do all kinds of westerns from all kinds of eras.
So what we’re doing this time is we’re kind of going back even a little bit further than the wild Munch.
And we thought it was really appropriate that we we had, I think both of us have said this in the past, but neither of us are really big John Wayne Western fans.
2:18
There’s just something about them that didn’t never really hits for me, but we felt it was important to do a John Wayne Western movie because it is so much a part of American pop culture of the Westerns from the 50s and 60’s.
2:34
The Duke?
What’s that?
The Duke.
Yeah, the Duke.
Yeah, exactly.
So though we were, you know, obviously not a super big fans, we had to do 1.
So I picked Mcclinton.
Red River.
No, I picked Mcclintock.
2:51
This Mcclintock, which I love.
Yes, because in the movie it’s very ambiguous how you even say his name.
There are characters who quite literally say the name two different ways in two different scenes.
They’ll say Mcclintock and then they’ll say Mcclintock.
3:09
And that’s I kind of like that.
I like the the inaccuracy of it and just the you know, it’s a shitty name.
Especially like it’s a shitty name, not just for the movie, but like, I mean, you’re going to see why there’s an exclamation point on this one.
3:26
Like, oh, Mcclintock, Mcclintock, Mcclintock.
Like I think it would be more tolerable because in my head, I will say Mcclintock.
I’m not like it’s again, you’re looking at it like tick.
There’s no you know.
I I agree with that.
3:42
I I the phrenology doesn’t.
I don’t know where you get Mcclintock from, but.
I agree.
I feel like whenever I look at it, I I want to say Mcclintock as well.
It’s just the the nature of the way that it’s spelled out.
But maybe it’s maybe it’s a maybe it’s a, a Western accent thing, Mcclintic, something like that.
4:07
I don’t know.
But yeah, I do like that.
Yeah, you when you say the title too.
This is one of those fun things about titles is like, you can’t just say like bored Mcclintock.
You can’t just, you can’t say a bored.
You have to say Mcclintock.
Like like excited because there’s an exclamation mark at the end back.
4:27
When when punctuation on a film title meant something.
That’s right.
Do you think that the exclamation mark is intended to be someone yelling out his name?
Or is it like excited because we’re going to Mcclintock This the town.
4:43
We’re you know, we’re Sooners and we’re heading to Mcclintock because it’s it’s the up and coming city.
I think it’s both like it’s supposed to be at work, you know, like Mcclintock, what a town, what a fun time this is going to be.
And like, hey Mcclintock, what you doing over there, Mr. Mcclintock?
5:02
Like why?
Why are you running around chasing your wife all through town again?
Mcclintock, You know, what are you doing there?
So this the thing that really about Mcclintock or Mcclintock is the poster at work.
5:21
So that’s what really caught my eye because I’ll be honest with you, I’d never heard of Mcclintock before.
It was, you know, it was obviously a John Wayne movie, but other than that, I didn’t really know anything about it.
But I saw the poster and I was like, you know what?
5:37
I feel like if we’re going to do a John Wayne movie, we got to do this John Wayne movie because the poster artwork is just Jon going ham on Marino Harrah’s ass spanking, spanking her over his knee.
And that is pretty much an iconic poster.
5:55
I, I, I, you know, and very, after watching the film, very accurate to the things that happened in this movie.
In my opinion.
It’s it, you know, you had sometimes you have posters and you’re like, why is that a poster?
It doesn’t really make sense for the movie.
6:11
I think we talked about that with Hey mom a little bit like where Hi mom, I should say I’m sorry, Hi mom, where the the poster artwork is like a granny with a gun and you’re like, why?
Why is that the poster?
But this one?
What’s?
Going on here.
Yeah, this one, after you watch the movie, you’re like, OK, yeah, yeah.
6:30
I mean, that’s the crux of the pot is a fucking spanking, as we’ll get to you said.
And I found that I thought this was crazy.
You’ve actually seen this movie?
I have, yes.
And we talked about this off air, but as you stated, this movie’s at least in terms of what’s on the Internet, not super popular, right?
6:53
You you said you you couldn’t really find much review on it.
Yeah, I was.
I typed into YouTube just, you know, see like what pops up for reviews and there is nothing Yeah, usually because like you’ll see like, you know, you know, not not necessarily like, you know, big name reviewers or anything.
7:11
We’re like just to get like a sense of like, OK, like how popular something is or well known and the zeitgeist like so and so who’s got like 100,000 subscribers on this thing got like 20,000 views.
And this one got like, you know, you know, it was like the average type thing, not like something like big like looking for going to do spider man like it’s obviously everything.
7:31
So you know.
Sure, have it.
So here like, you know, and again, I am not a John Wayne fan, not just John Wayne, westerns don’t like John Wayne at all.
He’s right up there with like Bruce Willis and as like intolerable, like charisma vacuums of, you know, acting and just uninteresting and boring.
7:54
And I’ve seen this movie before and I’ve seen other John Wayne films.
I saw this one little after college when TMTCM was doing like a western weekend because it’s like around the same time, like at like after this will be at 2:00 the morning.
8:11
They’re playing like fistful a dollar since the last time I stayed up to watch this, it was like, oh, you know, Fistful of Dollars is going to be on right after.
Oh boy.
You know, so you said it just like, and I don’t remember too much from it except the John Wayne type shit and just me, like, you know, go on.
8:32
Yeah, I’m moving out of my life.
Yeah, it’s really kind of random.
We’ve seen it, you know, and and and, but I can certainly see something like TCM playing this type of movie.
Hey.
Hey, folks.
Ben Mankiewicz, Yeah.
This is this is exactly the type of movie that I feel this is.
8:48
I feel like this is the type of movie that Bill Hader would be writing a bit for SNL for him to do the Ben Mankiewicz bit on like you.
Know some random movie like this?
Yeah, like I said, not something I’m well versed in.
9:04
And we’ll, I’ll be honest with you, not well versed in any real John Wayne movies.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen like a full John Wayne movie.
Obviously there’s in popular culture, John Wayne has proliferated, you know, has a very particular delivery style and, you know, very well known for being a part of these American westerns that are sort of what we now consider like Bonanza, like westerns, ones that are not necessarily super serious, like a spaghetti western style.
9:35
They’re not, they’re not as violent.
They’re not as I would say, they’re not as realistic.
Like they don’t necessarily depict historical accuracy, though we can talk about how much Mcclintock does or does not do that and, and kind of the, the themes in the film.
9:56
But I, I, like I said, I, we don’t really, I don’t have a lot of background to frame Mcclintock in terms of how good is it is a John Wayne movie?
How good is it?
You know, like in his, in, in his filmography, Is this one of his better movies or not?
I, I really don’t know.
So what kind of refrain from from commenting on that.
10:15
But it it’s I think it’s it makes sense to, you know, take my John Wayne virginity in red hot action summer.
So.
So it’s.
He’s going to take it whether you like it.
Or not.
That’s true.
Yeah.
I mean, and he’s not asking.
10:32
So.
All right, so let’s take a break real quick before we really get into the the movie itself.
And let’s talk about the beer that we have on the show today.
Yesterday I had to go down to Saratoga for a different for an appointment.
And so while I was down there, I was like, you know what?
10:48
I think I’m going to stop into Treehouse and not play ball, you know, be very twiddle my thumbs while I sit there and drink a beer.
Very cautious and careful at the at the facilities.
And so I went over there and I got I got a couple beers on draft and I told Martin that I was going to be there.
11:09
So if you wanted anything, just let me know.
So he picked out the beer for the show today and I picked it up and I’ll let you take it away.
What did what did you get for us or what did you pick for us for the episode?
Well, as tree house, you know, continues to buy more and more of our land here in this country and just take over this country, they have a billion different beers always out, which is nice because even for a small brewery.
11:43
They have like 40.
Offerings on always available, you know, week to week.
So though we’ve done a billion of their Nypas and stuff, then they’re always good.
I’ve gotten in the habit of always when it comes to looking at the list and picking something out to try look first a style in something that’s different and unique and something that you don’t see too often because it the problem, as we have said 1000 times on this podcast, is with all these breweries and the IP as and the Nypas that they make.
12:18
Yeah, they’re good.
But like all the different diff how to differentiate and like what makes what slightly different?
We can’t be asked and bothered and figured it out.
And you know, like, oh, that’s like a West TX Petrine and not a Petrine that you’d find up in, you know, up in Junta Pogler down in Mexico or something.
12:39
So so while scrolling down, I saw that they had a cream male.
I love cream ales, Big Jenny cream ale guy here, as you all know.
And it’s like, that’s interesting.
Ken has these lovely little bears on them.
12:56
Big nice grizzle.
He’s like woo, lovely.
And it has as well huckleberries to go with it.
So I was like, God damn it, I’m all in.
And it’s funny that it’s got bears and it’s got huckleberries on it because me and my buddy, we’re having a discussion on a car ride about bears and like, you know, because my mom is deathly afraid of bears.
13:20
And like, you know, we get black.
I obviously up here in the Adirondacks, you’ll see a black bear run around every now and then.
And I tried telling her like, it ain’t going to kill you or, or anything.
They’re just tree puppies.
They just looking for some berries, honey and fish.
And if they don’t have, they run away.
13:36
And I was we were talking, me and my buddy were talking about it and it’s like, yeah, polar bears are bastards, mean, angry and ornery because they’ve got don’t eat for like 3 months and like, you know, have nothing to eat except like Penguin scraps.
So it’d be funny to hear like a two bears talking and like the zoo like a polar bear and a black bear, black bear sitting there like Winnie the Pooh, the fucking thing of honey, the polar bears like the fucks that and the bears like it’s honey.
14:04
It’s delicious.
And there’s also berries like huckleberries in raised berries in the salmon.
You should trace them.
They’re just adorable, you know?
So that’s true.
That’s why I got it, you know, And it’s a cream yellow.
14:22
Berries, yeah, I mean, and, and I think you, yeah, I mean you did a pretty good job of thematically matching it to Mcclintock too, because like the name of the beer is Queen of the Tetons, which is in the the Teton Range is in Wyoming.
14:39
We’re not quite in Wyoming, in Mcclintock, but.
I was thinking of the Modest Mouse song.
Oh, yeah, right.
So, but, but close enough, right.
Like we’re, we’re not, we’re not technically in Wyoming, but we’ll take it.
It’s close enough.
14:55
And I think that also you hit it right on the head when you said Treehouse is stealing up all of our land over here.
And that’s kind of kind of part of Mcclintic as well.
So I thought thought she did a pretty good job summarizing and maybe unintentionally thematically.
15:11
No, it was intentional, yeah.
You meant it all the way so.
But anyway, go I, I interrupted.
But go ahead.
No, you’re fine.
No, no feel about the.
Cream ale with huckleberry.
Well, now that I just cracked open number numero dose the first like drinking of it like I do like it.
15:27
Cream ales, they’re gone.
I love them.
They’re refreshing.
There’s one of the few true American standard, so I’m glad that they did that.
The thing about it is like when people do cream ales, do they do anything to make them like to be outstanding?
15:45
It’s pretty hard to it’s a cream ale.
It’s just like a nice like, you know, slightly, you know, busier lager.
The huckleberries are a nice touch to it.
And because it is craft brewery and putting that in air quotes.
16:03
Sure.
The huckleberry tastes like if this was Genesee, it would be totally candied, overly sugary, artificial, and a lot of like other breweries would too.
Here though, we don’t get huckleberries up here to my knowledge.
16:19
Never had one.
It’s what I imagine it would taste like.
I could get like a mix between like a blueberry and a BlackBerry.
If they combine together.
It’s nice.
I like it a lot.
I think a pair as well.
It’s taken like the first beer for me to get more attuned to it because even though like you get your regular cream ale, you know, taste and body and that that huckleberry, you know, taste at the end, there is like a rindy adjunct, the kind of like taste at the back end that I’m getting more used to as I’m drinking out drinking it.
16:59
But at first couple of steps that was really something that was sticking out for me.
And I think that’s something that we’ve seen with like these kind of like Berry beers that we’ve done that are of like, you know, these types of Berry.
17:15
So I I do like it.
I wouldn’t get it off then, you know, 20 bucks a four pack.
But it is nice, you know, and it’s nice that they did something unique and different that sticks out.
17:30
So props.
Yeah, I mean, I would agree.
I I don’t know that I’ve ever really had a huckleberry before.
Like you were saying, I don’t think they’re really native to our area.
However, I I can imagine kind of like the cross taste that they have.
17:49
I think that the cream ale of this beer is really good.
It’s like a nice solid base to it.
I think the huckleberry Berry Ness in the beer is somewhat generic.
It doesn’t necessarily have like an overarching specific Berry flavour.
18:05
To me, it’s just more like, OK, there is like a fruity specific taste to it that like reminds me of, like you said, other types of Berry beers that we’ve had.
I do think that that is lending the sort of bitter after taste to it a little bit.
18:22
It’s kind of coming from that like acidity of the Berry.
So I like it.
I do think that again, it does have sort of like that an after taste that may not lend itself to all drinkers, but for me, I do like it and I think it’s a pretty good style.
18:38
I don’t think it’s their best style.
I don’t think like this is if you were to say like here, you should check out Treehouse.
I probably wouldn’t offer this one up as being like they’re one of their trademark beers or anything like that, but I think it’s a pretty good for for them not really branching out into the cream ale style all that often.
18:57
So I like it, like you said, probably wouldn’t get it all that often.
It is a little expensive for the what you get.
I think we see quite a few other places making cream ale’s for a fraction of the cost of what this one would be.
19:13
So I you could take that as you will, but I think it’s a pretty, pretty good, but kind of standard beer from Treehouse.
All right, let’s talk Mcclintock.
Where do we start?
Where do we begin?
What do we?
19:28
What do we start with here?
Good question.
Well, I don’t we need to start off with is just kind of like setting the groundwork of Mcclintock.
So the the film kind of opens up and it kind of puts you in sort of a all in progress movie where everybody seems to really know Mcclintock and yet we as the audience don’t.
19:54
So it sort of forces them to do a little bit of exposition dropping while we’re kind of meeting the characters.
And so you find out.
He has pet Mexicans that go.
He fetches hat from his.
Weathervane.
20:10
The weathervane that he unnecessarily chunks up there every now and then.
His hat.
He throws up there every time he comes home.
Yeah, that’s kind of an asshole thing to do is you would think like like everybody really seems to like him, but at the same time it’s almost like a Fuhrer type situation where it’s like he owns the town so you better be nice to him.
20:33
Like, you know, they.
Yeah, no, the one his Butler Drago.
Like, what the fuck?
Like boss man, you’re boss man.
Oh, don’t worry, we’ll get dude.
We’ll do that just fine, boss man.
Draco doesn’t have like any other life outside of working for Mcclintic.
20:51
It’s just like, yeah.
And and so I think that’s like initially the really interesting thing about the film is that it’s taking place in a kind of unnamed late 1800s period of time.
21:06
I’m going to say it’s like the eight late 1890s.
Would you agree?
Yeah, they somewhere around there.
They.
Think the one bit you get is like near the end we’re talking about like the one goofball that his honors with like, oh, valedictorian of nine to five South.
21:23
Right.
Yeah.
So we’re like somewhere in there, you know like 9698 something like that.
So really again, towards the tail end of the, the, the idea of Cowboys and Indians, right?
21:40
And in, in this scenario, in this movie, the, the, the, there’s not much in terms of like a a traditional western.
We don’t have outlaws.
We don’t really have like Cowboys.
And John Wayne is not like someone who’s going off as a hero.
21:56
He just owns the town, right?
Like he’s.
He’s an actual cattle bear.
And yeah, he’s the literal namesake of the town.
And the government is basically saying, hey, you guys want westward expansion, go to Mcclintic then.
22:11
And they’re saying they’re basically just sending all these people there to set up shop, try to farm it.
And there’s a pretty funny part right at the beginning of Mcclintic where he’s seeing all these people come in and he’s like, you guys are going to try to farm out here.
You do, you know where you’re at right now?
22:28
Like, you’re not going to farm anything out here.
The government’s misleading you if if you they’re telling you you’re going to farm out here in the Mesa Verde.
OK.
But it is is.
It me or is it me or was I thinking of the bank the entire time that they said?
22:44
Yeah.
Is it from Better Call Sauce?
But I, I think that Mcclintock has a kind of an interesting relationship with the US government at this time.
It’s not particularly fond of what the government is doing during this period of unlimited westward expansion, right?
23:07
Do you think maybe John’s taking the shot at this would have been during the Kennedy administration that God damn communist should have had?
I mean.
I don’t know if John Wayne had much to do at all with the actual story.
I do you even I don’t really know his personal oh pretty, pretty, pretty conservative.
23:29
Oh yeah, is my guess.
Reagan level.
And so that is very interesting when you take at the thematic value of Mcclintic basically saying he is a an ally of the Native Americans that lived in this area, specifically the Comanche.
23:48
I thought you were going to say capital because he is the capital.
Oh yeah.
Looks down at the poor proletariat.
Yeah, yeah.
Need.
I’m not giving you work.
You’re going to earn the way.
That is, yeah, that is true.
I’m not going to pay you something.
24:05
You’re going to earn it.
It’s contract.
That’s right.
And you’re a young boy.
If you’re going to call me my clinic, you better call it, say Mr. Youngster.
I do.
I mean, it’s kind of interesting, though.
24:21
The film is somewhat liberal in the way that it depicts the treatment of the Native Americans by the US government at this time.
You think?
No.
No.
They’re in red face and they got the one fucking running around being like no whiskey wiggle.
24:42
That is true.
It’s.
True.
No.
Big W Yeah, No.
Whiskey.
I’m not.
I’m not saying.
Yeah, I guess what I’m saying is no, no.
I don’t know.
I don’t.
Think.
Really.
No, no.
I think it’s like you can no, because like it’s not liberal.
I’d say it’s more like it’s like like I’m just like from what the wild bunch?
25:02
I just got done playing Red Dead one, like with the fucking Professor McDougal.
Like hello there, Nastas.
We come in peace to help you.
And he’s like, I was on the reservation.
I can speak English, you asshole.
Oh, OK.
25:18
It’s the same thing here because like the government guy that’s like the in between nerd for, for the Indian Bureau and the government, he’s like, they’re all savages and everyone’s like they’re all savages.
And then John Wayne’s like I fought and killed a lot of them.
25:35
They’re not savages.
They’re noble savages.
So we may not like them or get along, but, and they may be savage, but they are a noble people who like to fight and drink like I do.
So like, it’s not like.
25:54
Yeah, I mean.
I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think, I don’t think he’s, you know, an equal opportunity lover with his, you know, fucking racist Mickey, Mickey Chinese like cooking.
Like it’s, it’s just so the movie is a fucking mess plot wise because it’s like literally it has way too many fucking beats and plot points it wants to cover for a film that is this audacious, tenacious and poorly thought out.
26:30
It’s going to be a 2 1/2 hour comedy we’re doing.
He’s a cattle Baron.
His wife left him.
She’s a cunt.
The daughter’s coming home.
We got to get ready for dinner.
He’s a cattle Baron.
He’s kicking the Sooners out.
26:45
The Indians are coming around, the Indian Bureau, the governor’s coming around who his wife’s like playing Footsie with.
There’s like 20 different things going on and it’s like, holy shit.
I think.
It drops why it goes from one thing to another and it’s like, holy shit, I’ve totally forgot the you know, these these like like some of these plot points that it’s.
27:08
Definitely interesting you say that because I also felt I I do feel I agree it is very convoluted in the the ways that it is basically trying to just show you Mcclintock’s life and the and the life in this town.
At the same time.
27:24
I felt for too long of the movie, there’s really not any conflict going on it.
The, the biggest part of the conflict is like Mcclintock’s wife Katie is back and she’s just a huge bitch.
And the, the film, the way that it’s written is just written in such a way that it’s like and more, no offense to Maureen O’Hara, she does a great job of making the audience dislike her for the role that she has.
27:49
But it’s just like so comically over the top of how hard the film goes trying to make the audience really dislike most of the female characters in this movie because it’s it’s almost everybody, right?
It’s almost every woman.
28:05
It’s Maureen O Harris character.
It’s her daughter Becky.
Becky’s like kind of like the stuck up little prissy snob that comes back from college and is like when I went to college.
And you know, I, I don’t, I don’t condone violence around here, even though her father is like probably one of the most, you know, prestigious fighters in the area.
28:28
So I, I think that for too long of the movie, even though like you said, there is a lot going on in the movie in terms of character development and how many characters are involved and, and stuff like that.
It also lacks a it has a serious conflict issue in that for over an hour of the movie you’re like whoa, where is this actually going?
28:50
Like what?
What?
Why am I watching all of this these events like.
Why am I seeing for the 20th time, Becky be a, you know what I mean, Catherine be a bitch.
Like it’s like, it’s like, how many times do you have to see her flipping out and being like, you know, and the film, especially now, even if you’re not one to be, you know, the woke mind type is beyond misogynistic.
29:18
Like I’m the drunk Indian fighter who owns the town and everyone fucking loves this man and you’re just a bitch.
And you saw me sit on someone’s lap, One said, That’s why we haven’t spoke to me for two years.
29:34
And women, yeah, you’re always like, bitching about something, but I ain’t the real thing that you’re really bitching about.
And me, and then we see you and my daughter doing the same thing, fucking sitting around being like, I want to be with Mr. Polly prissy pants and tight up an asshole.
29:50
But you’re secretly sitting there anytime I’m punching someone out or my son’s punching someone out, dripping panties.
Like, like, oh, take me away and teach me what’s right and wrong.
Like, you know, it’s just this idiotic misogynistic man fantasy of like, you know, like, that’s right.
30:12
I own the town, I own the cows, I own the railway.
When I die, they’re going to name a fucking park after me.
You won’t get anything like.
You know.
Like it’s just this fever dream like again, like how many people do you think fucking like with John Rockefeller and or like or Vanderbilt or whoever had their own like little fucking like company town.
30:36
Everyone’s walking around like, thank God, Mr. Rockefeller sitting here giving us the food to eats living, you know, and the minds and such.
And it’s it’s just such a like John Wayne Jack off like like fast of like of just bullshit fantasy.
31:00
It’s not like, and it’s like just like it’s just like intolerable.
Like it’s so intolerable.
I think, I think like what really stands out to like you said, is the, the, the, the rampant misogyny that the films crux of its position is Katie comes home and she it’s like the, it’s kind of like this idea that they’ve had a fight where she’s gone off and like lived in the big city because she hasn’t spoken to him about what she’s mad about.
31:33
And it’s like the, the kind of the, the humor here is sort of this boomer humor that like wives, right?
They don’t tell, they don’t tell you why they’re mad at you.
They’re just mad at you, you know, and, and, and The funny thing is like, you know, seeing how Mcclintock acts in town and what he does, you could probably understand Katie’s perspective of like, yeah, he’s, he’s pretty much an asshole.
31:54
Like, he can be a real asshole.
And so you can understand why she might be sick of him.
Like it’s he’s going out getting drunk almost every night.
You know, in true John Wayne fashion.
That’s.
Right.
He’s he’s smashing bottles basically just like they’re, they’re, they’re trying to keep up with the fucking whiskey that they’re they’re consuming on a daily basis over here that they, they can’t even make it fast enough.
32:19
So they.
Even have his new cook Misses Warren be like when they’re having their private little talk.
She’s like, now listen here, I know women could be bitchy and you’re being bitchy for no reason.
And he’s shit.
You met the man for a day.
32:36
He said your biscuits tasted good.
That’s true.
That’s they love.
I fucking love that.
That’s like, it’s sort of like a double entendre of like you taste this biscuit, you taste her biscuit.
I did taste her biscuit.
Biscuit to go with biscuits, so I don’t know how good it was going to.
32:53
Be that’s true.
Like you’re out in the fucking Mesa Verde sweating your ass off because you’re wearing an Ascot around your neck and like 2 two jackets on and you’re all your saddle stuff and you’re like, here’s a biscuit.
Here’s a nice dry biscuit too.
33:09
Isn’t that good?
Life won’t taste like chalk.
But like, yeah, but she goes in there to tell her like, we, we can be women together, you know, And because, you know, Kate, Katie’s jealous of her because he thinks Mcclintock, God, Mcclintock’s, you know, fucking her.
33:26
Yeah.
But she’s like, you know, I know how we can be, you know, sometimes we want to show them that we’re angry and mean, but we don’t want to let them know why we’re angry and mean.
But you’re you need to grow up and like, it’s just, you know, her fault for being a bitch.
33:44
And it’s just so the one joke the film doesn’t make is when you’re talking about all the misogyny is like just him being like talk going to Drago and like, slapping him on the back like must be PMS. And which I was thinking about the other day too.
34:00
It’s like, you know what I haven’t heard in like 20 years as a joke?
Yeah, yeah, Someone like the time of the month, you know.
Yeah, I don’t know if you knew anyone, but like my dad, every day my dad would break that out back in the day, you know, my mom would be pissed off or something.
34:16
Like, sure.
It’s like, it’s like, what?
What’s wrong with her?
Is that I?
I think that.
We used to be a society.
Trump can’t say that.
But so like, the one thing that I find interesting that the film does, like I said, is that the lack of conflict, the conflict for about an hour is Katie’s home.
34:40
She’s being a bitch.
And then the next part of the conflict is our daughter’s coming home from college, Becky, and the town throws a God damn parade.
It reminds me of the fucking part when Blairy’s coming home and, you know, Christmas with the cranks get the police, crazy.
34:58
There’s a police.
It’s the same idea.
They throw a fucking parade.
They got the marching band.
Everybody’s like, hey.
It’s not just a parade, it’s a ticker.
Tape.
Yeah.
Everybody’s like Becky, you’re the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever.
Seen I know you’re fucking.
It’s like, by the way, gone to everyone’s head if they don’t say the exact perfect things about her.
35:21
Did you notice they made the store owner a Jew?
Yes, yes, yeah.
Like this very stereotypical, like, you know, Jewish guy running the store, making sure everything is on the up and up.
You know I did.
35:38
You’re the most wonderful.
Now that you’re old enough, I won’t tell you, I won’t put my nose into your pants and sniff whatever you whatever you caught down there in New York, All right?
That like, that’s like what they’re like when he’s giving the speech about her coming back and it’s like she just went to fucking college.
35:57
And that’s the other thing too.
That doesn’t make any sense.
They’re bad because Katie wants to bring her to the city and Mcclintock.
He wants to keep her in Mcclintock.
OK.
She’s like 20 years old, right?
36:13
What are we talking about?
I think she, you know, she you know, she doesn’t.
What does this fight for?
What are we fighting for?
Like you can just fuck off if she wants and leave, you know, and.
Yeah, I, I, I think that the, the whole idea with Becky coming back is like this other thing of, you know, ’cause Mcclintock kind of fancies itself like a Western romance.
36:36
It’s, it’s, it’s certainly in line.
And actually this is kind of late for these types of movies.
I think that 1963, this film feels more like it’s a 50s movie in my opinion.
And the way that the comedy plays out in the very like the, the kind of 50s romance that it’s got going on.
36:54
It’s again this movie I intentionally of course, but it’s it’s not a serious movie.
It is more so a comedy, although it tries to maintain a serious theme throughout, you know, with the the Comanche Indians, it I don’t know that it succeeds it either.
37:14
I think as a romance, it is really misguided in what it like the IT it maybe not for the 60s, I guess, but in terms of what people would find romantic, I don’t.
Or maybe they’re even just banging on the fact like, hey, this is 1800s.
37:32
I don’t know what they did back then.
You know, like, well, all right, fine.
Well, I’ll allow it, you know, But but with what they’re depicting, the film is not particularly romantic.
I think it’s pretty funny.
Some of the things that happened, like the film spends 15 minutes, excruciating minutes on a fight sequence in a like a clay pit.
37:56
And just when you think like, oh, they’re going to cut away, like there’s nothing else that they can do with this fight in the clay pit.
No, we still got more and more scenes of slapstick humor in the clay pit.
I, I, I couldn’t tolerate that.
38:11
I, I was like at that, at a certain point I was like, OK, all right, I’m done here.
This is basically playing the music from Beef.
It’s what’s for dinner.
I was getting fed up with the amount of time spent on it and then I would say the same.
38:30
Same idea goes for the ending of the film where Mcclintic is chasing Katie through the entire literally the entire town and the whole town is following him because it’s the 4th of July acceleration.
‘S going on Yeah, and the BBQ the.
Whole town’s following him as he’s chasing Katie in her like little slip that she’s accidentally, you know, ripped her dress through and now she’s, you know, basically falling in a white, white dress into water.
38:56
So she, you know, almost everything is showing through and, you know, she’s showing some leg.
Maureen O’hara’s showing some like gear, very risque, sort of for 1963.
I, I was getting fed up there too.
It’s like, OK, we don’t need to see 20 minutes of him literally following her around the town just to get to a very, very lame reveal of like, why is Katie actually mad at him ’cause there was lipstick on his collar one time?
39:25
It’s like such the boomer humor of like men.
You know, I, I didn’t really want to talk to my husband.
I just assumed that I got mad and I left for 20 years.
You know, it’s like, I don’t know, I found it extremely lame.
39:42
It didn’t have a a payoff at the end.
And the whole the way that it revolves around the, the conclusion is that she just needs a good spanking.
That’s.
All ’cause they know ’cause they know she’s a bitch.
40:00
That’s right.
The the whole town’s like whoop her ass.
Yeah, they’re like, she needs a humiliation ritual.
Paraded through town.
Had been basically molasses and feathered.
Paraded through town, ripped her dress, thrown in water.
40:17
I don’t, I don’t know, did do women find that romantic?
I I I I feel like maybe, maybe they don’t.
Well, this is back, This is back.
When will you go to take the lady to a romance?
Phone gives a shit.
Or or maybe maybe the on the other hand, it was like marketed as like this is for everyone.
40:39
Women will like it.
It’s got romance.
Men will like, it’s got John Wayne.
You know you it’s it’s for everyone masculine, it’s feminine.
Everybody will like it.
It’s right up.
There are two meals for Sister Sarah.
Don’t you don’t?
Don’t you want a wife or her own children?
40:56
You know, family, a companion.
Wow, I want that.
Tell me to quit drinking, quit roaming, quit gambling.
Fuck that.
I see.
Like that’s what that basically is what the ending is, is like him being like, see, you can be an asshole and get away with it.
41:14
Yeah, you just got to hold that long.
And the ending is like, you just need to take that strong hand and show her who’s boss.
And when you do that, the woman is going to be like, you know what, you’re right, he’s strong.
I why would I?
Why would I not want that?
41:29
He’s strong, the cold shovel hitting her ass and his daughter when his son when dad does it to her at first like is comical because you they have like the sound of like that thing hitting something else metal buttons hitting their ass and it’s like it just like doesn’t work at all and it just sounds so you know, I just.
42:00
Still cannot believe that this whole movie is predicated around like some fetish.
Like the writer’s fetish here is like, I want to see women spanked, you know?
And so like the whole movie is like, how can we get these characters in situations where the man has to spank them, preferably with a coal shovel?
42:19
Like why?
Why is that?
Why is that needed in this movie?
And I just love that the fact that like John Wayne for his daughter is like so gung ho about like, you know what, Dev?
No, you got to you got to smack her with this shovel because she wanted me to shoot you, you know, like so so like, go for it.
42:39
It’s like everybody in this movie has some sort of mental.
Disorder.
It’s just good JD van values.
That’s right.
I just, I just was like, wow, this movie is quite the fetish.
42:58
Speaking of Dev Dev, Warren are Deuteronomist or whatever the hell are, you know.
Yeah, the dude.
Played by Patrick Wayne.
43:13
Did you know that was his John Wayne song or no?
No, when I was watching the movie, I did not really put that together.
You know that that definitely did not see it.
Well, you told me about it and but no, I I would never have.
Thought like, feels like it’s a film and John Wayne’s using it as a means to like, I’m going to give you some family values, boy.
43:38
Well, it also feels strangely like John Wayne’s being like this, ushering his son into like, look, he’s a strong dude.
Like, he gets into this fight and beats the crap out of this one guy.
You know, I don’t know, it just, yeah, it, it makes sense.
43:56
But it also feels weird.
I don’t know, it just seems kind of unnecessary to have it be his his actual son.
He’s not like he’s he’s not bad, but again, like the whole John Wayne isms of like the film like again, like well, how did you Mr. Mcclintock?
44:14
Yes, good day, GW, Mr. Mcclintock.
Yes, that’s right.
I may beat the shit out of my wall and and think the Indians of the fucking devil and so are the jewels would get at least I said Mr. Mcclintock, my man, this was what matters most.
44:34
You know, it’s just.
I think, I think, I said.
Like like it’s just like for me, like I said, it’s just taxing.
It’s absolutely taxing to watch because it’s just like where I’m from, partner, that’s what that’s like.
I think he only said Pilgrim once and he said.
44:50
Yeah, 1 Pilgrim, we got one.
Pilgrim.
I got 1 Pilgrim out of him and he was like.
I think like John Wayne is not really the though he’s the central character.
I don’t know that he’s even necessarily the draw here.
45:07
I actually I think the guy who plays Drago is pretty interesting.
I like, I know that he’s playing this sort of like servant type guy, but I found him pretty funny.
Chill Wills.
His name is nice.
That’s nice stage game.
45:25
So this.
Is already taken.
I actually found him pretty good.
And actually, did you realize that the guy who plays Douglas, the the other college kid who comes back and they like doing their singing duet and everything, that’s Jerry Van Dyke, Dick Van Dyke’s brother.
Yeah.
45:41
Yeah.
If you it’s, it’s actually, he’s super young in this one.
But if you look closely, you can tell, you can just kind of see the resemblance that it’s Jerry Van Dyke.
So I thought.
He’s not.
He’s linking enough to be a Van Dyke, you know.
45:57
Yeah, so he gets a nice little singing duet with with Becky where they they put on a performance.
So.
I don’t know about you, but that’s also the other thing too, because you got Dev, who’s the sooner and rancher and farmer, and then you got Jerry who’s sitting there singing, playing banjo like the entire time.
46:19
The reason?
Like Mcclintock, he’s just like, I don’t want my daughter marrying.
Oh fag.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, do.
Something please.
Like, she’s just like, yeah, it’s because like, he’s like, because like, he’s so, you know, not just like a Broadway vaudeville like style entertainer and college boy.
46:43
But when he tries to get on his horse, he broke a stirrup.
Right.
Yeah, it’s sort.
Of on the ride on the ride home drive, you know, Dev rode the horse is hard.
So he was wandering and flipping and found in the back of the free, you know, like it’s just so fucking stupid.
47:03
Like he’s so seriously, you can just like type of thing, like.
Right.
And and like the just the idea too that it just with upholds the sort of like masculine values of this time.
It’s yeah, it’s.
47:19
He was drinking a beer instead of whiskey at the BBQ.
Yeah, I.
Found chicken thigh instead of the breast.
I found it pretty funny that it like, again, like you said, I, I do think that it is to some extent kind of surprising the way that it lands on like the, the US government and Native Americans.
47:44
But at the same time, it is also extremely upholding of these very conservative values that may or may not have been popular at the time of the film’s production.
But also, you know, I don’t necessarily know that they were equivalent to from.
48:04
What I briefly saw is apparently this is one of the and I don’t know how true it is not so take you with the greatest salt.
This is one of the first films where John Wayne’s like politics.
He really like dictated and got the show, like, you know, Oh yeah, his, his politics.
48:19
So.
Which again, I find surprising because you would think that it wouldn’t be as critical of the US government here, but.
It is what it’s led by Communist Kenny.
It’s true.
True.
But you’re right though, chill Drago.
48:37
Like he is like the best part about the film.
Like he is fun in spite of being a bitch the entire film.
He’s just a lot of time and a lot of fun.
Though I feel bad for like John Wayne constantly being like pull that hog leg, hold that hog.
48:58
Who the hell never like said that.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anytime like in a western like something hog leg.
No, I agree.
I don’t know that that’s ever, in my experience, somebody has been saying that routinely.
49:15
I don’t, I don’t recall that.
But yeah, they they use it like four or five.
Times, yeah, I mean, I was, I was perturbed.
I like every time they busted out like my like I was just entranced, like, you know.
Like.
What?
What the hell did you just call that thing?
49:32
I thought he was talking about his his penis.
Pull out the hog leg.
It’s true because you know, it’s sometimes it’s all what a good woman needs.
You just got to whoop that, duck out and say.
That’s right, here it is.
How do you do?
49:48
Yeah.
Oh, what else?
What else do we talk about?
We I mean, what do you think about the slapstick humor?
We talked a little bit about it, like with the, the, you know, the, the fights and the, the clay, clay slide and everything like that.
But what do you think about it?
Like it is this uphold what you think of as like a John Wayne style western film or is it even more slapsticky than general?
50:11
No, no, it’s much more slapsticky.
It’s like, you know, I don’t remember watching The Searchers and being like, oh, look at all that humor.
It’s fine.
Like, I mean, for what it is as like a comedy, like, yeah.
And the slapstick, whatever.
50:27
But like, again, like, it’s completely secondary to what this film overall isn’t done.
So it’s like even like the few funny parts that there are, it’s like, doesn’t really say what the hell, you know, for the rest of the film looks like you.
50:46
You were saying this film is a gigantic, tedious, enormous slog.
An hour could have been easily cut off this to make a slimmer funner film, but we got to have John Wayne on the fucking mount giving a sermon every 3 minutes being like eat your vegetables kids and if your sister’s being a bitch hitter.
51:13
Yeah, pretty much.
No, it definitely, it’s, it’s way too long.
It’s two hours is just way too long for what the film actually offers it.
I think that a whole, yeah, like you said, like a whole hour could have been cut out because it really needed it.
51:32
It really needs to have a much more structured and more edited version that cuts out some of the fluff that it really doesn’t need.
There is so much fluff that this film has that’s really doesn’t add anything to the proceedings I’m thinking of like the whole like the long sequence is like 10 minutes long of them singing in the den while Dev is like playing chess and not paying attention.
51:57
Like somewhat funny I guess.
Necessary absolutely not like just elongates the movie in a way that’s just completely not needed They.
Even elongated that scene, he’s sitting there singing the song and then like halfway through stuff.
52:14
No, no, I don’t think too.
Let’s start from the top.
And it’s just like.
God like we don’t.
Need like this is.
Yeah, it just keeps going.
It just, it just keeps going.
Yeah.
I I think that it desperately needed some editing.
52:34
It needs to be slimmed down a bit without too many of the plot, the unnecessary plot points and including too many individuals.
Like we really didn’t need Misses Warren to be a large part of the movie.
Some of those things are just take too long and and and don’t really add much to the to the film itself.
52:58
But yeah, I I think that it’s, it’s an interesting, you know, sort of like time capsule again, this movie doesn’t.
And I again, we don’t really know the back story.
Like we didn’t look it up.
It’s not what we do here.
53:15
Yeah, exactly.
The film does feel very 50s esque though it it it feels like it should have been released earlier than it actually did in 1963.
However, as I mentioned as well, this this film has a very bonanza esque style to it.
53:35
It, it’s something that you would, you would expect as like a plot line in, in a bonanza episode.
And truthfully, I would not be surprised if this could have been just like 2 episodes of Bonanza, you know, like it, it, it almost feels like that’s what it was intended to be like that that this time Bonanza was pretty popular.
53:59
It had already been out for about four years.
I would venture a guess that there’s probably some people that were in Bonanza that also show up in this movie, though I I don’t have that at off the top of my head here.
It just feels a lot like that that show and not that I’ve a huge Bonanza viewer or anything like that.
54:24
I’ve never really sat down and watched the show, but just knowing that the type of show that it was and having seen clips and everything, it just feels very much like a Bonanza esque experience.
Anything else that I we didn’t go over?
54:45
I think that’s about it.
Think we think we hit it.
So on a scale of zero to 10 saloon bazongas, because the film has a number of those that show up here every now and then, like especially when John Wayne goes into the saloon the first time and the the women are basically batting their eyes at it.
55:10
Oh my gosh, Mcclintock’s are Mcclintock.
Boys, girls, ladies, she he owns the town so for a hand jobs free.
That’s right.
Yeah.
Like you got to put out like that.
Whatever he wants, he gets here.
What would you give Mcclintock, or Mcclintock however you want to say?
55:28
Mcclintock.
I’ll give Mcclintock A5 out of 10.
Boring, bland I don’t like John Wayne.
This is like a pure like film reason to why I don’t like John Wayne.
55:44
He’s just a bore, uncharismatic and just filled with nonsense.
It’s a rambling, meandering mess of a film.
It has too many plot points and threads and ideas that it wants to try and crab into a fucking comedy.
You know if you’re doing a comedy you shouldn’t have like 7 morals tied to it.
56:03
You know there does have some fun slapstick every now and then.
It doesn’t save the film.
It’s like a it’s a drag.
I had a bad time watching it and I was I wasn’t like just like, you know, checking my watch every now and then, but I was just sitting there going like, God, This is why I don’t want to wait 5 out of 10.
56:30
It’s just the problems with it.
If you’ve listened to the episode, you’ll like I don’t you know, it’s all I can say 5 out of 10 like, you know, just listen to the to the before to get your answer.
I would give it like a 5 1/2 out of 10.
I it’s, I feel like it’s kind of inoffensive.
56:49
Well, it’s not, it is kind of offensive, you know, but wait, it’s a misogyny and stuff.
But in terms of entertainment?
Ryan’s moral take after talking about the misogyny?
That’s it, man.
That’s what I’m talking right now.
What do you give the film said about?
Yeah.
57:06
So it’s not in that sense, but in the sense of like as a film to watch, I feel like entertainingly it’s it’s rather inoffensive.
However, I do think that there are many scenes that go on too long, films just far too long in general.
57:22
I don’t necessarily think that John Wayne is good or bad here.
It’s just sort of like if you know John Wayne, if you like John Wayne, like you’re probably going to find Mcclintic to be fine.
If you don’t, then it’s going to be more of the same from him.
Although I think some of the John Wayne isms that you would come to expect are not here on purpose.
57:43
Overall, it’s a really kind of an odd film that for all the longest time really lacks conflict in general.
Like I think for about an hour you’re kind of just following along like, what am I doing here?
And once it does get to the conflict, I think the resolution is extremely stupid in the fact that like the whole thing could have been resolved with a literal one minute conversation that would that says like, I found lipstick on your collar.
58:15
What happened?
And he’s like, whatever happened, I don’t even know that.
I don’t even think they tell us what happened.
He just is like, that’s it.
That’s the only thing.
Let me smash your ass and then we’ll, you know, you’ll be back to normal, no problem.
So the whole idea of it is really kind of stupid and misogynistic that a woman could just be put in her place so that, you know, everything’s fine again and she’ll burn up those divorce papers.
58:40
So I think as it stands, it’s fine.
I definitely would not come back to Mcclintic.
Certainly not.
You know, this is not my style of Western for sure.
So 5 1/2 out of 10.
The fact that you keep calling it Mcclintock instead of Mcclintock the entire episode is is really bugging me.
59:03
It’s grinding your gears.
You you just being contrarian to be contrarian.
Sorry, sorry.
So yeah, that’s it for Mcclintock.
Mcclintock.
I’ll say it.
We’re going to move on next week to a different decade in Western American Westerns, So should be fun.
59:24
We’re gonna and and I promise that’s the that’s the only John Williams so.
Here’s your hint, we’re doing Back to the Future 3 Best Western ever.
Best Western, we’re going to a Best Western.
That’s what that’s what we’re doing.
59:42
Are they?
Even.
Is that even still a hotel?
No.
It’s with you.
I don’t, I don’t know, but it’s like.
I say it’s like watching like commercial commercials of old from like the 90s.
Right when you’re like everything brand now.
Every 3 seconds there’s a fucking commercial about collect calling.
59:59
What is this?
That’s right.
But yeah, if you if you are enjoying our episodes for Red Hot Action summer, we hope to come back next time for another Western.
Like I said again, it’s going to be a different era completely, so should be fun.
So yeah, stick around.
1:00:17
Come back all throughout August.
You can catch us on pretty much any podcast app you can think of.
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So subscribe, leave us a nice review that always helps us out.
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1:00:34
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So we appreciate that in advance.
Again, thanks for listening to our episode on Mcclintock.
1:00:51
Hope you enjoyed and we’ll see you back next time for another western.
Until then, take care.
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