Ben Johnson

[7] John Wayne worked pretty much right up until the end of his life, and even in that last decade there are gems to be found. Chisum stars Wayne as the title character, John Chisum, a New Mexico cattle baron who ends up in a battle with a greedy tycoon named Lawrence Murphy (Forrest Tucker). As Murphy buys up all the local business in town …

[5] The Russians invade America and spark World War III in this Cold-War emblem from writer/director John Milius (Conan the Barbarian, Big Wednesday). Political correctness aside, the opening of this movie — the Russian invasion — is very effective. But the rest of the movie fails to live up to the promise of its first 10 minutes. It’s fun to see the cast, all of …

[7] Cherry 2000 is good corny fun. It takes place in a somewhat post-apocalyptic 2017 (almost there!) where gender dynamics and sex politics have gotten so complicated, that many men prefer to bond with robots rather than flesh-and-blood women. That’s the part of the movie that genuinely fascinates me — but these ideas are dealt with pretty early on, with the rest of the film …

[7] An ex-con and his wife are on the lam after a heist goes bad in this flick from Sam Peckinpah (Straw Dogs, The Wild Bunch). Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw star as the central couple. She has to sleep with supporting baddie Ben Johnson to get McQueen’s character released from prison, and when McQueen finds out about it at the movie’s mid-point, it makes …

[10] Peter Bogdanovich adapts Larry McMurtry’s nostalgic coming-of-age tale, creating a film so believably rooted in a lonely time and place (the early ’50s Texas dust bowl), that you have a hard time shaking it when it’s over. The film chronicles the sexual indiscretions of its ensemble of characters, which include a high school infatuation between Duane (Jeff Bridges) and Jacy (Cybill Shepherd), as well …