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This John Wayne collection presents 14 of the Duke's greatest films: DONOVAN'S REEF (1963), HATARI (1962), IN HARM'S WAY (1965), ISLAND IN THE SKY (1953), TRUE GRIT (1969), RIO LOBO (1970), BIG JAKE (1971), HONDO (1953), THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER (1965), EL DORADO (1967), THE SHOOTIST (1976), THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962), THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954), and MCLINTOCK (1963). See individual titles for plot synopses.

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Director extraordinaire John Huston brings to life the legendary hanging judge of the Old West, Roy Bean, a mysterious outlaw who sets up shop in a small town and establishes his own law. Paul Newman excels in his title role of His Honor. This western comedy scored an Academy Award nomination for its song "Marmalade, Molasses & Honey."

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A classic Western regarded by many as the best of the genre, John Ford's THE SEARCHERS has been acknowledged by several directors who came into their own in the 1970s, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Paul Schrader, and George Lucas, as a powerful influence on their work. The film stars John Wayne as Ethan Edwards, a case-hardened Civil War veteran returning to his brother Aaron's (Walter Coy) Texas home in 1868. When Rev. Samuel Johnson Clayton (Ward Bond) arrives to raise a posse to run down the Comanche who have stolen the cattle of neighbor Lars Jorgenson (John Qualen), Ethan is among those who join him. They return to find the Edwards family slaughtered and the two girls, Lucy (Pippa Scott) and Debbie (Natalie Wood), missing. The posse continues to search for the girls but turns back as winter settles in. However, Ethan and his reluctantly accepted companion, Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter), the girls' part-Cherokee stepbrother, press on for another seven years, with the Indian-hating veteran becoming ever more fanatical as the hard seasons pass. In his epic meditation on racism, obsession, paranoia, and the myth of the West, Ford explores the ugly underside of a genre that he had imbued with optimism in his early career. Wayne gives perhaps his most powerful performance as the embittered Edwards, but it's the visual poetry of what are possibly Ford's most carefully framed, lit, and composed images that shape this masterwork from beginning to end. As Wayne walks through the doorway at the film's end, he grabs his elbow in a tribute to his and Ford's close friend Harry Carey Sr., a Western film icon who had passed away a few years before.

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HELLFIGHTERS: In one of Wayne's less spectacular later dramas from 1968, he plays real-life character Red Adair, owner of a Texas company that puts out oil-well fires. Katherine Ross, fresh from earning an Academy Award nomination for THE GRADUATE, in '67 plays his feisty daughter. REAP THE WILD WIND: John Wayne, Ray Milland, and Paulette Goddard team up with the legendary producer-director Cecil B. DeMille to create one of the greatest swashbuckling epics of all time. Adventures on the panoramic high seas highlight this tale of two men competing for the same woman. Key West in the 1840s is filled with salvage businesses thriving on the cargo of wrecked ships dashed against the coral reefs. Spunky ship owner Loxi Claiborne (Paulette Goddard) suspects salvager King Cutler (Raymond Massey) of foul play, since he's always first on the scene at a wreck. The independent, kittenish Southern gal is waiting on deck to help rescue the latest survivors of a wreck when she meets courageous Captain Jack Stuart (John Wayne), who instantly falls for the free-spirited Loxi. Loxi and Jack promise themselves to one another and make arrangements to meet up in Charleston. But, once in Charleston, Loxi meets lawyer Stephen Tolliver (Ray Milland). Despite Loxi's refusal to act like a typical blushing Southern belle, she quickly entices the debonair businessman, who decides that he will do anything to make her his wife. The rivals in love become enemies in the courtroom when Jack helms another wreck and Tolliver suspects foul play. Who will be found guilty and how hinges on some amazing developments. Along with the star-studded cast, this glorious sea spectacle stars huge clipper ships, horrifying storms, and a giant squid in a memorable underwater battle. ROOSTER COGBURN: John Wayne reprises his role as Rooster Cogburn, the eye-patched, whiskey-guzzling deputy marshall from TRUE GRIT. While on the trail of a gang of outlaws led by his old partner, Hawk (a truly villainous Richard Jordan), Rooster teams up with bible-thumping missionary Eula Goodnight (Katherine Hepburn) to avenge the murder of her father by the gang. The chemistry between Wayne and Hepburn is palpable as barbs fly between the grumpy gunman and feisty missionary, and Strother Martin delivers a sparkling cameo. THE SPOILERS: Two Yukon adventurers duke it out over a gold claim and a beautiful saloon girl in this remake of the classic Rex Beach novel about life in an Alaskan mining town during the gold rush of early 1900. John Wayne plays miner Roy Glennister, co-owner of a gold mine financed by saloon owner Cherry Malotte (a sultry, double-entendre-spouting Marlene Dietrich). When crooked gold commissioner Alexander McNamara (Randolph Scott) conspires to steal Glennister's claim--along with the affections of Cherry--it's a no-holds-barred showdown between the two rivals in one of the best saloon brawls in cinema history. THE WAR WAGON: Frank Pierce (Bruce Cabot) is a ruthless man bent on manipulating the cattle business for his own wealth and prosperity. When Taw Jackson (John Wayne), an honest rancher, interferes with his plans, Pierce imprisons him and confiscates his gold-filled land. Taw escapes and plans a raid on Pierce's heavily guarded payroll carriage--but not if Pierce has anything to say about it. After assembling a group of misfits and hired guns, Taw runs into serious opposition when he encounters the madcap gunslinger, Lomax (Kirk Douglas). Sent by Pierce to stop the raid, Lomax winds up taking a liking to Taw, and they decide to join forces and stage a raid on Pierce's WAR WAGON.

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As the film opens, Josey Wales is a simple farmer in Missouri. When a vicious band of Union Red Legs, led by Terrill (Bill McKinney), burns his home to the ground, killing his wife and son, Wales joins a gang of Confederate raiders, determined to get revenge. After the Confederacy loses the war, Wales sets out on his own, an outlaw who kills to survive. He eventually meets an old Indian (Chief Dan George, in a wonderfully sympathetic performance) and some other outcasts, and together they seek out a more peaceful existence. But Terrill continues to hunt Wales, and the simple farmer is forced to fight again. Critics did not take Clint Eastwood's THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES seriously in 1976. Today, many consider it one of the greatest Westerns ever made. Here the West is an ugly and brutal place, as it is in Sergio Leone's films, but this is a different kind of Eastwood hero. He has a name, a sense of humor, and a heart. Made in the shadow of Vietnam and Watergate, the film conveys a bitter distrust of government but also a longing to live in peace. Next to UNFORGIVEN, this is the most sweeping and emotionally complex of Eastwood's Westerns.

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The first film of John Ford's celebrated Cavalry Trilogy, FORT APACHE mirrors the effects of the director's wartime experience on his attitude toward military command. Lt. Col. Owen Thursday (Henry Fonda), a West Point-trained Civil War veteran, is sent to command the remote Arizona outpost of Fort Apache. An arrogant, by-the-book officer, he's annoyed at having drawn such an ignominious assignment. Despite the warnings of veteran Indian-fighter Capt. Kirby York (John Wayne), he dismisses the notion that a group of savages could possibly be of concern to one possessing his military prowess. After Thursday's daughter, Philadelphia (Shirley Temple), and young Lt. Michael O'Rourke (Ward Bond) find the bodies of some mutilated soldiers, it's discovered that Indian agent Silas Meacham (Grant Withers) has been stirring the Apaches up by selling them liquor illegally. York persuades Thursday to withhold all action until he can arrange peace talks with Cochise (Miguel Inclan), but when the Indian chief shows up for the palaver he finds that the blindly willful army commander has called out the entire regiment for an attack on the Apache force. A tragic, absorbingly complex study of the problems of command, FORT APACHE benefits enormously from Fonda's superb performance and the exhaustive research of screenwriter Frank S. Nugent into Apache culture and the army outposts of the era.

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In 1825, John Morgan (Richard Harris), an English aristocrat, is captured by a tribe of Sioux Indians. Hoping to save his own life by proving his worth, Morgan undergoes the long, painful Sun Vow ritual, where he is hung in a tree by the flesh of his chest. This film, which paints a very detailed portrait of the Sioux customs and lifestyle, spawned two sequels: RETURN OF A MAN CALLED HORSE and TRIUMPHS OF A MAN CALLED HORSE.

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With his clipped delivery and weighty screen presence, John Wayne is one of the icons of the Western genre. This collection presents four of the actor's best films: THE SEARCHERS, FORT APACHE, RIO BRAVO, and THE COWBOYS. Please see individual titles for complete synopsis information.

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Eight classic westerns that John Ford and John Wayne collaborated on together are collected in this release. The titles include: THE SEARCHERS, STAGECOACH, FORT APACHE, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, WINGS OF EAGLES, SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, THEY WERE EXPENDABLE, and THREE GODFATHERS. Please see individual titles for synopsis information.

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Though the Western might have been born in America, the Italians put their own distinctive stamp on the genre. This collection includes 20 films from the cowboy boot-shaped nation, with director Sergio Corbucci, composer Ennio Morricone, and star Lee Van Cleef all lending their talents to the screen.

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In this action-packed Western, Cole Armin (Randolph Scott) arrives in Albuquerque with dreams of making it big with his uncle John Armin's (George Cleveland freight-hauling business. He soon learns, however, that his uncle's business tactics leave much to be desired, and that his primary goal is wiping out his competition, Ted Wallace (Russell Hayden). When Cole has enough of his uncle's underhanded dealings, he crosses over to work with Wallace, but soon finds himself in the middle of a trap!

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Actor Ed Harris takes only his second stab at directing, following the Oscar-winning feature POLLOCK (2000) with this spirited western. Harris draws on a strong cast, many of whom have acted with him in previous films, to tell the story of two gunfighters attempting to bring peace to the small town of Appaloosa in the late 1800s. Virgil Cole (Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) ride into the windswept New Mexico town and are hired to bring vigilante entrepreneur Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons) to justice. Bragg has imposed a reign of terror over Appaloosa, but his murderous actions are tempered when Cole and Hitch take control. Matters get complicated when widower Allison French (Renee Zellweger) flounces into town and variously woos Cole, Hitch, and Bragg, allowing Harris to throw in a few neat twists as his two principal characters attempt to bring the miscreant entrepreneur to justice. APPALOOSA is a slow-moving and beautifully shot feature that perfectly translates the dusky New Mexico landscape to celluloid. The film stands shoulder to shoulder with 21st-century westerns such as THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD and THE PROPOSITON, and much like those films Harris's feature draws heavily on deeply affecting performances from his leads. Irons is particularly affecting as the baleful Bragg, who brings a real air of menace to the screen any time he appears on camera. The nuanced turns by Harris and Mortensen play like a master class in subtlety, with the two seasoned actors perfectly delivering two stoic characters who are masking a lifetime of pain and suffering. Harris's feature is a welcome addition to the fold of introspective westerns, effortlessly standing alongside similar efforts such as Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN or James Mangold's 3:10 TO YUMA.

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A lament for the passage of time and the second in the director's acclaimed series of cavalry films, John Ford's SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON stars John Wayne as Capt. Nathan Brittles, a cavalry officer stationed in the Southwest. While contemplating his retirement, which is only a week away, Brittles is assigned to escort the wife and niece of his commanding officer, Maj. Mac Allshard (George O'Brien), to the stage line at Sudros Wells. Although he would prefer to battle the rampaging Cheyenne Indians as his final action, Brittles obeys orders. En route, two of the men in Brittles's patrol, Lieutenants Cohill and Pennell (John Agar and Harry Carey Jr.), get an eyeful of the major's distracting niece, Olivia (Joanne Dru), and nearly kill each other trying to attract her attention. Brittles then gets word from a scout, Sergeant Tyree (Ben Johnson), that a group of Arapaho Indian warriors is heading straight toward Sudros Wells. Wayne is at his best in his sensitive portrayal of an older man reluctantly stepping away from the only life he's known. Despite the constant skirmishing of Ford and cinematographer Winston Hoch, the cameraman won an Oscar for his work on the film and would go on to shoot the director's THE QUIET MAN and THE SEARCHERS.

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A girl kneels over the grave of her murdered dog, praying for a miracle, while off in the distance, a man rides toward town on a pale horse. Clint Eastwood's PALE RIDER was the filmmaker's first Western in nearly a decade. It finds a pleasant balance between the mystical revisionism of films such as HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER and the traditional Western. Eastwood stars as the Preacher, who wanders into a dusty California town and tries to rescue a community of gold prospectors that is being terrorized by the local corporate mining operation, which is strip-mining the land. He's taken in by Hull Barrett (Michael Moriarty), who lives with Sarah Wheeler (Carrie Snodgrass) and her 14-year-old daughter, she of the murdered pooch, Megan (Sydney Penny). The Preacher is something of a blend of Eastwood's Man with No Name and the title character of George Stevens's SHANE. The story and treatment are straightforward and entertaining, and the strong performances draw the audience in. The Preacher remains a mysterious character, but in the end, as he takes on the evil mining corporation's hired guns, it's impossible not to root for him.

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After his cowhands desert him for a nearby gold rush, aging, leather-tough rancher Will Anderson (John Wayne) resorts to hiring 11 schoolboys to help him on a 400-mile cattle run. Setting off with the boys and an eloquent but equally tough black cook (Roscoe Lee Browne), Anderson must get his cattle to their destination while contending with the wilderness and a psychotic, vengeful ex-con (Bruce Dern) who is out to get him. With an amazingly natural performance by Wayne, this stylized, action-packed Western is exquisitely filmed, emotionally sensitive, and highly entertaining. Director Mark Rydell gets solid performances out of not just Wayne (in one of his later screen roles) and Browne, but the group of youngsters accompanying them on the journey, as well as actors like Slim Pickens and Colleen Dewhurst who play smaller supporting roles. Close attention is also paid to the natural beauty of the mountains, wild mustangs, and other often overlooked standard Western fare.

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Before he became a fixture in the Spaghetti Western genre, actor Clint Eastwood shot to fame in the 1950s and '60s television series RAWHIDE. Considered one of the best TV Westerns of all time, the classic show followed the adventures of a band of rovers hired to drive cattle through the lawless terrain of the 1870s Wild West while encountering both natural and manmade dangers such as anthrax and cattle rustlers. Eastwood starred as rover Rowdy Yates, the straight-arrow assistant to a tough-as-nails trail boss, Gil Favor (Eric Fleming), who also presided over trail hands Mushy (James Murdock), Quince (Steve Raines), Nolan (Sheb Wooley), and Wishbone (Paul Brinegar). This collection presents the series' first three seasons.

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This collection features screen icon John Wayne in 10 classic westerns: ANGEL AND THE BADMAN, THE DAWN RIDER, THE LUCKY TEXAN, THE MAN FROM UTAH, 'NEATH THE ARIZONA SKIES, RIDERS OF DESTINY, SAGEBRUSH TRAIL, TEXAS TERROR, THE TRAIL BEYOND, and WEST OF THE DIVIDE. JOHN WAYNE: AMERICAN HERO also features THE AMERICAN WEST OF JOHN FORD, a documentary about the director who frequently collaborated with the Duke. Please see individual titles for synopsis information.

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This charming comic western features a winning performance by star Jason Robards as prospector Calble Hogue. Double-crossed and left for dead in the desert, Hogue recovers to find the only well for miles. Soon Hogue's turned the place into a thriving oasis and eventually his treacherous partners return so Hogue can have the revenge he hankers. An unusual but winning offering from the notoriously violent Peckinpah.

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James Arness reprises his role as Marshall Matt Dillon in these 3 made-for-television movie sequels to the long-running TV western Gunsmoke (1955-1975). Includes RETURN TO DODGE (1987), THE LAST APACHE (1990), and TO THE LAST MAN (1992). See individual titles for plot details.

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Regarded by many as the best Western ever made, STAGECOACH shot John Wayne to stardom and elevated the prestige of a genre that had hitherto been considered a B-movie province. With rumors in the air of a possible Apache attack, a motley group of travelers in a small New Mexico town board the Overland Stage bound for Lordsburg. Among them are the pregnant Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt); timid liquor salesman Peacock (Donald Meek); Hatfield, an aloof gambler (John Carradine); Gatewood (Berton Churchill), a pompous, embezzling banker; and two who have been exiled from town, alcoholic Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell) and Dallas (Clair Trevor), a lady of the evening. Along the trail, they pick up the Ringo Kid (John Wayne), an outlaw who's escaped from prison to take revenge on the Plummer brothers for destroying his family and framing him for murder. As their journey progresses, the hypocrisy of the supposedly respectable passengers becomes clear, and it's the tainted outsiders who display courage and humanity. Described by Orson Welles, who watched the film innumerable times before making CITIZEN KANE, as his cinematic textbook, STAGECOACH is superbly made in every respect, layering humor and sharp characterization into an exciting plot that includes a spectacularly photographed chase in Monument Valley.