My Dad loves John Wayne. He knows everything about him; including that his actual name was Miriam. The Sons of Katie Elder is good. It's about her 3 sons who are argueing after her death. The Shootist is John Wayne's last movie coincidently beacause it is about a shootist's last shoot out. Big Jake is about a guy who leaves his family and has to rescue his grandson he didn't know that he had. I like them all.

The Shootist at least had the extra features and interviews the other DVD's are lacking. Such a shame, so much more could be added to the other DVD's in this collection as well as the 1st volume. You will have to love them on the movies alone........

The three DVDs have no extras besides the one feature on The Shootist so I will focus on the movies:

The Sons of Katie Elder has two huge stars, John Wayne and Dean Martin, as the two eldest of the Elders. Earl Holliman and Michael Anderson star as the two younger Elder brothers. All four sons come back to town of Clearwater, Texas, to see her buried and pay their respects. The story is about a broken family trying to find peace but also four sons trying to find out who had killed their father and made their mother move from the family's land. Lots of gun fights but also lots of humor between the four brothers.

Big Jake has two stars who are the main focus of the movie. Of course there is John Wayne as Big Jake and then there is Richard Boone as the head of an outlaw gang who has kidnapped Little Jake, Jake's grandson. Richard Boone would show up in a few of John Wayne's films. There is a lot of humor in this movie but the gun fights are also bloody and dark. Maureen O'Hara is in the first act as his wife he hasn't seen in 18 years.

The Shootist is the last film John Wayne would be in and the 69th Western he made. Tons of star power. Richard Boone, James Stewart, Laurea Bacall, Ron Howard, Bill McKinney, John Carradine, Harry Morgan. Hugh O'Brian and more. The story, based on a book by the same title, is about a gunslinger who finds out his days are numbered and he tries to find peace during his final hours. The character of John Bernard Books, played by the ill and tired John Wayne, really comes out as realistic (maybe because John Wayne knew his days were short also). The film is well crafted and one of the first John Wayne movies I ever saw. From the start with the black and white clippings of Wayne movies that act as a background, a history, of the shootist's life to the scene of Ron Howard walking away from the last gunfight everything is set carefully into place like a lovely puzzle. Some of the lines in the movie, many copied right out of the book, sound like wishful echoes of a time long gone.

This three movies are a must for any Western collection.

This second volume in the John Wayne collection features three more later Duke Westerns. While none may be classics, they are all very good and still show the presence that Wayne had towards the end of his career.

Sons of Katie Elder (1965) re-unites Wayne with his Rio Bravo co-star DEan Martin. These two buddies had great chemistry together. They, along with Earl Holliman and Michael Anderson play the four sons of Katie Elder who return home to attend their mother's funeral and to find out why she was driven off her land. James Gregory plays the no-good baddie and George kennedy is the gunfighter hired to run John Elder (Wayne) off.

Big Jake (1971) is one of my all-time favorite Wayne pictures as its the final time he would co-star with Maureen O' Hara. It's also quite violent as the film opens with a band of outlaws led by Richard Boone who come to the McCandles ranch and kidnap Big Jake's (Wayne) grandson. Jake has been estranged from his family for a number of years but his wife (O'Hara) sends for him to come home to help find the little boy. He's joined by his two sons James (Real life son patrick) and Michael (Chris Mitchum) and an old indian buddy played by frequent Wayne co-star, Bruce Cabot. Wayne interplay with his two sons is a blast and Boone was a great villian.

The Shootist (1976) was sadly Wayne's last film as it mirrored his own life. He played an aging gunfighter named J.B. Brooks who finds out he has cancer and not long to live. Jimmy Stewart co-stars with Wayne re-uniting these two who starred in the classic "Man who Shot Liberty Valance". The great cast also includes Ron Howard, Lauren Bacall, Richard Boone, Hugh O'Brian, Harry Morgan and John Carradine. It's a good film but very sad to watch as Wayne would finally pass away not long after.

Very good set overall.

First of all, in "The Sons of Katie Elder", it is obviously still a wild wild west and so "Katie Elder" of this movie cannot be the relatively well-known frontier figure, "Big Nose Kate" Elder, Doc Holliday's girlfriend. (If you don't know who Doc is, you're in the wrong genre). Still, she must have been quite a gal as her oldest son (Wayne) is in his late 50s and looks it and his youngest (Michael Andreson, Jr) is in his 20s (but plays it younger). It's a decent tale of revenge with Wayne in a typical larger-than-life role though he was secretly sickly at the time. The other two flicks are more worth the ride. "The Shootist" portrayal might have even been Oscar-worthy in another year in a story of a dying gunfighter who faces a final challenge with three baddies. The character study includes standout performances in small roles by the ever-sexy Sheree North (in middle age), Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, Jimmy Stewart and other well-known faces from Westerns. Richard Boone and TV's "Wyatt Earp", Hugh O'Brian, are two of the gunslicks in a memorable saloon shootout. Richard Boone had also been the chief bad guy in "Big Jake" where Wayne's grandson (in real life his young son Ethan) had been kidnapped from the care of his ex (Maureen O'Hara) for ransom. Son Patrick Wayne also appears, along with Wayne friend Bruce Cabot, and a dog named "Dog" who only has to have Big Jake call his name to cow an offensive person with an impatient threatening growl. All in all, a good package of Duke stuff.