The Big Trail (1930) & Barbarian and the Geisha (1958)

--WALMART EXCLUSIVE --

20th Century Fox will release Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail on Blu-ray exclusively at Wal-Mart on May 8.  Also available on the same date will be John Huston's The Barbarian and the Geisha.

Now I am a huge John Wayne fan and this is big news.  Barbarian and the Geisha, while not anywhere near one of The Duke's better films, has never been released on DVD in the US, so for us John Wayne fans, this is exciting.

 The Big Trail which gave John Wayne his very first starring role (no John Ford did not do that for the Duke, Raoul Walsh did) is a wonderfully large movie of the outdoors using an experimental process in 70mm widescreen cinematography called Grandeur — and it is a breathtaking film.  Many people say Duke is inexperienced and insecure in his acting but I see a lot of John Wayne's traits showing in this movie that made The Duke... well... The Duke.


Next is the Barbarian and the Geisha which was hampered from the very beginning with problems and reportedly Duke and John Huston did not get along very well at all, however Duke being the professional that he was refused to quit his contract and followed through even though he saw disaster coming.  Being a Duke fan I like the movie, however most people see it as one of his worst, right up there with The Conqueror they say (I like that movie too).

NOW, here is my personal wish, if ever there was a John Wayne movie that deserved a complete re-master (the DVD release was just AWFUL!) and belonged on Blu-ray, that movie is John Ford's Quiet Man.  That would be amazing!