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I Just Read the Most Ridiculous Ranking of John Wayne Films Ever
The Duke deserves better than this
It was less than a month ago that I ranted about an article from Slash Film claiming to list the 100 best books of all time. If you read that one, you will recall that the author placed two Dan Brown novels in his top fifteen while not mentioning Ernest Hemingway until #61. I was certain that I would never see a more ridiculous so-called “best of” again in my lifetime.
I was correct for exactly 21 days.
This morning, in the middle of an ice storm, my Google feed presented me with an article that immediately grabbed my attention: “The 27 Best John Wayne Films, Ranked.” If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know that I have a reverence for John Wayne equaled only by Steve McQueen, Bill Murray, Ernest Hemingway, and Scooby-Doo and surpassed only by the man I will see in concert ten days from now, Bruce Springsteen. Of course I was going to read that article.
I clicked on the link, fully expecting to disagree with one or two of the author’s rankings; this is to be expected with any such list. It’s why when I write these types of articles I typically avoid the word “best” in favor of “favorite.” In fact, I wrote just such a story about my favorite John Wayne films early last year.