Review of Brannigan (1975) by Greg W — 23 Sep 2014

Wednesday, September 24, 2014.

(1975) Brannigan.

CRIME DRAMA/ ACTION.

Had this been the first Wayne movie I had ever saw, it would've been intolerable, and I had attempted to try to watch this film at specific times in the past, but ended up wasting my rental money as a result. But after seeing some of Wayne's best films which are his Westerns, and then seeing "MCQ"(the first of two "Dirty Harry" copycats) this film became less unbearable- I even tried to watch this first before watching "MQ" but with no avail. It's like seeing your grandfather on the big screen acting tough, but on a very slow moving scale. Upon looking at film critic, Roger Ebert's movie review, he said that it was reminiscent of a Western, as well as hinted at the idea that he would've enjoyed it more had it been one too. When I started to watch this, viewers should always know by now that the good guy image is the only thing John Wayne plays, for the closest bad guy he ever came to playing would probably be Genghis Kahn of "The Conqueror" providing if someone would call it a bad guy role. But it's like this, as a result of watching many movies later, this film became less unbearable since besides Wayne, the cast also includes some movie veteran actors such as Mel Ferrer, Richard Attenborough, and Ralph Meeker who was best known to star in "Kiss Me Deadly". For some strange reason, it was quite a relief to see them still acting on the big screen despite their prime.

The set up regards, Lt Jim "Brannigan" looking for extortionist and racketeer, Larkin(John Vernon) in Chicago, but was later given a plane ticket paid by his precinct to find him in London, England. He's then met with Jennifer(Judy Geeson) before meeting her superior who happens to be the commander who's function is to aid Brannigan by the name of Swann played by Richard Attenborough. At the same time, as soon as Larkin heard about Brannigan being sent by the Chicago police to extradite him, his assistant informs him that he's also hired a hit man by the name of Gormon(Daniel Pilon) Things don't go accordingly to plan as soon as Brannigan finds out that Larkin had been kidnappers for the intention of extortion. Viewers expected that it's nothing but a set up, but don't finally know for sure until the end of the movie.

This pass is basically because when people were to watch this, some of the story almost seemed like it was improvised by Attenborough himself in terms of proper police protocols in London England, which Wayne is clearly not accustomed of knowing himself but was somehow able to do things not often shown in movies which is to bring a gun with him until Larkin is caught.

Footnote: If viewers were to watch this, people should notice that upon John Wayne riding in a car, he doesn't appear to ever wear a seat belt, giving me the assumption that he didn't wear one during that car chase, meaning that was entire scenario was unrealistic. And lastly, the poster where he's holding his revolver with two hands didn't occur until near the end of the film since throughout the whole movie, he always used one hand.

2.5 out of 4 stars.