John Wayne-John Ford Film Collection (DVD)

Stagecoach (1939): Nine disparate travelers are thrust together on a Stagecoach destined for Apache territory...and movie immortality. As the Ringo Kid, director John Ford casr a lanky veteran of 70 B-movies, serials and shorts named John Wayne. Each rifle shot and closeup rang out the news: a new star is born.

The Long Voyage Home (1940): The merchant ship Glencairn rolls and shivers in the black North Atlantic. On board, her anxious crewmen search the sky for German planes. And hope they'll survive The Long Voyage Home.

They Were Expendable (1945): Supplies are dwindling. Troops are hopelessly outnumbered. But even in defeat there is victory. The defenders of the Philippines - including PT-boat skippers John Brickley (Robert Montgomery) and Rusty Ryan (John Wayne) - will give the U.S. war effort time to regroup after the devastation of Pearl Harbor.

Fort Apache (1948): The soldiers at Fort Apache may disagree with the tactics of their glory-seeking new commander. But to a man, they're duty-bound to obey - even when it means almost certain disaster.

3 Godfathers (1948): Fugitive bank robbers Robert (John Wayne), William (Harry Carey Jr.) and Pedro (Pedro Armendariz) stand at a desert grave. Caring for the newborn infant of the woman they just buried will ruin any chance of escape. But they won't go back on their promise to her. They won't abandon little Robert William Pedro. Director John Ford's Western retelling of the Biblical Three Wise Men tale remains a scenic and thematic masterpiece.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949): A masterpiece of mood and heroics, this second film in director John Ford's renowned cavalry trilogy (Fort Apache and Rio Grande are the others) features one of John Wayne's most moving performances as a cavalry officer in his final week of service on the frontier. Under makeup aging him some 20 years, he inhabits the role of a wily veteran who knows the sting of war and vows to make his last mission one of peace. The ritual of outpost life, the sweep of battle, the advance of the patrol beneath ominous skie.

The Wings of Eagles (1954): Cmdr. Frank "Spig" Wead was a pioneer aviator, renowned screenwriter and a man of war. The skies beckoned Spig to action; a crippling injury ultimately left him powerless to act, propelling him to discover the power of his pen. He was talented, driven, flawed, a friend of Ford - and the subject of this compassionate biography.

The Searchers (1956): Working together for the 12th time, John Wayne and director John Ford forged The Searchers into a landmark Western offering an indelible image of the frontier and the men and women who challenged it. Wayne plays an ex-Confederate soldier seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his five-year search, he encounters something unexpected: his own humanity.