McQ

US, 1974, 11 minutes, Colour.
John Wayne, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager.
Directed by John Sturges.

McQ is a police story. With very little change to the screenplay, this could have been a Dirty Harry-type thriller. As it is, it is John Wayne doing his thing in Seattle, single-handed too because of his distrust of the law and his clashes with the lawmen. The film, via Wayne and his beliefs and style, shows how U.S. police sagas are cousins (brothers?) of the Western. A strong hero, with the gritty courage of his convictions, ferrets out the evil in a gun happy culture and shoots his way to a solution. This is second nature to Wayne and is expected of him. Drug-peddling, a beach car chase, intimations of sex: in fact, a competent Hollywood thriller.

1. Was this an enjoyable detective film? What conventions of the detective thriller did it use? How well? Comment on the use of John Wayne as a detective hero. Was he effective? What values did he embody for the whole film?

2. What did the film have to say about modern cities and violence? The lawmen with his gun? The need for so much shooting to solve problems? How did this film show the detective thriller as related to Westerns? The American tradition of good and evil? Of violence?

3. Comment on the effectiveness of the pre-credit sequences and our attitudes towards policemen and their committing violence? How did this set a tone for the film? The need for the truth to be sought out and for justice to be done? Did it indicate the complications that were to follow because of police involvement? Was this a good way to begin a thriller?

4. How sympathetically were the police presented in this film? Especially Costerman? Did you think that he was crooked? How did the film, with its twists, alter our sympathies for the police? Did you expect the main criminal to be the criminal? Why?

5. How did McQ fit into this police situation? How sympathetic was he? The initial John Wayne good humour followed quickly by an attempt on his life and shooting? Why could he not fit easily into the framework of the law? was it his fault? (Especially when one realised at the end that the police were suspicious of him? Thought he was the criminal?) How well did he operate away from the law?

6. Comment on the picture of the drug situation in the modern cities. The drug users and the pedlars? The police abuse of secrecy and privilege? The big money to be made? This as seen by Louis's tempting of McQ? How anti-drugs was the film?

7. How interestingly did the film present McQ's independent research and attempts to track down the criminals? How much is this part of the American hero? The independent hero? Searching for the truth and wanting to administer justice?

8. The elderly saloon woman: what did she add to the tone of the film? As a typical city character? Her collaboration with McQ? Her flirting with him? The impact emotionally of her murder?

9. Did you like Lois? Did you at all suspect her of being criminal? What reaction did you have for McQs attraction towards her and vice versa? How was this broken at the end when the truth was revealed? Did you have any sympathy for Lois at the end?

10. was the car chase merely added for cinematic effect and because it has become part of the tradition of thrillers? Did it contribute well to the film? The use of the beach for the car chase?

11. How plausible and real was the story? The big money dealt with, the big plans? The complications of the big syndicate boss, hiring gunmen and their being tricked? The reality of murders? What comment on modern society does this make?

12. How entertaining was the film? Was it meant to be sheer adventure entertainment? or did it have some message? If so, what?