The War Wagon

Pierce's men carry Henry rifles, but their bandoleers hold.

30-40 Krag ammunition.

Henry rifle ammunition was short and blunt, not long and tapered.

As Pierce looks out of the gun port modification to the war wagon at the adobe wall with pots on it, the magazine of the Gatling gun is seen to be empty.

Also there is physically not enough room above the gun for one to fit on the gun.

Although he is able to speak and understand Spanish throughout the movie, Taw Jackson still needs an interpreter while bargaining with Wild Horse.

Given that Wild Horse doesn't want "the white man" in his camp or at his dinner table, it is reasonable that he would refuse to bargain directly with him.

Also, it may be that Jackson didn't want Wild Horse to know that he spoke and understood Spanish.

In the Pierce's ranch, after Lomax and Billy enter in the shack, Lomax lights the lampion.

Then his shadow holding the lampion is projected on the wall, but the only light inside the shack is suppose to come from the lampion itself yet it has a shadow too.

After he opens the safe, Lomax takes a bottle of nitroglycerin and delivers it to Billy.

It is completely full.

When Billy begins to spill it in another bottle, it is almost empty.

When the Gatling gun is fired against the wood wall, you can see that the squibs fired from the back side of the boards.

As Pierce and Lomax are talking to each other, at the top left corner of the screen, you can clearly see Billy enter the bar with his empty whiskey bottle too early.

The bandoleers of ammo that guards have across their chests contain ammo too large to fit any of the guns (Colts revolvers, Henry repeating rifles) they are carrying.

During the fight in the saloon, Taw's hat is alternately on/off/on between shots.

When the war wagon crashes, we see one wheel on the upside-down wagon spinning counter-clockwise.

In the next shot, it's spinning clockwise.

When Lomax is opening the safe with the nitro, he sets the lamp (the only light source) in a position which would put the lock in the shadow of the safe itself, yet there is remarkably plenty of light on the lock.

When the gold wagon crashes it stops with it's right side wheels up.

When Taw gets to it, it has it's left side wheels in the air.

When Taw is standing by the front of Wes' wagon and notices the loose gold near Wes's hiding spot, he turns back to the rest of the gang.

When the camera angle changes he turns back towards the gang again.

From the outside of the War Wagon, the port for the Gatling gun extends to the roof of the turret.

From the inside, there is a large metal panel between the top of the port and the roof.

In the scene where Pierce is inspecting the war wagon, there are 2 small spots visible on the wagon not covered by black paint, revealing that the wagon is actually made of wood, not metal.

Taw Jackson mentions the guards carry "Henry Rifles"; but everyone has a '92 or '94 Winchester.

Henrys were obsolete in 1866.

Taw Jackson identifies the ammo offered by Wes as for a"Gatlin' Gun".

Proper names aren't contracted; and, its ammunition was standardized to the issue army.

45-70 (.

45 US Govt) or.

50-70 cartridges in 1873, these were very common with buffalo hunters and army personnel.

Their presence would raise no eyebrows.

The view through the back window of the war wagon is in black and white.

At the beginning, as Taw Jackson scouts the movement of the gold shipment, we see a half moon in the sky.

Two nights later, when Lomax rides into Emmett, there is a bright full moon.

Two days later, when the "war wagon" departs on its run, we again see a half moon in the sky.

Note the action of the movie takes place over only a four-day time span - too short a time for the moon to change from half, to full, to half moon again.

The wagon that runs ungoverned, after the last barrel with gold falls, is driven through the opening below the seat.

You can see the invisible crew driver's hands through the opening in one scene, and in the next scene when the wagon is overturning, that opening is closed again and it's not being driven.

Just before Wes Fletcher's runaway unmanned wagon overturns, the hands of the driver sneak out from a little opening under the driver's seat.

To many westerns fans, John Wayne is the ultimate symbol of the silver screen cowboy, and in his long career he clocked up many classic westerns and some not so. He was also capable of shifting from serious westerns to much more humorous ones with ease.

By the late 1960s the Western as an art form was pretty much fagged out and this is a nearly perfect example of its decadent period.Douglas is hired to knock off Wayne but discovers that, if he throws in with Wayne's plan, he stands to make much more money.

The personal sentiments of John Wayne and Kirk Douglas were often light years apart. Both socially and politically, these two veteran stars were of different mindsets and caused on-set tension more than once.

A mediocre western with a middle-aged/elderly cast and very slow pacing. Casting Howard Keel as a Native American Indian was a definite mistake.

It's an average western script from the John Wayne stock co. But it looked better than most Wayne pictures and certainly sounded better with a dynamic D.

Former prisoner Taw Jackson (John Wayne) has returned to town. Frank Pierce (Bruce Cabot) sends his man Hammond (Bruce Dern) to offer Lomax (Kirk Douglas) $10k to kill him.

'The War Wagon' will never be considered one of John Wayne's great Westerns like 'Rio Bravo', 'The Searchers', or 'Red River', but it is a an enjoyable Western with fine performances and great rapport between Kirk Douglas and John Wayne. The action sequences are well done, the humor dry as the desert it takes place in, and the caper story line rather refreshing for a John Wayne film.

While the movie has a good story, and John Wayne and Kirk Douglas do make a good duo, I felt the movie could be better. One of the problems I had is the pacing, as it took too long to get to action scenes, which were the real highlights of the film (especially the heist of the War Wagon).

"Return of the Seven" director Burt Kennedy helmed the most imaginative John Wayne western of the 1960s with "The War Wagon." This improbable but entertaining horse opera co-starred a trim Kirk Douglas at his acrobatic best as well as Howard Keel, Bruce Cabot, and Robert Walker Jr.