The Taming of the Shrew - McLintock!

Minerva listed this as a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. I would say that elements of this movie were inspired by Taming, most prominently the female protagonist’s name and the spousal bickering. Other than that, the two have nothing at all in common.

I’ll start out by saying that I did not enjoy this movie. Yes, John Wayne is an American film legend. Yes, he worked well with Maureen O’Hara in two other movies. But McLintock!, for me, fell flat.

Basically, John Wayne is McLintock, a cattle baron who was instrumental in kicking the Comanche off the land, but who is now respected by just about everyone. McLintock is a frontier ubermensch in a world where a man’s worth is based on his ability to punch another man in the face. Education is valued only if book learning was balanced by boxing. Maureen O’Hara is his wife, Katherine, who left him two years ago when he came home from a business trip with lipstick on his collar. He either cannot or chooses not to satisfactorily explain this. Instead he spanks her until she stops asking questions about it.

Shakespeare thought misogyny was hilarious - the central theme of The Taming of the Shrew is that uppity women need to be put in their place - and in general we’re willing to cringe a bit and forgive him because it was 400 years ago and we can congratulate ourselves on having come a long way. Violence against women just isn’t funny anymore. 

Racism isn’t funny either. McLintock! hopes to make us laugh through its portrayal of Native Americans as dangerous alcoholic thieves. It doesn’t work. Neither does the sterotypical portrayal of the McLintock’s Asian cook.

The GoodTimes DVD is of very poor quality. It looks like it’s a copy of a copy of a burned-out VHS tape copied from a worn-out film copy. They really need to go back to the original master (if it’s available) to make a good DVD. It turns out it is also available on Amazon Prime. I watched a few minutes for comparison, and the video quality wasn't any better. You can also find it on YouTube. Given the poor quality of the transfer, I can't even compliment the cinematography.

In fact, I can’t really say anything positive about this movie. If you are looking for a disappointing experience that will kill about two hours, go ahead and watch McLintock!. Otherwise, watch something else. Anything else.