John Wayne is back-- and thank God, it's not through some kind of digital manipulation that'll have him dancing with a vacuum cleaner or shaking hands with Forrest Gump. Incredibly, there is one performance that Wayne filmed before his 1979 death that has never been seen, as part of the indie sci-fi Western Thunder Riders of the Golden West. The filmmaker, Dave Burleson, was never able to distribute the film when it was finished in 1984, but now according to The Houston Chronicle, Duke's final moment will have its DVD day in the sun.
Burleson clarified for the paper that it's not Wayne's last performance, per se, "but it’s the last performance to be released." Wayne is part of a cast of unknowns in this modern-day Western, about cowboy truckers who go on a hunt for $3 million worth of gold at the exact moment of an atomic bomb test (yes, I too am having memories of the Nuke the Fridge moment). Burleson is distributing the DVD of the film himself, which might mean it'll only be the John Wayne fanatics who are able to track this one down. But it's still fascinating that, 30 years after his death, an actor who seems so ensconced as part of the past surprise us with something new.
