John Wayne represents more force, more power, than anybody else on the screen.
Fortune favors the prepared.
There's action only if there is danger.
The western is the simplest form of drama - a gun, death.
I guarantee you that two directors that are any good can take the same story, change the name of the characters, change the name of the town, and make an entirely different picture.
I find that when you open on a group of people sitting down and talking, the scene sits down with them. The best antidote for that is an entrance. Begin the scene with someone entering, and somehow it’s more interesting.